Back when NHL was on Fox with puck cams, shooting streak tails, rocket sound effects, and glowing pucks, someone thought it was a good idea to make an over the top hockey game.

At first glance, you may have thought the screen shot from NBA Jam. Nope. It’s from Jam’s (better in my opinion) hockey twin: Open Ice. the full proper name being 2-on-2 Open Ice Challenge, but we all just call it Open Ice.

If you’ve played NBA Jam, then this title is totally familiar to you. Controls, presentation, everything is exactly like NBA Jam’s over-the-top spectacular fun, just with guys on skates, on ice, and with sticks and a puck.

You get the picture.

Turbo, shoot and pass. Three buttons, nothing fancy. Don’t be looking at making a deke move here. It’s hockey boiled down to hitting and shooting. Passing is a last option when you’re about to be mugged. Otherwise, you skate, jam the turbo button and watch the superstars fly.

They’ll turn into screen filling giants to take a super shot. Other crazy moves include spinning into a razor-blade ridden ball or ice-burning super spin moves before letting a ripper of a shot go.

Catch fire (unlimited turbo) by making awesome assists, super shots, and super checks to fill up your heat meter. Unlike Jam, you can’t get on fire just by making 3 goals in a row. Once the heat meter is filled, you have to score. You’ll be rewarded with a flaming goal and unlimited turbo with the announcer saying “He’s On Fire!!!”.

And you feel on fire or like a goat. You’ll see it too. Appropriate black and white little movies play in the scoring box (baby sucking on thumb, guy getting launched on a rocket). Charming.

It’s not all about scoring though. You can’t really control the goalie, but check the opposition into submission and you’ll give your goalie easier stops. Do enough of ‘em and you’ll watch your goalie start building a brick wall and he’ll soon stop everything.

It’s all about fun and presentation here and this game’s got it. Stats and just the feeling of being on ice somehow gets conveyed really well.

Maybe it’s the use of digitized players, but the Jam formula comes off without a hitch on the ice. 3 periods of fun usually cost about 2 bucks, so it wasn’t a cheap game.

With NBA Jam getting a rebirth, why not Open Ice? Unfortunately, unless hockey gets to be more popular, Open Ice will never get a remake. It’s a shame though. This is fun.

Between Hit The Ice at Open Ice, I really don’t know which one’s better. They’re equally fun and both worth a whirl. Track ‘em down if you are able and discover hockey’s fun personality.

Oh…unlike the NHL, Open Ice has got tons and tons of scoring. Expect your games to go into 20+ goals combined. Oh yeah…it’s awesome!

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