Ice Hockey

Three fat guys, three skinny ones and a layer of ice between them and victory. Ice Hockey by Nintendo is one of those games that at first glance look like a simple sports warm-up, but after a few minutes keep you at the controller longer than you would expect. The secret is one ingeniously simple idea: before you even take to the ice, you assemble a team of four players, choosing the body build of each of them.

And that is exactly where the whole flavour lies. The skinny skater is fast as lightning but weak in clashes at the boards. The muscular giant has strength and a hard shot, but can barely get going. Between them stands the versatile medium type. The game thus forces you to think about the makeup of your squad before the first faceoff even drops, and every combination gives the match a different dynamic. This mechanic turns an otherwise plain arcade game into a surprisingly tactical affair.

On the ice, a fast, readable action pace then reigns. Passes, rushes, hard body checks and the occasional scuffle between players, where you enjoy a fist exchange much like you would later in many other hockey titles. The top-down view and the clear surface of the rink ensure that even an uninitiated spectator immediately grasps what is going on. The controls are simple to learn, but the room for improvement stays enormous.

Where Ice Hockey truly excels is two-player play. A clash with a friend on the couch is to this day one of the most entertaining reasons to fire this game up. The fight for the puck, quick counterattacks and arguments over who was to blame for the goal conceded are part of an immortal NES classic. It is precisely here that it shows that old eight-bit sports have a charm that today's photorealistic simulations often cannot match.

Ice Hockey is a beautiful demonstration of Nintendo's philosophy from the eight-bit era: take a simple concept, add one clever idea and hone it into playable perfection. It is not a complex simulation, nor does it try to be. It is pure, immediate fun that even after decades can spark a proper brawl on the couch. For fans of retro sports, it is a mandatory stop.

Why play: For immortal two-player fun and a clever team-building system that still entertains from the very first faceoff even today.