NHL '93... and some great news

Today's review day! (Been a while, huh?)

I'm gonna review an old classic that some of you may be familiar with in your childhood, back when you had a Sega Genesis; back when the best choices were either the Genesis or the Super NES; back when there were simpier times with games. In those times, Electronic Arts were getting a good niche with console games which marked the beginning of their sports empire as we know it.

Today I'm going to talk about NHL '93.

In some point of my childhood, I've watched some NHL games on TV, back when cable was the rage in our lives before the advent of DirecTV. Among the teams I've watched were the Boston Bruins and the Los Angeles Kings. It was kinda fun during that time at a certain point I got to play NHLPA Hockey 93 for the Super NES, which was pretty good.

Back then, EA had begun to establish itself as the premier sports games company as its line was known as EASN, or Electronic Arts Sports Network, with such games that featured the PGA, John Madden Football, the NBA and the NHL. 1993 was a great year with such stars as Pavel Bure, Jeremy Roenick, Wayne Gretsky, Cam Neely, Alexander Molgilny, Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux, Al McGinnis and a host of others, so you can probably guess that this game is gonna rock.

Firstly, the controls are simple. With the D-pad you can move your player around the ice rink; A does nothing, B is for passing and C is for shooting. If you press it lightly, you'll do a wrist shot and if you hold and release it, you'll do a slapshot. That's on offense. On defense, you switch between players with B and by tapping it you can bring your stick forwad to intercept the puck or to bonk your opponent; with C you can check your opponent and when you're scrambling for the puck you press it for a burst of speed. This is important in order to gain ground and get to the puck before your opponents do.

Mastering the controls is easy, but scoring goals isn't, at least when you first get started. The opponents will be aggresive and the goalie will do his best to block your shots. It isn't hard, but it isn't easy either as you must learn to skate, maneuver, pass and shoot your way towards the goal. In time you will learn some ways to score and to defend as hockey is a fast-and-furious sport, no one is affraid to smack you around and things get physical fast. One way I score is by doing 'chicken shots'. WTF is that, you ask? It's like this:

Chicken was a type of racing in which you pit yourself against a driver face to face from a certain distance. You drive your cars at zooming speeds as you confront each other to see which one ducks out at the last minute and the winner would be the one who... achem, one who was not affraid to die. You can bet there were a few deaths in that one. This applies to hockey in a way, as you zoom in towards scoring while the opposing goalie steels himself for the inminent shot. Your shot (and having balls) will decide if you score or fail as you shoot at the opposite way the goalie blocks at a split second and you get rewarded with a badass goal. The best part is that you manage to do that yourself; in breakaways this is the best option you have when it's just you and the goalie.

At the menu, you can choose between Regular Season (which in reality it's just a normal match), seeing a Demo, or going to the Playoffs in a single game (For those who are either lazy or want fast games) or best-of-7 elimination format (For those who wanna feel the heat on the ice). On Regular Season you can play alone as the home or visiting team or you can go against a buddy. You can also join forces with that buddy by playing on the same team as well, so it's fun either way.

The music is normal, I guess. There are only 3 tracks in the game: The title screen, the team matchup screen and the period screen. They're not outstanding by any means, but they're appropiate. There is also some rink music when the home team needs some pep to score that critical goal or prevent the other team from scoring it. (You know, that rah-rah, charge variety). Not much to say about that.

The gameplay is fast and responsive for the most part and that's good, 'cause it's hockey. The fun part is when you push your opponent a bit too far, he's gonna drop everything and try to dial W for whoopass on you, but you're not gonna go down without a fight. I almost forgot that you can adjust whether or not you can want to activate the penalties (but the fightning rule still stands) or if you want them without the offiside rule. Line change lets you change lines when you score a goal, there's a penalty or before a face-off when it's turned on. Otherwise, the starting line will play to the last ring. The former is important because the players will tire out as time passes and it'll show in the way they skate, shoot and hit, so do something to stop the game momentairly or use a timeout to take a breather.

All in all, NHL 93 is a very good game and if you liked those old times, you'll dive right in. If you can find it along with a Genesis console and two controllers, play it. It gets an 8/10.

On a more positive note, Atlus has given the rights to Aeria Games (some of you probably know who those guys are) to publish Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine to America and Europe! SMT: Imagine is an MMORPG that has been in Japan for more than a year and finally Atlus gave the green light to have it brought to both continents. The setting is between SMT 1 and 2 as you become a Devil Buster who seeks to thrive in the difficult environments of the ruins of Japan after the Great Destruction. You can decide on whether you want to assist the Messian Church, wreck havoc with the Gaia Church or be a Neutral mercernary who holds aleignance to no one.

Check out the links for the info and videos.

http://kotaku.com/5048368/shin-megami-tensei-mmo-hitting-north-america-and-europe

http://forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=174084&sid=2c9fbea6d1b5cf38c9b746147afe85b1

Whew! I'm tuckered out. See ya tomorrow!