"Mikey make his head bleed. Mikey! Mikey make his head bleed!" -Swingers

NHL 93 still led to one of the funniest scenes in the flick Swingers, "I'm gonna make Gretzky's head bleed for super fan 99 over here."

Nice video! Love playing some Hockey games on the Genesis! Mutant League Hockey for me or NHL 94.

Aside from the nes hockey games. NHLPA 93 was the first 16 bit hockey game I owned and the theme song is still in my head

NHLPA 93 didn’t get a fair slice here. When you played playoffs, during your intermissions you would get to watch highlights from the other games. Some of them were really exciting. It was one of the few games that had blood for injuries. It also had glass breaking from slap shots. You’d actually get a Stanley Cup celebration in your season/playoffs. It was the best one.

So, thing about ESPN National Hockey Night that I don't know if too many have picked up on, a company called Park Place Productions was the subcontractor for EA producing and programming the original NHL and NHLPA '93 (as well as the first 2-3 Genesis Madden games, presumably after their ABC Monday Night Football computer game impressed EA in comparison with their OG computer Madden). After EA sniped I think at least one or two of Park Place's programmers after Madden/NHL were a huge success, Park Place split with EA but reportedly got to retain rights to their sports games' source code, and they wound up producing ESPN National Hockey Night for Sony Imagesoft after NHLPA '93. There's even a mode where you can flip from the horizontal Blades of Steel-style camera to a vertical EA NHL-style overhead camera (and you can even switch out camera styles between periods of the same game). I'm no Genesis hockey expert, but the feel especially in overhead mode seems similar to me on ESPN to at least the early NHL games, the player sprites are just bigger than they are in the NHL series, so the camera is "zoomed in" versus EA and you can kind of feel like you're not seeing enough at once. As I understand it, once Park Place, fresh from their EA success, started doing a lot of contract work and WAY overextended themselves, the company started to implode and Sony hired away a lot of their staff to work on sports games, some of whom would wind up working on the NHL Faceoff series on PS1 (which personally, I had a pretty great time with). So ESPN National Hockey Night is this interesting transitional middle ground between the the early Genesis NHL games and the PS1 NHL Faceoff games.

NHLPA 93 is my fav on sega mega drive spent many a hour playing it I still play it to this day classic

Mutant League Hockey felt good to play, and the setting and quirky humor put it over the top. Most importantly, you just wanted to play it and play it some more. Let's go Pens

I always felt that '94 and '96 were the two best of the NHL franchise. I would have them as S tier with '95 at A. Great video!

That’s funny, the Penguins are my favorite team. And I loved using them in NHL ‘94, which is my favorite team sports game of all time. I still play it to this day. The combination of Mario Lemieux & Jaromir Jagr is to this day my favorite in any hockey game. Great video!

Sega is my childhood. Nhl by ea is the reason I bought sega back in 91

My personal favorite is NHLPA 93

Really enjoyed this video. Well done.

NHL Hockey , NHLPA 93 and NHL 94 are the three best hockey games ever made! If NHL 94 ever had a season mode , it could be the best sports game ever created. Those games just felt right plus loved the highlights from other games. The same went for the Madden’s 92 and 93 which in my opinion are the best football games developed. It is a shame that neither NHL 94 or early Maddens had season modes.

Thanks for making this video! A couple years ago I bought a Genesis, the 4 way play controller adapter from EA, and all the Genesis hockey games except for Mutant League (only because it cost too much, because this is the game I want the most). My NHL 94 still has the unopened pack of cards in it. I was originally planning on making a list similar to this and I have to say, you nailed a lot of the same grades I put for them. Though I live in Pittsburgh and I thought Mario Lemieux hockey was a bit weak. I need to go back and revisit now that you displayed the face-off and fight sequences.

Great video!!!! I love the NHL series on the Genesis, with NHLPA 93 and NHL 94 being my favorites. I also really like Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars!!

Breakfasts come and go, Jay, but Hartford, "the Whale," they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime.

I picked up NHL '95 earlier today for $10.00. Other than Blades of Steel on NES, NHLPA Hockey '93 was my first into Electronic Arts Hockey game's. I actually recommend NHL 2002 on Game Boy Advance

Can't remember if it was NHL '96 or "97 that let you input a TON of letters for your customized character name, but that's what I really enjoyed-- and of course, they were dirty names. But they put me in stitches when a big marquee would show them as PLAYERS OF THE GAME for the entire arena to see. And also, one-timers were crazy fun. My brother and I lived for them.

1. Mutant League Hockey 2. NHL 94 3. NHL 96 4. Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars 5. Mario Lemieux Hockey IMO, no reason to play any other hockey game on the Genesis.

hit the ice on the SNES was awesome. used to be one of my fav sports games to play back in the day, me and buddies would have a blast playing against each other.

Mario lemieux Hockey was a by far and away my best hockey game on sega that I have ever played. As u said the faceoff is the best ever and the controls are on point. The gameplay is fun and accurate and the difficulty levels challenging as u improve which always brought me back to playing it again and again. Underrated this game for sure. Loved your reviews and really glad that u bumped it up to an A rating.

I will say the one game that had the ice rink at an angle was much more visually appealing than the others which were straight on. I did have to laugh when I saw that there was one with a fighting minigame. That was awesome! The other one with the skill challenges did look interesting. I would probably have more fun doing those than playing hockey. Keep up the good work sir.

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The best reviews for games especially when it comes to sports is getting the review from someone who truly loves that particular sport! I’m not a true hockey fan I only played nhl 1995 and 1996 but your reviews allowed me to make a good choice to play some retro hockey games mutant league and Mario lemieux is the choices for me

I always had the most fun with the Mario Lemiux Hockey game growing up. I always played with my dad. So many memories with it. Still play it today. 25 yrs later.

I spent countless hours playing NHL 95 with my Japanese counterparts guarding a forlorn ordnance compound in Southern Japan. I remember specifically appreciating the speed pickup from 94 at the time, but now I agree with you so I do think player age might be a factor when comparing these two (18yr old me loved the speed .... you can't go back all the way).

I only ever played the EA sports games as a kid and then my friend lent me Mario Lemieux hockey and got into a fight and loved it. I’m glad you enjoyed it as I was shocked it was low on your first rating. Great video

You missed EA hockey. It came out the first year as NHL Hockey in 1992. BUT! It had countries, not NHL teams. and you talk about the slow speed of NHL hockey, EA hockey was much faster in terms of skating and shot speed. Great game. Please do a review of it when you find a cartridge

Well thought out rankings. I didn't play all of them, but to this day I still play NHLPA 93 (really nice touch playing that game's theme song during the rank showings), NHL 95 and NHL 97. '95 is definitely my favorite out of those 3 play wise, and NHLPA 93 still holds up really well to this day. What I enjoy about NHL 97 is mostly the music in it lol...awesome main theme and team selection theme. Also, you can create players in '95 which they removed from '97 and I don't understand why, but yeah that was a thing too.

This is so good! Now I'm hoping you do the same for other sports! : D

Man! I was also a HUGE Cam Neely fan back in the day!! Him and Adam Graves of the Rangers were my favorite players. (And Theo Fleury.)

I've been playin EA's NHL '21 career mode and franchise. Yeah I know they have newer ones but until they fix some issues I won't buy new ones. In the career mode you HAVE to pick 2 positions and you play your second choice for at least a full year. Second, you can't see your full roster or any other teams. You get no notices of league info like trades, which I don't think even happen or injuries. It's just so annoyingly basic for a game in 2021. I played these games on this list but spent more time trying to hit folks than score goals, they were really fun so thanks for bringing back some memories.

NHL All-Star Hockey 95 does have one-timers. I wouldn't rank it as bad as you did as well. It's probably a C- for me. Also neat little trick - if you take any left-handed shooter that has a decent shot to the center ice area right up against the player boards to the right and take a shot... it will ALWAYS go in, bouncing off the back boards and hitting the goalie and in.

Mutant League hockey and football are both so awesome!

Great video! NHL All-Star hockey 95 is what I’ve been warming up to. It’s playable, I wouldn’t rank it quite as bad. The players do really seem to move like they’re on a track, and it does feel like a cheap imitation of the EA NHL games. I also found it really hard to score without doing a one timer.

I'm curious if any other GOOD hockey games came out on SNES that didn't make it to Sega Genesis

Love the nhl series! NHL 94 to me and nostalgic its 92❤️

Your initial rankings were much better. I hold the exact opposite view on the Genesis NHL games. I loved '95 and '96 as a kid, but I think they're completely unplayable in 2022. The gameplay is comically fast, I greatly prefer the pace of NHLPA '93, which is the best in the series, but I understand why anyone prefer '94.

Great video, I just picked up Mutant league hockey, it's over the top and comical and fun, from the fights to the coach flipping out about the team's not scoring goals and letting the other team score a lot, I've never been huge for hockey games aside from on NES but mutant league hockey is good, I'll probably try some others on your list too.

Just started watching and love your content! I was saddened that NHL All Star Hockey 95 was in the F tier! Played it all the time as a kid, but was the only hockey game I owned!

dope video, outside of sega genesis I think 2 on 2 NHL Open Ice & NHL Hitz 2002 are my favorites

I do actually remember playing Hit the Ice in the arcades and it was much better than it looks on the Genesis

Your rank vids are great man! If you would do the football games that would be fantastic!

Jersey changes were amazing btw

You ranked NHL 96-97-98 all different rankings. They are the exact same games with maybe the signature moves that are in 97 & 98. Gameplay wise it's totally the same game.

I loved starting fights

Still have my NHL 96 sega copy. I loved how fast it was as a kid. It was kid crack for me in the 90's.

Wish the Sega CD version of NHL 94 was in here! I found it to be even better then the Cart Version! :)

Your first ranking is very decent although I’d probably rank 97 over 95 but 95 has that fantastic score at the menu screen and in-between periods.

The only hockey games I have on the Mega Drive (Eurooean here) are NHLPA '93, NHL 95 and NHL 97. Love them all, but I prefer 95 out of these three. I'm always on the lookout for other titles, but hockey is pretty much non-existent in my country so it's very uncommon to see hockey games 'out in the wild'. I saw 'Elitserien 95' on the Mega Drive, which is the Swedish league. Regret passing on it, that would have been an awesome obscure gem to have (I assume it's just a reskin of NHL 95) Thanks for helping me with deciding which ones to keep an eye out for and which ones to pass on. You're not that bad for a Bruins fan 😄 Also, awesome jersey collection. And LET'S GO PENS!

You hated Mario Lemieux for the same reason us 80's-90's Knicks fans hated Michael Jordan.

One of the first 32-bit versions of hockey I played was Power Play Hockey on the Sega Saturn. Maybe rank the 32-bit hockey games next?

You can put the speed in 98 to low. Way better

Hit The Ice me gusta mucho... (una pena q solo obtuviera una "F") pero admito q es por nostalgia, desconozco el resto de juegos de Hockey 🏒 pero luego de ver este top, intentaré conseguir alguno de los mejores nombrados aquí. Thanks for this video ^^

Massachusetts representin'! Newburyport, MA myself. Also, I have to say that with the sound a bit muted during game play footage, some of the crowd noise sounded like the elephants in Dhalsim's stage in Street Fighter II lol

NHLPA '93 & the NHL Series of games are the reason I am a rabid hockey fan to this day. I was at a party and my best friend enticed me to play with him. "I know nothing about hockey", I said. "Don't worry", he said. I'll give you the best team in the game. The best team that year?...the one that had Mario & Jaromir! Still a rabid PENGUINS fan! Go Pens! 🐧

I had written a response to this video not realizing you were strictly talking about sega genesis with that being said I agree with everything you said. Also from mass myself, go bruins !!

S: NHL 94, NHL 95, A: NHL 96, NHL 97, NHL 98 Wayne Gretzky game looks good, I need to try it.

Here in QC, NHL 94 on Sega Genesis was the killer app. Anyone had a Genesis had the game.

Great video, great walk down memory lane. I still play many of these games today and love 16 bit hockey! Thanks for sharing this video. NHL 98 gets a DQ from me simply because of the 2 line rule. NHL 95 is amazing, the only setbacks are the season mode has a horrible save glitch and the passing is atrocious. NHL 94 is pound for pound the greatest playing game of hockey of all time when it comes to the multiplayer aspect. It was a proven formula that wouldve only been better if it had a season mode. 93 was great for its time but it was obviously the stepping stone for 94. NHL 97 was horrible end of the day, if it was the only one you played back then, youd love it, but comparatively speaking, it was the most inferior on the ice, due to weak shots and passes and wonky animation, the devs treated 97 like a red headed step child. For me though, whether its nostalgia or playing these games almost 3 decades later, NHL 96 is IMO the best one ever made. The AI is tough on the mid and high difficulty levels compared to any other 16 bit hockey game and thats a good thing, goals arent always so easy to come by and cheap goals are almost non existent, which is also great for longevity. The speed of the game is just right and you still have the ability to set up plays and passes, you just have to be really good at the game and put in the time and if you do that it has the best payoff. NHL 96 is easy to pick up but takes time to master, its gameplay is deep and intertwined with the games movement. As far as the season mode with stat tracking, it is the 16 bit game with the greatest longevity when combined with its other pros, as unlike 95 there is no season breaking save glitch. NHL 96 was the last hoorah, coming from 94 and 95, 96 took the series to its pinnacle and the devs did it without using their resources on 32 bit consoles, 96 had their full attention and it shows still to this day!

ESPN Hockey Night; I have it, its fun, great game but I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish the camera was zoomed out, like in Mario Lemuix. I LOVE SIDE camera angles.... However... it really bums me that Mario has only a tournament mode, and no cumulative tournament stats. I'm very curious about Gretzky.. any season mode, stats? Good stuff.. btw my alltime EA fav is NHL 97. Love all the record keeping and stats. For sideway cam, my goto is ESPN but look an Gretzky or Mario for now. BTW.. one thing I like about ESPN; one-timers are not so easy, like in many others.

Have your ever played the European version of the original NHL Hockey on a Genesis. It's PAL optimized so it plays 20% faster on a NTSC console. My main gripe with that is actually the fighting (which everyone seems to love for some reason), it seems two fights (or more) break out every minute.

ESPN National Hockey Night reminded me of Tecmo Super Hockey which was an OK game. Bit harder to score in that one

I think we just became best friends. Dead on!!!!!!! Nice job

Hit the ice was cool in the arcade

I didn’t like the Mario game because of the penalties for fighting made no sense, I’m still trying to figure out what they were thinking with losing fighter gets a 3 minute penalty and then you had another fight and other side got a penalty, then a goal scored with 2 guys in box and a guy got out ? This doesn’t happen in hockey , it’s crazy. I love the old nhl games, what changed with me was in 94 one timers were introduced and that ability to preload made the action and control perfect and then in 95 they added more then sadly from 96 they lost it . I have 97 and 98 on Saturn and ps1 but controller of choice was Saturn and I loved 97 and 98 on Saturn when I was younger over ps1 but I have grown to learn that it was just a better series to play on ps1. Playing 1 game of a series and comparing I get what you are saying with speed, I think you need to play about 5-10 games to adapt and adjust to the speed. My scores would be close to yours but not exactly the same opinions on a lot of these, historically and game play wise

No Tecmo Super Hockey??

I had no idea that Mario Lemieux game for early Sega Genesis was so good. I vaguely remember playing it maybe around...1992. But by then I was enthralled with EA and probably didn't give it a fair shake. Then it just kind of faded from my memory bank. But watching the gameplay you posted here it was pretty darn good. I remember what Ulf did too and that injury led to a degenerative condition I believe where Cam could only play maybe every other game. But whenever he played he scored. 1994...scored 50 in less than 50 games. Sadly he was on borrowed time in terms of his career.

I love NHL 94 on Genesis but Ice Hockey on 8-Bit NES is still my all-time favorite. While it's not a 100% faithful translation of the sport, it's fast, exciting, and wildly addicting, especially in 2-player mode. Sorry, I realize this is a Genesis discussion but the hockey genre isn't exactly a behemoth.

I think nhl 95 got everything just right with game play. It was a little bit better than 94 with graphics and speed only thing the game lacked was a big one fighting was taken out..kinda ruined an otherwise perfect game

God… I can’t remember which game it was but I do remember around the early 90s myself and a friend were playing a hockey game on the Genesis and it got to a point where his player got into a fist fight with another player. I think it went into a side view and while he was fighting I was futzing around with my controller. In the background of the fight I saw my player zip past in the direction I was pushing. Suddenly I realized that I could control my player. We then spent the next 30 minutes trying to get to where I or he could interfere with the fight. The tough part was the limited view ya had to quickly and blind for the most part get your player into the right position. All of that in the quick amount of time the fights usually took before they ended. Finally it happened, he got into a fight and I luckily got my guy behind the opponent and I pressed to swing and he did hitting the opponent. I can’t remember what happened next because him and I were losing our minds we did it but most likely both his player and mine were benched in the penalty box. God I wish I could remember what game it was.

ngl I played Hit The Ice for months, seemed like an awesome game back in the day

I think NHL 97 and 98 were the first instances (in hockey at least, Madden had these as well) of the "roster update" release, where it's basically the same game as NHL 96 (or even 95 really, which included the season mode) but with updated rosters, for full price. I enjoy them, but I still pull down NHL 95 instead of 96, 97, or 98.

Just found your channel via John Hancock....great video. I prefer nhl94 myself. Where abouts in MA are you from? I'm from quincy and live in Tyngsboro now

Did he do a list of sega football games? I'm curious about that list

Just watched this vid again. great job. My rankings of EA games: 95 the Peak with season play, trades, create a player, you could play a full season as every team at once, controls are so tight, they changed the angle on ice that is jarring at first compared to the first 3 gams. No fighting 94 is the Populist pick, so much charm, the apex of that game engine with one-timers, but no season mode, trades etc hurt it. First time removed fighting 93 is the Hollywood Darling in Swingers, the blood and fighting, but no onetimers or manual goalie 92 Originator of this wonderful series, 96 Jockjams music as intro! was so pumped but game lost all it's charm from the following 4 iterations. Also could only play as one team in season mode and they had that 2 line pass 97 no jockjams not charm 98 cashgrab for kids who didn't get a ps1. but the mini games were cool. I think this one had special moves you could do like a lindros check with puck.

Mutant League Hockey is criminally underrated and is def the most fun of all the 16-bit hockey games. In terms of traditional hockey games, most people will say NHL 94 (with the Sega CD version in particular), but NHL 95 is my favorite. P.S. If NHL 95 had the fighting that they added in NHL 96, then it'd be perfect.

The NES version of Hit the Ice is way better, not the best but the concept is interesting. There's a complete version just laying around in the Gigaleak's email attatchments, and it's worth digging up because it is completely unlike the original arcade source.

I liked the comment about NHL 93, I hate it when something doesn’t pull it off all the way. I get grumpy all day then

NHL 96 (EA Sports) BEST EVER 🔥🔥🔥 Still playing in 2021 🤘😎

For me: 1. NHL 94 2. Mario Lemieux 3. Mutant League Great vid!

I’m sure 97 had the Skills as well.

I wish there were field hockey games too, as that sport is a lot more popular here.

Mutant league hockey is the holy grail of a sega hockey game. Loved playing this game with my cousin and also nhl 94 both very much great memories :)

NHL 94 is my favorite hockey game from this era which probably makes it my favorite hockey game of all time because of the roster. I still love modern hockey but the guys just aren't as cool as guys like Cam Neely, Adam Oates and Ray Bourque. I really wish there were 1970s NHL games because that would be awesome if you could play as Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Derek Sanderson (my favorite), Terry O'Reilly, Stan Jonathan and so many more guys from back then that I could list off the top of my head. My only problems with NHL 94 are that my team's goaltender is always a complete idiot that lets in almost every shot whereas the other team's goaltender is always Ken Dryden in 1971 and I have to turn offsides off or my teammates will almost always skate like madmen so they can cross the blue line half a second before I do. Also, what evil spirit possessed you and made you play as the Canadiens? And yeah, I hate the Penguins too. They're my second least favorite hockey team. They've always been full of pansy little crybabies like Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby and scumbags that take cheap shots like Ulf Samuelsson and Brooks Orpik. They're an affront to the greatest sport in the world. I hate the Penguins so much.

Well, I have to admit that I don't disagree with a lot on this tier list. I feel like the NHL series from 1996 to 1998 became interchangeable and really lacked a lot of sound ground improvement i.e. from NHL93 to NHL94 and from NHL94 to NHL95 when EA cared enough about the 16-bit games on both SNES and Genesis. One of my hidden gems was the ESPN National Hockey Night and you're right, it had no right to be as good as it was with the ESPN branding on it. My favorite thing about the game was the ability to flatten everyone, from the opposing winger, defenseman, and goalie to your own teammates lol. Fun stuff, and a fantastic video of the best sport and the games that graced the Genesis. BTW, a little interesting tidbit, "Mario Lemeiux Hockey" was entirely renamed as "Super Slapshot" on the SNES. I remember seeing the game known as Mario Hockey on Genesis and thinking this one looked similar to it, except in "Super Slapshot" you got to play as international and vague city named teams. Have to tell you, nothing better than working Team Egypt to a win over the mighty Team Canada! 😂😂🤣🤣

I put so many hours into Mutant League Football as a youngin'. The best strategy was to just kill all the opposing players and they would lose by lack of substitutions. I wish they made a good modern version of it.

Hit the Ice was a blast on arcade. Home ports, not so much.

I love how back in the day the guy who loses the fight gets the penalty.

Mutant league hockey deserves a sequel the way mutant league football got one. As a fan of the dungeons and dragons theme and hockey I think the game would be perfect if there was a create a team and create a player feature similar to NHL hitz franchise mode

NHLPA '93 best hockey game ever. Period. 😏

Idk about 97 but on 98 you can in the options change the game speed. My favorite is 95, cause it has the season mode finally. Although I concede 94 has the best gameplay.

NHL 95 really made you work to fool the goaltender. The forehand or backhand dekes physics were spot on. I agree, it was just a little too fast.

So what is the best nhl for the mega drive

NHLPA 93 a C is ridic man.

Keep spirit for upload broo...

NHL 96, NHL 94, NHL 98... but SNES are my reference, BUT I will take a look since I'm getting the games on GENESIS !!! Will get back on here Super Blood Hockey is now in my top 5

Not a Genesis game and not incredibly authentic, but the game play on NES Ice Hockey is actually legit incredible to this day. It's aged better than most 16 bit sports games. Talking just "Ice Hockey" not Blades of Steel which I think has not aged well.

NHL '96 for Genesis is the best 16 bit hockey game.