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With the Final Cut editions out of the way, it seems it is time to release the next installment in the series. And it gives me the chance to make another retro review so I'm going to take it. With EA outsourcing the development of the SEGA Genesis version of NHL 98 to THQ while they concentrated on the fancy new PlayStation and PC versions, Team 1920 still took care of the Genesis conversion for IIHF 98. However, when EA started work on the '99 installment of their hockey franchise, it would only see a release on the Playstaion, PC and N64. This would not normally have been an issue, however the team was unable to procure a dev kit for the new systems and EA seemed to have forgotten they were still around; as evidenced by the fact that EA had not yet attempted to buy 1920 out, before they started neglecting the small production company. With nothing else going on at the time, the team decided to take matters into their own hands and do what they do best; make a Genesis game. And 'cuz they say... 2000 zero zero, game over, oops, out of time. So tonight I'm gonna party and play... After two years without a title screen athlete, the developer made the decision to feature eventual #2 overall scorer and #1 fan favourite, Finland's Teemu Selanne. The game was again based on the '96-'98 game engine and would feature the improvements that appeared in the '98 version like switching team controllers, line coaching, goalie changes/injuries and less predictable AI. Also, after a year of forgetting to do so, Fighting majors are again assessed a 10 minute misconduct. As the dev team was not a fan of the dark, and in some cases quite ugly, graphics style they were constrained to in '97 and '98, they took the opportunity to go for a much lighter scheme, while taking every opportunity to change as many assets as possible. Not wanting to reuse the team selection "Flag in a circle" logos for yet a fourth year in a row, and to emphasize their full licensing agreement, National Team sweater logos are now featured in place. The new team name font that debuted in IIHF 98 does make a return, while the menu titles get a new jumbotron dot matrix light styling. While the top 26 ranked teams did not change from the previous year, the five unranked teams were switched out in favour of some less highlighted teams from the bottom five in 36th placed South Africa [making a return for the first time since IIHF '93], 37th ranked New Zealand, 38th place - 2nd year participant - Turkey, 39th overall Greece and 40th place rookie Iceland. To spruce up the playoff bracket, a rink style background was added, reminiscent of the ice surface in IIHF '94. For uniformity [and limitations] of the season mode logos, a clean new set of flag logos were added similar to what the IIHF would use on their website 20 years later! The full contingent of uniform logos would be carried over to the center ice area. The "Champion is you!" picture and winning team photo were carried over from the previous year however because the dev's art director was already going quite batty and just couldn't be asked to spend any more time on those things. The team selection rankings also still posed a challenge that was only overcome with mockery, but it's funny to wonder if perhaps Canada is ranked 6th in tape usage because their 26th ranked stick boy has been eating it. That said, I'd give it a perfect 5 out of 7. IIHF 99.bin

In honour of the return of the World Championships with this year's tournament in Latvia, I'm going to start posting some updated ROMs for my World Championship series. Mostly these are intended to resolve some anachronisms that came about due to some difficulties in finding complete information regarding logos, uniforms , etc [or in the case of Belarus, completely forgetting a four year span of their history.] Most obvious fixes will be uniform colours, which have been adjusted to be more period accurate. [as possible within the limits of the sprite art] Some player names have also been truncated to fit into the "ten character last name/twenty overall" limits for cleaner player name displays. I've adjusted the timeline on licensing to allow for complete national team uniform logos to be used. This will be fully implemented into all teams' center ice logos by IIHF 96, with full licensing being negotiated for the "Championship Editions" of IIHF 94 and 95 only, prior to that. [Unfortunately, there is only the one communal center ice logo in the 32-team ROM for 93, or that could have been worked in as well. Oh well...] A few other minor tweaks like team name banners and logo colours [or in Belarus' case, changing their entire bloody flag <shakes head in shame>] Many thanks to the indispensable @EagleXIII for his help in filling in the nagging gaps in my research. So here we go again with the original IIHF Hockey released in 1991, now in "Final Cut" form. IIHF Hockey (91) F.bin Going forward, I will also be putting all of the "Final Cut" games into the original post for easier access.