NHLPA '93 Hockey
One of the reasons why I got a Sega Genesis was this game right here when EA Sports released NHLPA Hockey '93 my older brother went out and bought this game and the Genesis system. NHLPA '93 was more than just a mere hockey game though, while it didn't have real NHL team names it did have real players and they were rated based on their actual performance in the NHL. So now you could have Rick Tocchet body check Adam Oates or have Jeremey Roenick rip a shot past Patrick Roy. It added a lot of extra excitement to the game and even if you did take away the real player names (if you aren't into that kinda thing) you are still left with a very solid game of hockey. There were also a dozen other features crammed into the cartridge to make this the best hockey game ever seen at the time and I personally think this is one of the best hockey games ever made. Sure it doesn't have a season or a franchise mode like all the newer hockey games and you can't trade players, but still even now to me I don't think it needs any of those features.
After the title screen you are taken to the main menu which plays one of the best songs I've ever heard in a hockey game. It's just a simple little ditty, but it's very well done and catchy. First off you can choose the type of game you want to play whether it be regular season or a playoff series. The name regular season though is kind of decieving seeing as in actuality it's just a single exhibition game and EA would have probably been better off naming it exhibition instead. I guess EA just felt like trying to screw with the player's head. The playoff mode is a tournament where sixteen teams are supposed to go for the *ahem* Stanley Cup, but since there is no NHL license the teams instead are going for the NHLPA logo award thingy. It's definitely not quite as prestigious as the Cup, but hey I guess it's better than nothing. After you decide on your mode of play you then can choose who is going to play the game. You can play against the computer by yourself or if you have a friend, you and your friend can challenge the computer though this mode often times has caused friendships to end. If you have some enemies you can play against them in a head to head game. Believe me these head to head games are intense and I've seen a sizable amount of money exchange hands after a game. Lastly if you are bored and shit you can simply watch the computer play against itself though I'd think if you wanted to reduce your boredom you'd probably want to actually play the game heh well I found uses for computer vs. computer games. Lets say it's time to eat, but you still want to experience some NHLPA '93 action simply let the computer duke it out and watch it while you enjoy your fine meal. I'm sure you can place bets on these games as well! After that you can switch between the twenty six teams of which two are all star teams and the rest of them are modeled after the NHL's, but again since the game doesn't have the NHL license the game calls the teams by only their city name. Something pretty interesting is looking through the teams and realizing how some of them don't exist anymore. Hartford, Quebec and Winnipeg no longer have teams anymore which does suck. The Whalers were just cool and my brother was a huge fan of them and it's sad to see Canadian teams move to the States. It is Canada's game so they should have more teams and Minnesota lost their team and didn't have a new team until just recently. There is also this Long Island team which I soon figured out were really the *ahem* New York Islanders. I'm figuring EA changed their name to try and avoid the confusion of having two New York named teams in the game. I think that would have been pretty damn funny to see though. Anyways my guess is that they changed the Islanders city name since they were the suckier of two New York teams and didn't mind disrespecting them. Yes amazingly the Rangers were a good team back in this time! You then have the option of choosing how long you want the periods to be (5-10-20 minutes) and lastly you can choose to have all the penalties and infractions on, have them all on except for offsides or have them all off except for fighting. Icing is always called though. If you wanted a simulation style game you turned them on and if you wanted a fast paced arcade style game you'd turn them off and leave the line changes off as well. Who really needs a seperate game for some fast paced arcade action anyways?
After you sort all of this out it's time to check out the Game Matchup screen where the infamous Ron Barr from the EA Sports Network briefs us on the teams' strengths and weaknesses. Also displayed are all the ratings for different categories and it's now game time!
Dineen drives towards the net and scores on the very first shot of the game and just ten seconds in! To prove this wasn't a fluke Duchesne does the same thing twelve seconds later!
Yes after playing for just a little while I soon found a weakness in the goalie AI and the game lets me repeatedly exploit it. That makes me wonder what EA was thinking because the manual claims that there are tougher goalies. Which makes me wonder if the last game's goalies could have been possibly any easier to score on! The tactic I use to score most of my goals I always referred to as the Razzle Dazzle. Why I picked that name I don't know I was just a dumb kid at the time. Let me demonstrate how it works by using the greatness that is instant replay.
Yep that's my Razzle Dazzle move and I actually did it a little differently in that demonstration than usual. Often times I skate towards the goalie and make the cut right in front of him, but sometimes when I do it that close my player runs into the goaltender before he gets the shot off. Still the puck sometimes will just trickle in anyways. You can head towards the goalie at the other angle of course too and then just cut the other way. Now that you know that move you'll never lose a game to the computer again. The move works with a fast player or a slower player, but the faster the better because that way you can burn/confuse the defensemen. If the player is on the slower side sometimes the defender will actually hook you and screw everything up. I can't guarentee you 100% success on this though because sometimes the puck will just bounce off the post, but it's as close to a sure thing as you can get. You'd think this would probably be enough too huh? Well there is another trick the concept is so simple you'll wonder how the goalie misses it! Take a look.
Yep and that's the pass trick! In order for it to work with the greatest percentage you have to keep the puck along the ice, but moving at a relatively fast speed. If the pass goes up in the air, your chances are it probably won't go in though I've seen it happen. Those are the two most lethal goal scoring weapons in the game. I've had games where I was down against my brother 5-4 and there was a face off in my zone with some ten seconds left in the game and I did the pass trick thus sending the game into overtime and winning it there. This is why it's the ultimate two player head to head game, it's never over until the siren wails the final time. Also typically both players are going to know the scoring tricks so the games are extremely intense! There are a few other scoring tricks that have a good percentage of scoring and you can always have Ray Bourque or any player with high shot power to gun a slap shot at the goalie as they often go in. Like I mentioned in the last paragraph even just running into the goalie with the puck often works, but you get called for interference pretty often. If the puck goes into the net though there is no penalty called.
I love it I have two shots on net, yet three goals. Yeah the pass doesn't even count as a shot. Later in the game Puppa is still doing quite well *grins* Ah looking at these stats is great.
So now you might be wondering why I would even bother playing against the computer (since it doesn't use any tricks to score just luck mostly) if I don't have anyone around to play against me. That's true that I can always beat the computer badly, but I can always do my NHLPA '93 Twenty Minute Goal Challenge and you can too! The funny thing about sports games is that they give you the option of setting how long the game will be. It's funny because if you ever sat down and played a game of say Madden 2003 with fifteen minute quarters you'd be playing it for most of the day. The score would be in the hundreds and your running back would probably pick up a 1000 yards in one game. Five minutes is typically the standard length for a head to head game, but playing NHLPA '93 with twenty minute periods won't take you the whole day yet you can still rack up a pretty large amount of goals, shots and body checks. So that's the challenge to see just how high you can go. You can check out one of the challenges I did at the bottom of the page.
Another thing that makes this game stand out is the gore! Yes there is blood spilled all over the ice in this game! Don't like Gretzky? I don't either so you have the option to try and hit him hard enough where he falls to the ice and squirms as blood spills out of his head onto the ice. While I obviously didn't have the opportunity to knock out Gretzky in my game I sent Mogilny to the ice in a pile of blood just before the game was over. Yea the blood is a little hard to see in the image provided, but I assure you it is there near his head! And what kind of review would this be without mentioning the fights! This game has the best hockey fights still to this date. Also on pretty rare occasions the loser of the fight would fall on his back squirming and there would be even more blood! Otherwise he would just get knocked on his ass and make his way to the penalty box with the other fighter.
That about does it for the review on the gameplay. I think this game has some of the best control seen in a hockey game. The controls are really tight and very responsive. This is exactly what I like to see in a hockey game. The game moves at a pretty fast pace though it does depend on how high the player's speed rating is and if you have line changes on the players obviously tire out. With a crowd that reacts to different situations during the game and slap shots that can shatter the glass this game has what anyone could want in a hockey game.
Graphics: The players are kinda small, but they look good and feature fluid animation. The goalies are especially well animated as they have multiple save animations from a heart stopping glove save to the sweet looking kick save. The graphics don't get a whole lot better in later adaptions and when they did it was usually at the expense of the game speed. The graphics don't really need to be much better though anyways.
Music and sounds: While the game doesn't have a lot of different songs what is there is extremely well done. I mentioned the music at the main menu already, but there is a song that plays during all the different stats screens and that's very good. There is also some organ music during the game which is good as well. All the sounds you would expect are there and the sound of glass breaking is very cool and the crowd sounds great! The cheers and boos range from quiet to loud and the game even records the decibel level! This allows you to go into a screen that displays the peak level and the average level of crowd noise during the game. It's also a indication telling you how exciting or boring the game is to the fans and hey if you aren't pleasing the fans why are you playing?! The siren is heard a lot during the game and it's a good thing EA didn't make it too annoying and the shattering sound of the glass and the puck ringing off the post are very pleasing sounds to my ears.
Challenge: Wow it's kinda tough to review this because against the computer there is basically no challenge at all, but playing this with some friends will result in some very well played and challenging games. I basically had to make up my own challenges when I play the computer because the computer just can't keep up at all.
Fun and replayability: This game really could not be anymore fun. You'll be laughing at some of the goals scored and generally all sports game have high replayability, but this game has even higher replayability than you'd expect. The menu tune never gets old and gets me pysched up to start a game every single time. I really couldn't even give you a accurate estimate of the number of games I've played, it has to be past like a thousand. The only other sports game that I have played as much as this one is probably Tecmo Super Bowl for the nes, but that's for another review.
The Bottom Line: EA released several hockey games for the Genesis after this one (I own them all, it was a tradition here to buy the new one every year) and while there are improvements in later games such as one timers and NHL & NHLPA licenses in '94, a full season mode in 95's edition and signature moves for certain players in 97's edition; NHLPA '93 is definitely the most memorable installment. Another thing is that NHLPA '93 has made it into a few movies as well. You can see the game in the movie Swingers where the guys always seem to be playing it before they go out to hit the bars. The game is also seen in the movie Chasing Amy where Banky and Holden were playing it on their Genesis and there is a extended version of that scene on the dvd and it is so damn funny. This is often times why I consider this more than a game it's like a part of pop culture.
Overall Rating:
9.5/10
Check out my NHLPA '93 Challenge
More Game Coverage
