OS Lists: Your Top Three Hockey Games of All Time

[chrisphil1724]

1. NHL Hitz Pro (PS2) - The game was an excellent blend of arcade and simulation hockey that is still fun to play today. I remember it having great presentation for its day with replays of great saves almost every time you wanted to see them, great contextual animations, and amusing commentary from Tim Kutzrow and Harry Tienowitz. This was the first sports game I remember playing with the sliders to get the gameplay the way I wanted.

2. NHL 96 (Genesis) - In the Summers of Detroit as a kid, me and my friends did one of two things, the first was play street hockey and the second was play NHL 96. The gameplay was fast, fun and easy for everyone to play, it was easy to make ourselves and put us on the Red Wings and who needs in-game commentary when Jim from 3 houses down is doing the play-by-play? Who I ask you, who!?

3. NHL 09 (Xbox 360) – I lost a good 9 months of my life to the first year of the EASHL. Online team play was in NHL 08 the year before, but it was limited to 3 on 3 (later 5 on 5) player counts and you had to use real NHL players. Part sports game, part MMO, part RPG, the first year of the EASHL was a small peek of what online sports games would be in the years to come.

[Sendak44]

Wow, no Blades of Steel o_O

1 - Blades of Steel
2 - NHL 95
3 - NHL 98

[goh]

Blades of Steel
Hit the Ice
Mutant League Hockey

[bonannogiovanni]

I remember I bought a Voodoo graphics accelerated 3d video card( with a "massive" 4 MB memory) just for NHL98. The difference with software rendering was so staggering it mad me wow and drop my jaws, couldn't sleep that night just thinking about it.

But as far as top three concerns:

Consolewise
1) 2K10
2) 2K8
3) 2k6

PCwise
1)NHL99
2)NHL96
3)NHL98

[ericromain]

I'll try to rank them based on how happy i was at the time.

1. NHLPA '93 : I was just 2 years into being a hockey obsessed youngin' . Christmas '92 morning getting that Genesis and getting to play as all my favorite red wings. Blew me away.
2. Blades of steel : The music, the sounds, finally getting good enough to win the tournament and see that sweet montage. Great game.
3. NHL09. This was the year where the series balanced the skill stick's offensive prowess with solid defense, plus they toned down one timers so online play rewarded you for playing with a strategy other than skate to corner - set up one timer. I was also unemployed so i got pretty decent at it.

[bad_philanthropy]

1)NHL 10
2)2k6
3)NHL '98

[unfriendlyghst]

Blades of steel-NES
Ice hockey-NES
NHL 94-Genesis

[statnut]

NHL 95: First NHL game that had trades, create-a-player and end of season awards, plus a season mode. I believe NHL 94 was just playoffs.

NHL 09: The EASHL is, in my opinion, the best thing to happen to sports games in the last decade.

NHL Stanley Cup: I remember this game blowing my mind at the time. The visuals, season mode and post-game wrap up were awesome.

Blades of Steel was a close 4th though.