Blades of Steel

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Blades of Steel
Box art of Blades of Steel for NES
Developer(s) Konami
Publisher(s) Konami
Platform(s) Arcade, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, Game Boy, NES, Virtual Console
Release date Arcade
1987
NES
NA December, 1988
PAL November 23, 1990
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single player
Two player
Media 1-megabit cartridge
Input methods Gamepad, Joystick

Blades of Steel is an ice hockey video game released by Konami for the arcade in 1987, and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. All teams are fictional but based out of real Canadian and American cities. The game is known for its fast paced hockey action and especially for the fighting. It is a one or two player game. When playing against the computer, there are three difficulty levels to choose from: Junior, College, and Pro (with Pro being the most difficult and Junior being the easiest). Each team consists of three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender.

It is rumored that the likeness of Peter Zezel was used to portray the celebration after each goal was scored.[citation needed]

The NES version was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service on 2007-12-24.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

An in-game screenshot of the NES version.
An in-game screenshot of the NES version.

At the beginning of the game, players can select either "Exhibition" or "Tournament" matches. An exhibition match is just one game played against either the computer or another player. Tournament matches are similar to the NHL playoffs. It starts out as one team of the player's choice going against other teams in a playoff style tournament. The team that is successful in beating all of the opposing teams is awarded the Konami Cup.

Fighting in the game occurs whenever two players bump into each other three times in a row without hitting another player. The fight screen appears and the gamers take control of their players. The loser is given the penalty and sent to the penalty box (the winner is not punished). If a fight occurs close to one of the nets, the referee may break up the fight and call a "penalty shot".

During the second intermission, either a video game will appear for Player One to play or a Konami ad will appear featuring a bear shooting the puck into a net mouthing the words "Nice Shot!" The video game is modelled on an old arcade game, Gradius, in which a little spaceship is trying to destroy a much larger spaceship.

If the score is tied at the end of the game, a shoot out (similar to a penalty shot) is used to determine the winner. Each team gets five shots. The team with the most goals after five shots is the winner. If, after that, the game is still tied, each team keeps getting one more shot until a winner is determined.

[edit] Teams

There are a total of eight teams, four from Canada and four from the United States. The four Canadian cities are Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Edmonton. The four American teams are from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minnesota. Each team sports a different coloured sweater, but some team colours are very similar making it difficult to distinguish between them.

   New York -- Blue & Red
   Chicago  -- Red & Grey
Los Angeles -- Yellow & Indigo
   Montreal -- Amber & Coral Red   
    Toronto -- Teal & Sky Blue
   Edmonton -- Bright Green & Yellow
  Vancouver -- Burnt Orange & Forest Green
  Minnesota -- White & Purple

[edit] Voice sampling

This game also features distinct voice samples, which were rare at the time in NES games. Most notably, the voice says "Blades of Steel" during the beginning of the game, "FACEOFF!" before each faceoff, "FIGHT!" when a fight breaks out, "With the pass..." after a successful pass is made, "Hit the Puck", "Icing", and an "aaahhh" made by the losing player after a fight.

The arcade version, having better speech software and more memory available to use, offered a much greater variety of sound bites and commentary.

[edit] Trivia

  • The band Goblin Market plays a song called "Blades of Steel" as a tribute to the game.

[edit] External links

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