I can understand that actually.
I never really played many of the other NHL games on the mega drive apart from 94 which i had as a kid, but people seem to say 94 followed by 96
I recently picked up a copy of NHL 96 and it was still new factory sealed from 1995 which is crazy.
What was crazy was I got it less than £10, it was sealed in 2019... I ended up opening it and playing it hehe
it works like a charm
Honestly I was suprised that NHL 98 was region locked, you think cause it was an EA game it would've been region free, i was trying to find a copy of the game boxed myself
Thanks for the offer, might need to find my feet around here first.
I did managed to get a copy of NHL 96 what was still factory sealed since 1995 cheap recently so been playing with that recently lol