This is a hockey game but it is so much more than that. There are many quirks about this game that make it exciting. One thing that is wonderful is that there are these mini commercials at halftime that advertise for konami video games. How brilliant not only is it advertising for the company but sometimes you get to take a break from the hockey game and play a different game at halftime.
This game definitely plays up the violent nature of the game of hockey.
At any point one of your players can go flying into one of the players on the other time. There is a large number of things that could happen at this point. The thing the computer will probably try to do is skate around you. This makes sense because then that player will go undefended. Another possibility is that one of the players could get knocked down. This is why passing is important in this game. If you do not pass the puck against good teams it will be very difficult to get open for a shot. You want to do this judiciously though because it is very common to have a pass picked of or fire an errant pass into the boards.
One
of the annoying qualities of this game is that any time you move the directional pad you are controlling the goalie as well as the highlighted player. You need to be careful when playing defence to be aware of the goalie as well especially when the puck is near the goal. Even if the shooter is covered the puck may go in if the goalie is nowhere near the target spot. There is an arrow that moves back and forth inside the goal. Wherever the arrow is at that time that is where the puck will go when it is shot. Just because the goalie is in that arrow does not mean that the shot will necessarily get blocked sometimes the puck will bounce off of the goalie and into the goal. It is important to get squarely in front of the puck.
I will now mention one of the most fun and interesting portion of the game. Some times two players will repeatedly crash into each other. Then there is a boxing match. There are a few moves you can make in this match, you can punch, uppercut, duck or block. The first person to land three punches wins. And the loser of this fight goes to the penalty box. I believe this is the only way to make it to the penalty box which is pretty funny if you think about it.
