ST Format


International Ice Hockey

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Impulze
Machine: Atari ST

 
Published in ST Format #23

International Ice Hockey

Another sports game gets the ST treatment - this time brutal Ice Hockey, played with American rules. The game is a standard one or two player simulator with a slanted angle viewpoint.

At the start of the game a menu enables you to set play options. When you play against your ST, you can choose from three skill levels, corresponding to the three different leagues you can play in. You can also set how fast the players turn, as well as play the three periods of the game for either two, five or the full 20 minutes.

You can customise your own team and then save them to disk for later use. You can alter the way you control your player by switching between different modes. A strategy section enables you to set the formation of the team.

The graphics in Ice Hockey are the wrong side of bland. The very peculiar viewpoint makes it extremely difficult to see what's happening around the pitch. Scrolling is smooth, but the players tend to perform peculiar movements when there's a lot happening. There are a few nice touches which look very "Cinemaware"-like - the commentator at the beginning of the match for instance.

Gameplay is solid but it's difficult to get excited about what's happening because of the difficulty in getting any kind of fluid movement with the players. Your score owes more to luck than skill and this definitely isn't what you want from a sports simulator. The game looks and plays like a bad budget title.