It’s only fair to look at at NHL ‘95 for SNES. We did the same yesterday for the Genesis title, but be warned…it’s not pretty. If there ever was a reason to dislike the yearly release of sports titles or even pan poor quality gaming that basically is a mask for a roster update (and more cash), NHL ‘95 for any console (and especially SNES) is that title.

There are only two things going for it and updated rosters isn’t one of them.

Right off the bat, you know this title is sucky compared to the previous version. Menu and initial presentation is nothing more than a blue screen background. That’s it. Nothing else.

The scoreboard even looks like crap. If you look at it in passing, you’d swear that a kid programing in Hypercard put it together.

I did say there were two things going for this game. One, the scoring is much more tight in this version and goal-tending has more moves and slicker animation than in NHL ‘94. That means, more exciting games and no swiss-cheese AI goalie. “The Move” is here, but one-timers play a much larger role and you can pull it off slightly easier now.

Two, the players fly. The ice surface in this game must be below absolute zero and the players all wear super-conductor magnet skates, because the laws of friction are almost non-existent. That means the action is fast and furious. The AI takes advantage of the bonus speed and you’ll find faster back-checks and more players on-screen than in previous versions of the NHL series.

Even if you turn on line-changes, which means your players will get tired, they’re hyper fast for a few minutes of in-game time and then they drop off. The problem is, this initial burst of speed with the ticked-up in-game clock, while accurate to real life, means your guys get an almost super human like speed for 5 seconds in real life and then they wear down.

It is the equivalent of virtual players sniffing meth before hitting the ice and having it wear out and crash ‘em down. Sort of freaky in play. It does add to the fun factor significantly, but ups the creep factor equally.

Unfortunately, few of the presentation qualities that made NHL ‘94 what it was came along into NHL ‘95. It’s like they just left it out. The crowd is much less animated and even player animations, while there are more of them, are less fluid.

Coupled with the super slicky and over responsive controls, and you’ve got a game that’s fun to play for a little bit, but will leave you wanting for a little more meat. NHL ‘94 is hands-down the better title.

Still, if you hadn’t purchased NHL ‘94 back then and just getting into hockey, NHL ‘95 was the title you probably (mistakenly) went with. Back in the day, you probably didn’t know better either unless someone on the playground made you aware of your ill advised purchase.

The most disappointing part of NHL ‘95 on SNES is that it doesn’t even come close to the Genesis version. In terms of crappiness, this is the more crappy title going head-to-head. That’s sad, considering NHL ‘95 on Genesis was equally bad.

I don’t even have any fond memories of NHL ‘95, except for the rental from Blockbuster and me feeling like a schmuck for wasting 5 bucks on it. Don’t bother even hunting for this one today, NHL ‘94 is much more worthy of your time than this bit-bin bound piece of coded junk.

Go Sabres!

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