NHL 95
| NHL 95 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Visual Concepts (SNES) High Score Productions (Genesis) Park Place Productions (Game Gear) Malibu Interactive (Game Boy) EA Sports (DOS) |
| Publisher(s) | EA Sports |
| Composer(s) | Rob Hubbard |
| Series | NHL series |
| Platform(s) | DOS, SNES, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Game Boy |
| Release date(s) | SNESGenesis |
| Genre(s) | Sports - Ice Hockey Sim |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Distribution | CD/Game cartridge |
NHL 95 (also known as NHL Hockey 95) is an ice hockey video game developed by Electronic Arts Canada. It was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis.
Features
This year's cover features the New York Rangers' Alexei Kovalev scoring on Vancouver Canucks' Kirk McLean during the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.
NHL 95 introduced many new elements to the series. Firstly, the graphics on the Genesis and SNES versions differed greatly from the first three installments of the NHL series (the DOS version kept those graphics). For the first time, a complete season could be played, and players could be created, traded, signed, and released.[1] It is also the first game to give out year end awards at the end of the season. Other gameplay improvements include fake shots, drop passes and lying on the ice to block shots.[1] Fighting is still removed but if a player sustained a multi game injury during season play, the player would be shown lying on the ice with nasty leg injury; if it was during exhibition game the player would have stars around his head. The game supports Electronic Arts's four player adapter, allowing 1 - 4 people to play simultaneously.
There is a coding bug which causes the game to freeze up. Most commonly, the bug is generated through created players or through trading players. This is noted by a "DAY 2" error on the edit lines page.
The Kiel Center (now Scottrade Center), the home of the St. Louis Blues, is still referred to as The St. Louis Arena.
The auto goalie is often unable to defend the across-the-goalie move, the one-on-one move and one-timer shots from the slot. Using manual goalie, a player can defend any shot.
In 2004, Jakks Pacific released a TV Game with both NHL 95 and Madden NFL '95 in it.
Reception
GamePro gave the Genesis version a perfect score and called it "the smoothest, most entertaining hockey title ever created", citing the ability to sign, trade, and release real NHL players, the ability to create one's own fantasy players, the advanced statistics tracking, the new injury animations, the realistic sounds, and "the unbelievably blazing speed of the game."[1] They declared the SNES version to be "just average" due to the vastly inferior controls and sound effects as compared to the Genesis version, as well as the removal of content such as shootout mode, playoff mode, fake shots, and drop-passes.[2]
References
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