Well, any classic Nintendo NES fan will know that, like other consoles, the NES has its own number of sports games, such as Slalom, and 10 - Yard Fight by Nintendo. There are even games from third parties such as Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl and Super Bowl. One in particular, Ice Hockey, is the one that I will be reviewing here. Starting off, you will notice the cartridge and box art are different than most Nintendo sports titles. Most come in the black boxes that we've all seen at one time or another. Strangely, Ice Hockey comes in a bright blue box with a picture of some random ice hockey player. This is the only Nintendo sports title that hasn't had the cartoony style characters on the box and cart.
Now, as you first boot up the game, you are treated to some quite cheerful music and some small hockey players on the screen. Like most NES games, Ice Hockey has the option of either 1 or 2 players. As you press start on the controller, you get a screen of several options. On this screen, you get to choose your team (USA, Canada, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Poland), your opponent's team, the speed of the game, and the length of the game, ranging from 7, 10, and 15 minutes. The last thing that you will set up before the game begins, is the setup of your team. You choose which type of players will be on your team. Once all of the options are selected, the match can begin.
As the game begins, you will start out at center ice to battle for the puck. The gameplay mostly relies on being able to pass the puck, shoot, and how you selected your team. From the get-go, none of the teams have a statistical advantage over the others. Before the game, each team has five players (a stocky player, 2 average players, and a skinny player). The stocky players are the best at shooting and bowling over other players (which is pretty entertaining), the average players are average all around, and finally, the skinny ones are the fastest but tend to be the ones that get bowled over the most often. Also, each team has a goaltender as well. The controller only controls the player that is selected, but it will also control the goaltender no matter which one is selected. Fights can also ensue, and will continue until the ref stops it and sends the starter to the penalty box. Goals can be kind of hard to achieve at times, but when you do score one, it is damn satisfying! One other thing to note is that, when the game is paused, the pause sound is the same pause sound from Super Mario Bros.!
As you can see, this is one of the greatest sports titles to be released on the NES, and is personally one of my favorite nes games of all time. I'll give this game a 9/10
 Ahh yeah baby feels good to be back in style with features that aren't crapily thrown together. This time, they are actually somewhat decent and will keep me from losing my position as a features writer. So all you people out there who hate me and my sarcasm and jackass attitude, hi.
Moving on, it's Mario sports week! Ahh yeah baby. Perhaps the most fun sports games of all are the Mario sports games, so why not celebrate in style by throwing a fiesta! Go round up some illegal immigrants and have them party with you! Have them play some Mario Tennis with you or maybe even make a Mario pinata and break it with them! Ahh yeah this is going to be one hell of a week if you do that.
Ehh hem, moving on seriously, I hate getting down to the business and doing what I'm actually supposed to be doing, the featured game is Mario Hoops 3 on 3. I like it, in fact I liked it enough to include decimals in the damn score. Any collaboration with Square Enix and Nintendo is good in my book, except like some crappy game where Peach gets captured and you play as Cloud Strife to stop whoever the final boss is in any Dragon Quest game with Cloud bitching the entire freaking game. That would probably suck. Anyway, the featured image is Mario Golf for the N64. I love that game. If you don't, you aren't American, and if you aren't American, then hi. Next the featured hardware is the wii remote, or the wiimote. Anyway it puts an interesting spin on Mario Soccer. Finally the featured collection is Magewout's because he won the 'Shimra randomly selects a user to be featured' contest. Congrats bud, congrats.
As always keep it tuned to Channel 3.
 Generally within the collecting community, sports games receive very little attention or credit and are more often than not considered worthless. Also it's a genre that just about everyone has represented in their collection. Yet it rarely shows up on top lists and "best game" lists. So this weeks "List 'em", we send a little Channel 3 love to those games that are often overlooked, but loved nevertheless.
Here's mine in no particular order:
- Links 2004 (Xbox) - I've played this series of golfing games since PC's still had Turbo buttons on them, but for some reason this one really sticks out. The ease of control with a dual-analog, the menus, graphics, sound, custom soundtracks and customization of your character's clothing and skills makes this a well rounded game. Playing this with friends can be both challenging and very fun and it has a very deep single player experience. Also of note is the amount of quality downloadable content this game has which can significantly increase it's playability.
- NHL 2K2 (Dreamcast) - Besides it being the last North American Dreamcast game released which gives it a bit of status, it also raised the bar on how good a non-EA NHL game could be. This game just does everything right while looking good and sounding good when doing it. I love many hockey video games from many different systems, but this one stands out not only for the reasons I've stated, but also because it plays so well and has depth without complicated controls or a steep learning curve.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast) - There's been many of these games in the Tony Hawk series over the years but 2 is always the one I come back to. I think the levels that are specific to this game plus it's soundtrack are what puts it a bit higher on my list than say TH 3 or 4. Even though it was initially the Playstation version I played so much of, the Dreamcast one with it's better resolution and texturing is easier on the eyes and I like the DC pad a lot more.
- NBA 2K (Dreamcast) - Surprise!! Another Dreamcast game! I think looking back, the Dreamcast was indeed the sports game successor to the Sega Genesis even though it had fewer titles to choose from. NBA Jam: TE comes really close but NBA 2K just has that special something about it that attracts a gamer like me who doesn't play, watch or otherwise have anything to do with the actual sport. Great game and can be had for cheap, also fun to play even if you don't know basketball's rules or court strategy.
- Triple Play 2000 (Playstation) - Baseball to me is even less interesting than basketball, yet I play and even enjoy this game. I enjoy it enough for it to earn a place among my list above the other 9 hockey games I own from various systems. It's easy to play, has a simple interface and doesn't complicate me with all kinds of rules and terms I have no clue as to what they mean. Simply put, I can sit down and enjoy this game without being a fan of the sport.
Runner's up: A tie between NHL 2004 (PC) and NHL 2K6 (Xbox 360). For over 76 years the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had broadcast a show every week called Hockey Night in Canada across the country, 55 of those years have been on television. The fun of PC games is that you can get your hands dirty and modify files and such. When NHL 2004 came out, I changed the theme to "The Hockey Theme " which has been the theme for Hockey Night In Canada since 1968. Wikipedia's section on that theme doesn't exaggerate, every Canadian born or living since 1968 has heard that song whether they like or watch hockey at all. So you can imagine how awesome it was to have that song on a NHL game for a Canadian.
NHL 2K6 also has a HNIC connection. The commentators in the game (Bob Cole and Harry Neale) have been the voice of HNIC broadcasts since I was a kid, and although their first time voice acting was a bit stiff, it still holds plenty of nostalgia and an atmosphere unlike any other hockey game I've played. To top it off, the Canadian cover of the game has Mats Sundin, my favorite current player and Captain of my favorite team the Toronto Maple Leafs. That alone would have assured it a place among my collection.
So now it's your turn my fellow RFGener's, post away!
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