It's a constant amazement to me how computer games have advanced since I started playing them nearly 20 years ago. Maybe that should be the clue - it's been 20 years. My NES "Toaster-a-like" was my pride and joy, I was the only kid I knew who had one for a while, and I had the best console available on the market at the time. Best machine, best games, best mates galore. One of the first games I saved up for - Paper round money, I recall - was Blades of Steel. It got rave reviews from the magazines of the time - Anyone remember Mean Machines, before it split into Nintendo Magazine System and Mean Machines Sega? - so I went out and bought it. Reviews of these old school games can be taken one of two ways - review it in context of the time it was released, or how it holds up now. Then: Great stuff. Loved it. There were fights. Check a guy too hard and the screen cut to side on to allow you to pummel your opponent. It was the closest thing we had to a one-on-one beat-'em-up. The hockey was fast, fluid, passing was easy, scoring was tricky, but once you got on top of things, it was certainly possible. There were few extra modes, but a note book allowed us to build up a league, and we played every night. Graphics were good, some sprite flicker, but hey, it was pushing 10 sprites around simultaneously, for God's sake! Sound was the usual, but passable. Now: It's God-Awful. Oh, dear, Lord. How did we ever play this game? There's so much sprite flicker as to make the game pretty much unplayable, the collision detection is, to be kind, random, the sound is terrible, the lack of any extras is inexcusable, and the whole package is, simply, laughable. I bought the game off E-Bay the other week, as a nostalgia trip. Not the best quid-fifty I ever spent, I have to say. Still, I loved it at the time. So perhaps I should mark it in context of its time, and give it the marks I would have given in 1987. I'm so old.
Konami knows hockey! and some gifts from Mom and Dad are great! I didn't ask for this particular game (at least not that I remember anyway) but, I got it nevertheless and after I've played this game I'm glad I did. I do ... Read Full Review
Its an instant classic. There is simply no hockey game that matches its greatness on the ice. It is remarkable plain and simple. The graphics are the greatest you will ever see on NES. The fights are so realistic, you... Read Full Review
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