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Ice Hockey vs Blades of Steel (NES)


which game do you prefer?  

23 members have voted

  1. 1. which game do you prefer?

    • Ice Hockey
    • Blades of Steel
    • Friggin love em both bud.


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I've been spending way too much time lately on kijiji, ebay and amazon and have been picking up old retro sports video games.

Most recently I acquired both Ice hockey and Blades of Steel for NES. I loved Ice Hockey and found the game to be a ton of fun playing in my youth. I remember not liking blades of steel because of the moving arrow and always felt that was lame. However, it seems like a lot of people love Blades so I thought I'd give it another shot.

The arrow is not as bad as I remember and I actually rather enjoy it...and of course the fights are always fun.

My daughter (Age 6) just laughs at the game because it's so old.

Which game do you buds like better?

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I DO love them both, but I remember Blades was so much better when it came out. Been long time since I played either though.

Btw, I remember a trick I used to do that scored in Blades all the time...would piss off my friends. If I remember correctly, you take your player to the goal line and shoot the puck from there, basically a straight shot up. Even if the goalie was on the edge of the goal post, the puck would ricochet in all the time. Glitch goal for sure.

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Blades of Steel obviously had better graphics, an annoying announcer, better fights, and more excitement when it hit the shelves. But the game play is literally crap compared to Ice Hockey. Ice Hockey, with it's small-ass rink and much better goalie control allowed for literally nonstop action. Your fingers have to be in shape when you play that game and you can't take your eyes off the screen for a second. It feels like you're controlling all 5 players at the same time PLUS your goalie, at the same time. It's completely run & gun high-intensity stuff. You get to customize your lineup between skinny, average and fat guys, and all 3 have their pluses and minuses in terms of skating, shooting, and checking. You can also choose the speed of the game. Like 94, Ice Hockey takes a lot of skill and practice to get good at. It's a hidden gem. Almost everything is controllable by the user. Blades of Steel, is more luck-based IMO. All the players are exactly the same in all aspects, goalie control is lame and slow. All the shots are flat on the ice (if I remember correctly) and I think the same amount of power. Graphics aside, Ice Hockey is easily a better game for competition. I love it.

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Seth hit the nail on the head with Ice Hockey. It nuts when you have to defend a shot with the goalie while trying to get your Defense in as well to check. Plus you have the NES staple mutton mash fight. Ice Hockey is a simply game that holds up great and you could pop it in today and play against someone for a while and it would be fun. Just played it a month ago and sadly my team Poland was routed by the burley Swedes, skinny guys are s**t!

Blades is worth owning and looks great when you consider it's an 8 bit game, has fighting, and doesn't it have a little 3 period space ship video game built in? Have not played it in a while but I remember liking it but it was no ice hockey.

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I had to go with Blades of Steel because it was just awesome when it came out. The anticipation of a close-up hockey fight was beyond awesome. I also loved the vocals and the soundtrack.

I have played some Ice Hockey recently and did not enjoy it, but I can see how it would be good for competitive gaming against a worthy competitor.

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My vote goes to Ice Hockey but I haven't played either in a long time. Being honest, I never played these games that extensively as a kid either, but I got more of a sense of wonder out of Ice Hockey. Uncle Seth said it better than I can so I'll leave it at that!

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  • 6 years later...

Way back when, I felt like Blades was popular because of the graphics and sounds, but Ice Hockey was more fun. Loved that you could customize the team with fat/medium/skinny guys.

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Maybe it's because it was the second game I ever owned, [after the Mario/Duck Hunt pack-in] but I have to go Blades of Steel.
I did play Ice Hockey a bunch because a friend had it back in the day, but while it was a lot of fun, I wasn't a fan of the 3-on-3 format.

And sorry to contradict Seth's old comment, but there were some notable differences in team skills [although all players on a team were the same if that was his meaning] and you could employ some different game play strategies like picking your angle and using the arrow to your advantage. As well as putting your opponent at a literal disadvantage by winning fights.

Maybe it was just the amount of time I sunk into each, but Ice Hockey's strategy, especially against the guys I played against all the time, was to just try to get open and get a quick shot or just blast it and hope. Could also be that most of my friends were good at offence and sucked on D, and I was the opposite, but we also tended to have a lot of 1-0, 2-1 games.

Also, have to give a nod to Konami because they used to make games that were and they were totally awesome.

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