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The NHL 95 Strategy Guide


segathon

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http://www.segathon.com/nhl-95-genesis-strategy/

NHL 95 Strategy

Want to be the Greatest NHL 95 Genesis Player of All Time?  Here are all the Scoring Tips, Tricks and Cheats against top players.

We play the wide open style of “Offsides Off” and “no line changes”  Players don’t get tired and  the game is much smoother without Drones going offside every 10 seconds.

Note this is been updated numerous times, so it’s worth a reread, although it’s getting longer than the Unibombers Manifesto 

NHL 95_007

The Line UP: Normally you have a guy on your bench that is better than a starter, sometimes there are a few.  Teams can change drastically with the right guys in. See NHL 95 team rating for player ratings and line ups if the below isn’t nerdy enough for you.

  1. Hot & Cold – Your players attributes can vary 10% up are down each game.  So if Pixelated Dino Ciccarelli is COLD because he may of drank too many pixelated beers and showed his pixilated privates to the neighbor, let him ride the pine.
  2. The Big 5:  These are the attributes that actually matter in NHL 95:  Speed, Agility, Stickhandling, Shot Power, Shot Accuracy
    • Speed Kills – NHL 95 is the fastest NHL game on the Genesis by far, scoring windows open and close quickly.  When in doubt go with fastest guys, especially Defensemen where that is at a premium.  Speed should be called Top Speed, how fast the player Accelerates is figured from Agility & Weight.
    • He won’t go down! – Speed kills but Agility and Stick Handling are the best when you are getting checked.  Dale Hawercheck, Gretzky, Lemieux are examples of slower but steady scorers.  FUN FACT:  If the players Agility rating is in 90s, that player always goes at their top speed.
    • Center Skillz –  Shot Power/Shot Accuracy are important because the Center gets 95% of one-timer attempts.  If both ratings are in 90’s, you got a monster and can score anywhere in front of the net.  When it dips into the 70’s it is still a threat in most spots.  Even the worst rated players get a onetime shot boost and can score in the sweet spot,  but just at a lower success rate.  The lower the rating the puck is not on target or goalie catches up to shot.
  3. Wings – “Handedness” Backhand shots are the easiest to score on cross crease cheese so put Rightys on Right Wing and Lefties on Left Wing
  4. Defensive Pairing –  Your Left Defender is the roamer, he will chase after the puck when opponent is in your zone.  Right Defense just stays put in front of goalie guarding the net (normally not that well).  So you probably want your quicker defender at the Left spot.
  5. Inflation:  Offensive & Defensive Awareness inflate the Players Overall Rating a little too much.  Some say McSorley’s  Psycho D Awareness outweighs his overall shitty stats but I’ll take a raw scorer like Alexei Zhitnik every time.  Also Endurance (we play line changes off), Passing, Checking, Aggressiveness are pretty suspect if they really add any value.
  6. Watch subs on penalties – Right Wing always goes off ice when on penalty kill, then Left Wing on 2nd penalty.  Even if your Defender gets called and serves the penalty your Right Wing goes off ice as well.  For example: Ray Bourque gets a penalty for Boston, he serves penalty but now Cam Neely is also off ice.  If your Center gets a penalty, a sub comes in instead of the Left Wing moving over.  Its good to manual sub at that point if your bench player is mediocre.  Just remember to put him back it original spot after penalty.

Nick used the one timer dragon Lindros to score the majority of his goals

Offense: This game is tilted Offensively and there are many way to scores in NHL 95.

  1. Attack of the Drones – How computer AI controls the players on Offense
    • Defensemen – Left Defender stays near Blue Line on Left side, and Right Defender does the same on Right Side.  Not really in position to score
    • Wings – They set up low in a great position to do a cross crease or pass to Center for One-timer.  This position has a drawback as they have no chance of scoring on a one-timer themselves
    • Center – Always in the center ready to blast a onetimer,  sometimes they will set up in a sweet spot other times they go in a spot that’s not so sweet.
    • Chickens come home to roost – After switching control of a player, that player will always go back to the “their spot”
  2. The Cross Crease Cheese – If you played any version of NHL for EA 16 bit, the “Cut Across” is a go to move.  Sometimes called the “Cheater Move”  or “Drive By” as Auto Goalie gives up the goal easily.  The Player starts at one of the circles in opponents zone and skates across in front of goalie and shoot a backhander after passing goalie.  Can be shot as a wrister too but is tough to pull off.
  3. One Timer – The “correct” way to score since NHL 94.  95% is normally a Wing passing to Center but it sometimes a Winger or D can score.  Also if you pull your goalie the extra attacker will set up in the sweet spot for a one timer. If playing doubles, the one timers are a thing of beauty.  Like Pamela Anderson pre Hep C.
  4. The Deke –  Just like in Mighty Ducks, Skating right at goalie, go one side than to other and shoot.  This is a tougher shot in 95 because of the speed. Works well against Manual Goalie.
  5. Down & B – Sometimes called the Pass Shot, player passes it to opposing Goalie around center ice and will go right through the Goalie’s 5- hole.  Most common way for opposing Goalie to score. Down & B is deadly, but Up & B barely works because pressing up gives the puck some lift and it hits the Goalie in the breadbasket instead of the 5 hole.
  6. Rebound – shoot it off the Goalie and if puck bounces right you have an open net on 2nd shot.  Also another great move against a Manual Goalie.
  7. Wrap Around : 3 versions
    • Skate around goal and turn it into a cross crease cheese
    • If the Player is much quicker than Goalie you can just score on an open net.
    • Drone Obstruction:  Defensive drones will go after you, but end up ramming own goalie in process
  8. Crash the Net – Just run into Goalie and hope the puck drips in and no interference call.  Button Mashers preferred way to score.
  9. Dead Man – Coined by rival NHL 95 Hockey League.  If Player has puck in his own zone and is laid out by a check.  That Player can’t switch to another Player until they stand up.  Works great against Manual Goalie when Player can’t cycle back to Goalie.
  10. Manual Goalie Surprise – Manual Goalie can be pretty tough to beat in right hands.  One timers and cross crease are pretty much nerfed when controlling Goalie.   A weak slapper or pass shot to the pipes can catch the Goalie by surprise.
  11.  Big D Slapper – Button hook curl at between blue line and top of face-off circle and shoot a big slapper.  Big slap shot guys like Macinnis can send a shot that goes true.  Seldom done in game.
  12. Penalty Shot Pass Trick – On a shoot out with Manual Goalie defending, Player will pass puck and bounce off pads, Goalie will think play is over but puck is still live and can be shot again
  13. Score after Whistle on Dead Puck Penalty – in rare occasions right after play is called dead on a penalty you can shoot puck and score, if Goalie is Auto Goalie, they wont defend shot.  Sometimes opposing team still get a Player in the box after score.
  14. Hail Mary Over Goalies Head – sometimes an errant clearing of puck will be on net and go right over Goalies head into net.  Pretty rare and I believe can only happen when shooting up
  15. Doubles Obstruction – when playing doubles other Player will screen Goalie.  You run risk of interference penalty, but sometimes refs swallow their whistles.
  16. Weak Ass Moves
    • Drop Shot – Hit A and Dpad in opponents zone and it will leave the puck to player behind.  Looks pretty but can see it coming from a mile away and does not trick Drones.
    • Directional Passing – Passing takes a step back from NHL 94, normally hitting B pass it passes to closest player, but if you do not hold D pad, then hold down B and then press direction of D pad and then let go of B it will do a directional pass.   Again it looks better but takes to long.
    • Fake Shot – if you hit A in your opponents zone you can do a fake shot.  It works good against a Drone as they may drop to ice.  But does not work against a human.
    • Deep Slapshots that aren’t One Timers – Unless you are going for a rebound almost all slappers from Blue Line are not going in.

zalapskivmogy

Defense – NHL HITZ

  1.  Attack of the Drones – How computer AI controls the players on Defense
    • Right Defense – He just stays in front of net, sometimes he will break up the cross crease, but mostly just watches the opponent score.
    • Left Defense – He does all the work chasing and attacking when the opponent gets close in
    • Take these Broken Wings – your wings on D are your best defenders as Drones, if you can push your opponent to the corners.  They will be there to lay them out.
    • Center –  basically does the same thing as Left Defender but higher up
  2. Speed Killz on D too – Joel Otto’s a tank but the little speedy Theo Fleury lays out more people.  When big slow guys like Otto can’t get a running start, their checks are weak like Busch Light.
  3. Check Anything that Moves – You won’t get called for blowing up guys without puck.  Do it!  Even Gretzky can lay out Lindros easily in this game.
  4. But if the Penalties Pile Up…- You need to lay off the C a bit.  Don’t go total Hanson Brothers on the Ice.
  5. C Speed Burst  – With line changes off mash the C.  Your guy’s legs won’t turn to rubber.
  6. Clog the Middle with Defender – There are is about a 5 foot pixel radius of scoring on Cross Crease /Dekes.  If it’s not a onetimer variety, slap shots won’t go in, let them shoot.
  7. Don’t Take the Bait – goes with clogging the middle.  You chase the puck handler to the corners, you may get burned, or even worse get the puck and then “Dead Manned”
  8. Check the Center even without puck -that’s the one-timer guy, if he’s laying on ice he can’t shoot the one timer
  9. Down & B – The Down and B pass shot is deadly from center ice, don’t fall asleep on that.  Fun Fact: Up & B works about 10% of the time, compared to a 50% chance when doing Down & B on South end of ice.  Which means the visiting team really has an advantage.  (Going down in 1st & 3rd Period)
  10. Knock the net off – if you are beat you can sometimes knock the net off to get a whistle blown
  11. B poke check –  You can poke check with B button if you are closest to skater with puck, which works great in 94, not so much in 95.  Just blow them up with a C check
  12. Don’t use A Button; just leave it alone
    • Hold Opponent – You can grab opponent and hold for a half a second. Don’t do it, just don’t, most likely get called for penalty and does not work that well even when it doesn’t get called
    • Laydown to Block Puck  – Looks cool, if someone is shooting you can hit A and your player will drop to try to block puck, Drones do it well sometimes, but never seen it used successfully by a human.
    • Ice Puck – You can hit A to ice the puck when in your zone, but C works just as well and sometimes you can score with a hail mary shot with C.

The Year of Eddie the Eagle- The Blackhawk's goalie got a work out this year a record 6 competitors chose them as their team.

Manual Goalie– Some purist think Auto Goalie should be the only way to play.  Choosing Manual Goalie is the best way to keep the puck out of your net.

  1. The Delay – It takes an extra second to get Goalie control by holding B, make sure to hold B before offense gets into a scoring position.
  2. You Don’t Have Press Buttons – Don’t have to press C button to make saves, puck will bounce right off Goalie.  Pressing C will make a Save Motion that riles up the crowd and sometimes you can catch the puck but that Save Motion also slows down the Goalie.
  3. The A Button – Again the A button can get you into trouble.  Hitting A with the puck clears it, but you are better off using B to pass to teammate.  Hitting A and D pad without Puck you can Dive and Take out Skater, but this puts you in a bad position if you miss.
  4. Too Much Manual Goalie is Bad –If you stay too long in Manual Goalie, your Drones will get called for a Penalty.  Auto Goalie work fine with great D
  5. Incredible Hulk: If your grab puck a bit outside the crease, you can skate with puck up ice for a couple seconds before the play is whistled dead.  Your Goalie is an uncheckable wrecking ball but you are really out of position if you pass puck to wrong guy.
  6. Hold the Puck –  A large percentage of goals are scored on sloppy puck passing from Goalie.  If you feel the heat hold the puck and take the face-off instead.
  7. Defending Moves win Manual Goalie
    • Cross Crease Cheese – Basically follow skater to shut down, you can also bump skater if they get too close
    • One Timer – stay in middle, almost all one timers hit the middle or miss net completely
    • Deke – a litter tougher to stop.  Need to pick a side to defend at end.  Try to bump if they get too close or if you are really risky Dive for puck by hitting A
    • Weak Shots are Deadly – Pay Attention! Little soft shots or passes on pipes that Computer Goalie would stop are now the easiest way to score
    • Dead Man – if you get caught with a Dead Man you better hope they choke on shot

Brandon wants to hold on to his award. The Golden Phillips Drunken Skill award

Don’t be that guy: Not many rules of what you can’t do but these are frowned upon

  1. Pausing – Don’t pause the game during action.  Do it on dead pucks or faceoffs.  If you pause during an opponents scoring attempt you probably will get fucked with when you pass out.
  2. Skating with the Puck to Kill Time – if you are up, you still always have to try to score.   No skating around your zone for minutes to kill time
  3. Line Up Lingerers – You can change your line up but don’t audit every stat line by line.
  4. Pull Goalie of Opposing Player: We all did it as kids, your opponents goes to piss and you pull their Goalie, in 1995 there was no higher form of comedy.  But now you get booted “its a league game Smokey”
  5. You’re not drinking enough! – when we were 22 it was fun to say, but now we are middle aged, you can have as many pops as you want.  Just no Gatorade, that has electrolytes that plants crave.

The UNKNOWN – Ratings and bugs in game we may never understand.

  1. The Weight – No not the great song by The Band.  Weight has certain effects on players.  The heavier the guy, the slower they accelerate, but more importantly it could determine how well they check.  No solid evidence in 95, but in NHL 91-94, SNES players with heavier weight check with more power and are can withstand being checked.  But it is reversed in NHL 94. Making Roenick and Fleury Monsters.
  2. Other Attributes
    • Offensive Awareness – Smart people like kingraph say it is thought to give AI better positioning for one-timers. High awareness means players are more likely to stay outside of defensive zone, positioned for breakaways.  I have not found much difference between high and low awareness players on Offense.
    • Defensive Awareness–  Again from kingraph, Believed to cause AI players close down to their own net, play closer in the defensive zone.   The likelihood of Checking is thought to be determined from the Checking Rating.   I’ve seen 30 rated D Aware / Checking still knock the crap out of people.
    • Passing – Passing speed and direction seem the same between players, thought it may be if player passes as drone.  Higher passing rating the more likely they will pass.
    • Checking –  Thought How often AI checks.  The higher the check rating, the more frequently your AI person will attempt a check.  Faster Players are better checkers when man controlled.
    • Aggressiveness – This is a leftover attribute from ’93. Determines how likely a player is to fight.  No clue if it has anything to do in NHL 95
    • Hidden Stat Roughness – There is a hidden attribute in the code that is not displayed in the game.  It’s believed to be passing bias for the AI — the higher the stat, the more passing the AI will attempt.  NOSE calls this stat “Roughness”.
  3. All those Goalie Attributes – No Clue what specific attribute makes a good Goalie, but Great Goalies are rated high in everything.  Some swear going stick side instead of glove side you will score more goals
  4. Hot / Cold Ratings – Your players attributes can vary 10% up are down each game, but there is talk that this is just fluff and they stay the same.  Can’t confirm.  But I feel a Cold player seems to play worse
  1.  
Edited by segathon
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I played a 25 game season of 95 as Montreal.

I went 24-1.

Did single game playoff and lost in the opening round to Buffalo.

Swept the Awards show.

It was fun, but I just prefer the look and feel of 92-94.

The screen and ice look very washed out.

Segathon and his site are awesome.

I would love to hear more on why he prefers 95.

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Thanks for the kind words, it was a fun to do. I was surprised on how much I wrote so quickly. Lot of info up in my brain from over the years of playing.

Don't want to turn this into a nhl95 vs the rest of the series topic. Just was the game our crew landed on as "the game" probably more due to our age at the time (puberty tipped the scales from Sega to Girls in 96) and the Sega Genesis had peaked and was declining as a system in 96 with N64 and Playstation on market.

I think if you play one of the other versions a lot you won't be converting to NHL95 same goes if you are a 95er going to another version. The games are different but had just enough of the same feel that makes the other versions not feel right. I do the same thing with Tecmo Super Bowl on NES, can't go back to Tecmobowl or to the 16 bit versions, I stick with TSB.

If anyone has any info on NHL95 guide to add let me know.

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  • 1 year later...
Putting a list together of Scoring Moves for players that are starting up again and may not remember from 20 years ago :)
 
#1 Cut Across AKA Cheater Move -Master this Move and you have a punchers chance of beating anyone
 
#2 One Timer - The Classy Move - Great add on to the Cut Across Move when player defends cut across pass to Center for One Timer Goal
#3 Triple Deke - This one got nerfed from '93/'94  You got to get in really close to make it work
 
#4 Pass Shot AKA "Down B" "Bastard Goal" - Make sure no teammates are in front of you as it may pass to them instead. 
Edited by segathon
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Great stuff fellas!  We have a small group of guys playing 95 and we don't really understand all the hate.  It's a blast, and I grew up playing 94 way more.  

Anyways, something has come up with us recently and this seems to be the perfect place to float it out to see what others know.  We outlawed the 'B shot' because it goes in way too often (especially in the south end) and there seems to be no way to defend it with any consistency.  Recently on a breakaway going south, I tapped C and tried a VERY slow shot in hopes of putting home a rebound.  My opponent on manual goalie hit C and it went through him clean at like 2 mph.  The same thing happened several times with very few saves until he stopped pressing C and just let it hit the goalie.  Have you guys had this happen?  Not that it should matter, but all of this took place in 2 on 2 practice mode, which we play a lot. We might outlaw this move too, but it does seem that you can stop it if you don't hit C as the goalie.  Crazy that after 20+ years you can still run into new things. We have messed around with it and it happens a lot more often with bad goalies and only seems to work going south.  Thoughts? Has anybody tried/seen this?

Thanks!

JJ

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NHL95 Looks fine, it was also probably more popular overall in Finland than 94 was, actually overall it was the first one to be a huge hit in sells of hockey games.

I have one problem with the Genesis version of 95 though. The skating seems much more hectic and less precise than compared to 94. If that was not the case I think you could do pass shots in 95 effectively as well, but now it seems just so much more random and almost impossible to line up properly for the diagonal ones. Am I wrong here and is it just a lack of experience on the game or can you use skating skill to line up for great effectiviness for pass shots?

The hectic style skating also looks like it's going to be real bad for high latency. It feels like the point for your weight is very high instead of down low. Looks fun for live events and low 1-3 frame latency games though.

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On 3/3/2017 at 11:09 PM, 12inchesofSjodin said:

Great stuff fellas!  We have a small group of guys playing 95 and we don't really understand all the hate.  It's a blast, and I grew up playing 94 way more.  

Anyways, something has come up with us recently and this seems to be the perfect place to float it out to see what others know.  We outlawed the 'B shot' because it goes in way too often (especially in the south end) and there seems to be no way to defend it with any consistency.  Recently on a breakaway going south, I tapped C and tried a VERY slow shot in hopes of putting home a rebound.  My opponent on manual goalie hit C and it went through him clean at like 2 mph.  The same thing happened several times with very few saves until he stopped pressing C and just let it hit the goalie.  Have you guys had this happen?  Not that it should matter, but all of this took place in 2 on 2 practice mode, which we play a lot. We might outlaw this move too, but it does seem that you can stop it if you don't hit C as the goalie.  Crazy that after 20+ years you can still run into new things. We have messed around with it and it happens a lot more often with bad goalies and only seems to work going south.  Thoughts? Has anybody tried/seen this?

Thanks!

JJ

Love the screen name.

It is amazing what people find out later in these games.  The whole weight bug thing they found in 94 is a game changer.  I don't feel that is a weight bug in 95.

Yeah Pass shot can be deadly, but I still have not been able to use it consistently.  Maybe you guys are a lot better at it, but just being able to be lined up straight and getting the pass shot off quick enough before a defender gets to you is tougher than a cross crease shot. You are right on the south end most of the time when going north the puck gets lifted.

You'll have to do a quick vid of that shot.  I tried it quick and could not replicate.  That's very interesting.  

All the guys that do goalie control I play against just let it hit the goalie without pressing C.  The save motion must let it in.  We do press A sometimes for a kamikaze dive.

You guys will have to join us for next segathon!

 

 

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On 3/4/2017 at 0:46 AM, Depch said:

NHL95 Looks fine, it was also probably more popular overall in Finland than 94 was, actually overall it was the first one to be a huge hit in sells of hockey games.

I have one problem with the Genesis version of 95 though. The skating seems much more hectic and less precise than compared to 94. If that was not the case I think you could do pass shots in 95 effectively as well, but now it seems just so much more random and almost impossible to line up properly for the diagonal ones. Am I wrong here and is it just a lack of experience on the game or can you use skating skill to line up for great effectiviness for pass shots?

The hectic style skating also looks like it's going to be real bad for high latency. It feels like the point for your weight is very high instead of down low. Looks fun for live events and low 1-3 frame latency games though.

Yeah have some buds that do a big NHL 95 tourney in Finland every year and found another group in Finland that posted a Tourney online.  Check out 

 

I'd agree with you on the hectic Skating with SNES 95 vs Sega 94 as the SNES feels a bit floaty to me but Sega 95 to me feel like an F1 Race Car with quick and precise moves, Sega 94 feels like I am driving a large semi trailer and everything seems slow.  94 has much better passing and a broader radius to score from which opens the game up a bit.

You are 100% correct on the high latency, I'd say 75% of the online games I have played in NHL 95 result in a desync.  Have not found a fix to get 95 to work online yet on GENS.

 

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Segathon, thanks for the reply.  

I agree, the cross crease shot will go in way more than the B shot, but at least you can defend it by hitting the guy or using the goalie (unless you are stuck on the dreaded dead man).  We'll try to get the eephus on video...

Thx!

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39 minutes ago, 12inchesofSjodin said:

I apologize for the crappy video, but here is the eephus.  If this doesn't work I will try to post it a different way.

eephus.wlmp

I can't see the eephus.  tried to open in windows media player.  

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1 hour ago, 12inchesofSjodin said:

Here is a clearer look at the eephus shot.  This was on one of Mack's NHL95 ROMs (2009 maybe?) against the computer. Regular and reverse angle.

eephus2.mp4

eephus2reverseangle.mp4

WOW that was not manual goalie either?

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The one from before was against my buddy on manual goalie, but this one was against the computer.  The goalie's save motion is what seems to allow it to go through.  Of course it doesn't always go in, but it gets by way more than such a slow shot should.  Not pushing buttons as the goalie stops it from what we've found.

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I'm a 5 hole specialist from even back in my original days of '94 on my Genesis with my brother.

Slapshots from behind the blue line also go right through the goalie's legs if aimed correctly, if my memory was correct, and it's why my brother & I had to stop playing '95 and go back to '94, cause he couldn't figure out how to stop it.

 

I'm going to fire up the '95 ROM later tonight when I get home and give it a test.

 

This whole thread has me wanting to try a version of the game I haven't played since 1995!  Nice.

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48 minutes ago, Brutus said:

I'm a 5 hole specialist

 

Bragging about your Single Days I see....

Nothing Wrong with a little NHL 95 on the side :)

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This forum is not so easy for me to navigate these days.

 

I spent about 20 minutes trying to find the ROM for Genesis NHL '95 last night.

 

Anyone able to upload it here, or the link to it?

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1 hour ago, Brutus said:

This forum is not so easy for me to navigate these days.

 

I spent about 20 minutes trying to find the ROM for Genesis NHL '95 last night.

 

Anyone able to upload it here, or the link to it?

try this.  Pretty sure emuparadise is legit

https://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Genesis_-_Sega_Megadrive_ROMs/NHL_95_(USA,_Europe)/38766

 

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  • 5 years later...

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