Great Ice Hockey

I tend to be of the "If you Can't Say Something Nice" philosophy, but I cannot hold my tongue when I think about this game. I love hockey games. Whether it's the fact that I like the sport and am too small and out of shape to actually participate is beside the point. I've played them all, and this is, BY FAR, the most difficult to control, graphically un-impressive, incompetent waste of time I've ever seen!

First things first; all sports games worth their weight need to have decent controls. I couldn't tell who the hell I was controlling the entire time I was playing this thing. I used to think Wayne Gretzky Hockey for the NES was bad about that, but I've suddenly a renewed interest in THAT game having suffered through this one.

The character models themselves are also pretty horrid here. They could have taken the models from that 2600 football game and used them here, and they probably would have shined in comparison!

The biggest factor at work here is that damned Sega Sports Pad. For those of you who don't remember the peripheral that time forgot, the controller had the two action buttons on the lower left, and a big, yellow ball instead of a D-pad. Far before the notion of analog-sticks, this was close as the late 80's got. Spinning that piece of crap and getting no response is as frustrating as trying to play ANY fighting game with that ring ??" you remember the ring, right? That octagon you stood inside and punched and kicked for all you were worth trying to figure out how the hell you were supposed to execute any of the special moves? Yeah, it's a lot like that (albeit you didn't look half as stupid using the sports pad).

I really can't think of anything nice to actually say about this game, other than just be grateful hockey games have come so far. And I guess the fact that I actually gave it SOME points instead of the 0 I wanted to give it. Piece of CRAP!!