NHL 97
1996
- sport
- non-fiction
- single player
- multiplayer
- co-operative
The story
1997 edition of EA's NHL sport simulation series. Improvements in this edition come mostly in the graphical arena, with a refined version of the "virtual stadium" system that adds new camera angles (including the classical top-down one strangely missing from NHL 96), and polygonal players instead of the bitmap-based ones with motion-captured animations. Other extras include multiplayer support for up to 8 players through network or Gravis's GrIP system, the option to create new players and trade them around, and the usual amount of EA sports licensed multimedia flair, including an interesting "Goalie Mask Viewer" which lets you observe the elaboratedly decorated helmets of 30 goalies.
What it’s like
Bright, arcade-style rinks under flat stadium lighting, with crisp white ice and bold team colours that pop against the dark boards and crowd. The 1997 edition sits in that mid-nineties sweet spot where polygonal skaters are still chunky and blocky, and the camera swings between broadcast-style angles and a classic top-down view that gives the game a pleasingly diagrammatic clarity. Sound is a bouncing mix of organ stabs, rink-side commentary, skate scrapes and a rising crowd roar, with menu music that feels like a sports channel between periods. The pace is quick and scrappy, with goals arriving in bursts and long stretches of puck-chasing between them. Its mood is brisk, boisterous and low-stress, a sporting carnival rather than a grind, with no violence beyond the occasional shoulder-check and fighting that stays cartoonish. It suits a lazy weekend session with a friend on the sofa, a multiplayer evening with a crowd, or a nostalgic drift through a PlayStation library. It is for people who enjoy hockey, retro sports sims, or the pleasure of tinkering with rosters and admiring goalies' painted masks.
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