| NHL '94 |
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SNES version cover | | Developer(s) | Electronic Arts | | Publisher(s) | EA Sports | | Platform(s) | Super NES, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega CD | | Release date | March 15, 1993 | | Genre(s) | Sports - Ice Hockey Sim | | Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer | | Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) | | Input methods | game controller, Multitap |
NHL '94 is an ice hockey game by EA Sports for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo and Sega Mega CD. The game is officially licensed from the National Hockey League Players Association. The third game in the NHL Hockey series, it was released on March 15, 1993. NHL '94 is included as #47 on IGN's Top 100 Games of All-Time and is named All-Time Greatest Sports Video Game by Boston.com and various gaming forums.
GameplayJust like its predecessors -- NHL Hockey and NHLPA Hockey '93 -- NHL '94 was designed to give gamers the most realistic hockey experience possible. The game maintained the series' signature vertical camera angle, which offered the player distinct gameplay and strategic advantages over contemporary side-view hockey games, and kept the 2D sprite character models of NHLPA '93 (albeit with some new animations). While today such a lack of graphical change from year to year would be criticized by players, the NHLPA '93 framework was regarded as the most groundbreaking hockey engine ever made -- meaning that NHL '94 had the luxury of simply tweaking the basic aspects of the game, bringing it ever closer to perfection. The result was one of the most widely-acclaimed sports games ever made, and a game that still has an extensive cult following to this day. That's not to say no improvements were made to the engine by EA between 1992 and 1993. Notably, NHL '94 introduced the "one-timer", an authentic hockey move where a player shoots the puck directly off of a pass; NHL '94 's one-timer was in fact so devastating that it would become the scoring method of choice for most players. Because of NHL 94 's (mostly) realistic and action-packed gameplay, the game is almost universally considered the best hockey game of its generation, and is frequently mentioned in "all-time top sports game" lists.
New FeaturesKey features in this game are the infamous "one-timer", better all-around control of players, breaking the glass, a kid sitting in the stands who gets up and bangs on the glass behind the net, being able to save your records, as well as the four modes - Regular Season, Playoffs, Best of Seven Playoffs, and Shootout. There are no international teams, but both all-star teams are present.
Other versionsThe game was included in the PlayStation 2 version of NHL '06. A version was released in Japan (called NHL Pro Hockey '94) which had all the important text in Japanese including the main menu, the actual hockey players, the secondary (end of period and post-game) menus, and the crowd meter. However the passwords still used letters of the Roman alphabet and numbers exclusively.
References- ^ "IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time"
- ^ "All Time Greatest Sports Video Game - Boston.com"
- ^ http://nhl94.com/html/about/history.asp
External links- EA Sports
- NHL94.com (frequently updated NHL 94 resource- play NHL 94 with new rosters)
- NHL '94 at MobyGames
- Old School Hockey League (NHL94 League)
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