Following 1991’s NHL Hockey and 1992’s NHLPA Hockey ‘93, EA was really cooking in the sports game space. John Madden Football was all the craze and PGA Tour Golf had established itself as one of the most respectable golf franchises on console. Little did Electronic Arts know that they were about to release what is now regarded as one of the greatest sports titles of all time AND it wouldn’t be baseball, football or basketball.
I wasn’t one of the cool kids growing up. I played some sports, but I wasn’t tall or especially fast; just another face on most teams, though I enjoyed my time. I also wasn’t a cool video game kid. My family didn’t have a ton of money, so we were mainly game renters and not owners, maybe purchasing one or two games a year. To really pile on my poor gamer stigma…I was also a Sega Genesis kid who loved sports games. I had a lot of friends who played, but in 1993 they were into stuff like Star Fox and Secret of Mana and I simply wasn’t. My love of sports led me down another path.
We lived in a small rural town, so renting games either meant driving 10 minutes to a drug store with a small selection or a 20 minute pilgrimage to a larger city with a Captain’s Video and Blockbuster. Once inside the directions were simple: find the sports game of each type with the largest number (we all knew 3 was better than 2 and 1994 was better than 1993. It was just basic 10 year old logic).
NHL 94 was special though. I vividly remember the new bold simplified name over the previous years convoluted NHLPA branding; bold black & white “NHL 94” was most of the front of the box and it was spectacular! Flipping the box over bestowed all sorts of new knowledge on me:
I could control the goalie!
One timers!
New harder hitting!
Present day Mike harnessed the opportunity presented by this blog space to play a week’s worth of my favorite hockey game, and I’m more than happy to say it's as good as ever. While it did pain me to play the Super Nintendo version of the game instead of the superior Genesis title, I’m not unfamiliar. Like I said before, all of my friends had Super Nintendos and one of them was into sports games like I was, so I occasionally picked up the weird 4 face button controller to settle things on the ice.
Gameplay is where NHL 94 really blows the doors off of the competition, with both impeccable skating physics and the correct weight for both the players and the puck itself. It truly feels like a game built for game players, especially ones into simulation sports. The one timers were an amazing addition to the already good passing and shooting, offensive hockey had never felt so good on home consoles.
And the reworked game engine improved defense as well, making checking a more viable option and a visceral experience.
The sound and music is nothing to scoff at either, with both the normal collection of traditional ice rink organ playing and team specific songs like “The Saber Dance” for the Buffalo Sabers and “When the Saints Come Marching In” for the St. Louis Blues!
Even the crown, which can sometimes be a bummer in the 16 bit era, pulses with the on-ice action in a way that feels natural, which is a treat.
Suffice to say, this game left quite an impression on younger me years ago and still does on senior me today. At one point a moment of genius led me to try and collect a copy of every retail home console hockey game, many of which I still have today. Critics seemed to agree as the game received wonderful scores upon release and is now cited on many “Greatest Sports Games of All Time” and “Best SNES Games” lists!
If you aren’t big into sports titles, I wholeheartedly suggest that you go and give NHL 94 a try, it’s an absolutely fantastic game and hockey has never been better on the SNES!
