Foreword

Hearing in the background a quarterfinals game of the Winter Olympic Games 2018 between Sweden and Germany, came the inspiration to write about Ice Hockey, the other sport played in both winter and summer Olympic Games. It’s one of the most watched and/or expected sports by fans of the Winter Olympic Games. Particularly I want to write about one of the first videogames of this sport, and one of the few with the word “Ice” in its title, this one made by the company Activision, which made awesome games for consoles during end of the 70s and beginnings of the 80s.

Game

This Activision game, can look primitive for starters, considering that you can not behind the goal and there are only two virtual players per team. Something that the game definitively captures is the speed and frenzy of an ice hockey game. Including hitting your rival without receiving a penalty leaving it in the ice (I admit is quite satisfactory). You have to realize your rival can do the same to you, being either another human player or the game’s AI. And that is another shinning spot of the game: the better experience is definitely playing against a human opponent, even if playing against the game’s AI is quite funny and rewarding.

Every match runs three minutes, but with goals, and believe me there will be plenty, it goes beyond that time. Every match is fast, and you want to test again your skills even for a rematch or trying to score more, even if the match can end in a tie. The action is relentless and is mandatory to learn to ricochet the puck against the walls to score even more.

Epilogue

Incredibly fun and recommended ice hockey videogame, every match feels right in its duration and the time flies. I played it many times in my hometown when I was in elementary school, and even when I lost by a wide margin, it was very funny.

Activision send patches (cloth ones) to everyone who sent a photo where the player met certain requirements in the game. Click here to see an image of the screenshot with the evidence that I made it in this game, which was winning a match against the games’s AI.

References

Sport Icon designed by Smashicons of FlatIcon licensed by CC 3.0 BY.

Console Icon taken from Retroarch.

Patch, info about it and box imagen in datafile section taken from Atari Age