Ice Hockey
1981/Activision
...Review by Polas - 10/14/01...
Due to graphical and memory limitations, most "sports" games for Atari were in essence no rules free-for-alls that barely resembled the sport they represented. And hey, what's wrong with that? Midway did OK with the Blitz series, and NBA Jam wasn't too shabby either. And speaking of 2 on 2 action ... oh, stop it. I'm of course referring to Ice Hockey, the fast and furious hockey game from - you don't believe me? You scoff at the notion of an Atari game being fast OR furious? Well my cynical friend, feast your eyes on THIS:
Damn straight. Time for face off.
One thing I like about this game is that you can actually have sustained fun with it without a second player. Well, I can. For some reason I find it hilarious to constantly outwit the hopelessly stupid Yellow Team. See, back in the early 80's, many people didn't yet understand the concept of geometry.
As you can quite clearly see, you can shoot the puck off the wall/endless void of blackness into the goal all day, and they're none the wiser. This works especially well in super ultra wacky speed mode, later renamed "3" (or 4). So yes, you could always smack your opponent in the ass with your stick repeatedly to knock him on his ass and steal the puck, but where's the finesse? Ah well, I suppose a healthy mix of angled shots and ass kicking is what you need to succeed.
If you're looking for more of a challenge, try Game Mode 1 or 2, labelled regular "action". I use the term as loosely as humanly possible, because in this mode, the puck plods along at insanely slow speed. You'll be lucky to score a goal every 30 seconds, mostly because 20 of those seconds is spent skating with all the poise of a drunken mule after the puck. Rather than making skillful shots off the sides, it's basically a 3 minute sluggish brawl with hockey sticks, and the ice is seemingly coated with peanut butter. Happy Hockey!
What it comes down to is that you really have to continually enjoy outwitting the stupid computer team to get a rise out of this bad boy. Back in the day, this is really all we had; you either fired things at other things, or beat the computer. So deal with it. But remember - if you do it Ice Hockey style, you can do it in high speed action!
