How come EA calls it's hockey game NHL 2000, and other companies have to call there games face off, power play, or other hockey names. Because Nintendo already made Ice Hockey. Ice Hockey is a revolutionary sports game in many aspects. First of all it was one of the first games Nintendo made that didn't have the tradiditional Nintendo cartridge sticker design. It had a blue sticker with hockey players on it. Not the usualy black with screenshot of the game. Second of all it was one of the first sports games to play like the real thing. Baseball came close, but 10 yard fight was far from it. Ice Hockey plays like a game of hockey. It calls icing, people fall over and lose the puck. Players control goalies. There is passing shooting and all that. Also Ice Hockey is the oldest game I recall that has the player select system. You know when the player you are controlling has a star around them and the star fills in when they have the puck. Well Ice Hockey had the player you were controlling blink rapidly and if a player on your team got the puck they would automatically be selected. Another cool thing about this game is player selection. You had four skaters only because there wasn't enough memory for five. And you got to decide if each one was a fatty a skinny or a normal. Skinnys are fast but are easy to steal from. Normals have average speed and are somewhat difficult to steal from. Fattys are super slow, but only another fatty can bump them. If a fatty bumps a skinny the skinny falls on his butt. This game is also a first in having a crowd that moves and having a penalty box. There are also zambonis in between the second and third periods.

Not only was Ice Hockey revolutionary to gaming, but it is still fun to play. The game has many teams from different countries. All the teams are equal and their only difference is color. USSR is fun because they look like racoons! Anyway the game starts out with a face off by the ref. Basically your team faces each other in a diamond formation. You can press arrows and buttons to chose who faces off. Then You press A as rapidly as you can to win the face off. Then you play some hockey. A is passs B is shoot. The rink is big in proportion to the players and a real game, but it is just right for the game. If you press buttons while your defensive player is on the opponent with the puck they will start rustling and bustling for the puck. Of course fattys have a bigger chance of coming out of this the victor. If they bustle too long there a fight begins! The first game with hockey fights! You can't do anything in the fight though. Every player but the goalies joins in the fight. Then when it is over the ref boxes the player who started it. If only life were that way too.

You know how they say it takes a few seconds to learn and a lifetime to master? Like the way Atari though about it's games. Well Ice Hockey is one of those games. When I first played years back I got the hang of it, but could only beat my cousin. Then I got the hang of making angled shots, drawing penalties and easy breakaways. I was soon winning 100+ point games to like 5. I couldn't do it to the computer though. They always wupped me. Then finally I mastered controlling the goalie. Now I beat the computer easily. But I don't beat the computer by much. Why? My goaltender is blocking and rebounding like 50 shots then finally gets it clears it for a goal. I still haven't mastered saving the puck without rebounding. When I do I will be invincible! At least as long as I don't play against anyone else like me. There are other tricks I still can't do either. Like using a skinny to take out a fatty. It can be done. That's why I play with two skinnys and two mediums. Fattys prevent breakaways. Anyway go to your nearest used video game store and see if they have ice hockey for your NES. It's not as good as NHL 2000, but it's still the second best hockey game out there.

The fight may be too violent for minors. Click here if you are over 18 and want to see a violent hockey fight! Actually I just didn't have enough text to wrap it into the page. It's really not violent at all. Unless you don't let your kid watch loony tunes.