Stanley Cup Finals are in full swing this weekend and we couldn’t help ourselves looking at a few old school arcade hockey classics.

It would easy to just post something about air-hockey and Super Chexx (bubble hockey). Those two would make solid articles, but we wanted to look at the often overlooked arcade classics.

Hit The Ice totally fits that special little space in our hearts for awesomeness.

It’s four player hockey mayhem at it’s finest. Few arcade games could match Hit The Ice when it came to gathering up 3 of your buddies at an arcade or going toe-to-toe with folks you didn’t know and didn’t want to know.

Controls are simple. Pass and shoot. Press them together for a check to the face or some other violent form of fun-ness. The game is called “Hit The Ice” and that’s what you do. You kick, punch, hit with stick or whatever to get your opponent down.

There’s really not a lot of dynamic, but who cares?! Okay…there are some depth items. You can pick your players: goalie and two others who play forward/defense. Plug in more cash and you get to buy one Power Drink (aka: instant steroids). Once you get the “juice” take a shot from anywhere. Anywhere. You’ll send the puck and goalie flying into the netting.

Problem with the “juice”? Your dude will be slow…dog slow for a while when he comes down.

Basic game is simple. Shoot the puck and get it away from the other guy. That’s it. If you’re playing full 2-on-2, someone will have to control the goalie on each side. If you’re playing solo, you’ll have goalie control with movements shared by the goalie and the guy you’re controlling.

It might sound a bit dicey, but it comes of in a fun way. It doesn’t matter much though. You’re not going to get any shut-outs. It’s all about hitting and over-the-top scoring.

This game was a quarter-monger to the core. You only paid for a few minutes of play time: 2-3 minutes depending on how generous the arcade was. You couldn’t actually buy a full game though. One full 3 period game was bound to cost you a few bucks at the least.

One of the highlights of Hit The Ice were the fights. You can hit your opponents anytime. Even after a goal! Hit them enough (after the goal is they score is the key) and you’ll get a few fights going. It’s pure button mashing. Press enough or more than the other guy and you knock him out of his sweater. Not enough and your face looks like an uncooked, three day old hamburger.

Fun doesn’t aptly describe Hit The Ice. It’s classic fun that keeps you coming back. I sat and played a whole 3 periods feeding virtual quarters into an emulated session and I still wanted more. After years of being just a memory, its still got it and that’s pretty awesome to me.

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