Play NHL - Emulator Online
The Best NHL Games Online Free
Despite featuring on NES, the simply titled ‘Ice Hockey’ is surprisingly complex with plenty of options in both setting up your team, tactics and playing the game. The cartoony graphics are nice and of course, you can get into the odd brawl. This is one of the best 8-bit sports and NES games ever.
But the NES didn’t have just one great ice hockey game, it had the much better sounding, Blades of Steel too. This had better graphics, even better fighting, some great sound and even a really cool shoot-em-up mini game during the intermission. Featuring the full line-up of six players per team and a NHL style tournament you’ll be playing this for a very long time. It’s my personal favourite ever ice hockey game.
Maybe you want something a bit different from Ice Hockey? Well fans of Mutant League Football will no doubt love Mutant League Hockey for the SEGA Mega Drive! Swap the humans out for robots, skeletons and trolls and include exploding pucks, holes in the ice and land mines, and you get some kind of idea what this game is all about. This speedy game has a, unsurprisingly, big focus on the fights and players often ‘die’ with their bodies left on the ice.
Entering the 16-bit era for SNES is Brett Hull Hockey on SNES. The graphics look fantastic with the use of Mode 7 and there’s an abundance of teams and playing options. Coaching and tactics is now a much bigger part of the game and real-life ice hockey fans will love these parts of the game.
Next up was NHL 94, a new high for ice hockey games at the time, with more realism, including the first use of the ‘one timer’ – being able to shoot first time from a pass – and just a perfect overall presentation with the NHL license. Each year’s new version of the game kept improving until NHL 98 which felt like the peak of graphics, smooth gameplay and enjoyment.
Wayne Gretsky was the first name in Nintendo 64 ice hockey games but soon enough a new challenger came along in NHL 99. Now the NHL game felt like a real simulation, with perhaps the season mode giving players the biggest options, especially in the way of management. You could be in total control of every aspect of your team. There’s even a create-a-player option too!
Lastly we have the Nintendo DS game Backyard Hockey. Don’t be fooled by the title though because this is an officially licensed NHL game with all 30 NHL teams available, as well as some of the players (in child form). There’s also plenty of play features here, again including season play but also a Play Now option which drops the player straight into a game. There’s a few mini games added, the highlight being the classic table top air puck game. The DS style gives this a completely different feel to other ice hockey games mentioned.
Myemulator will feature more and more of these great ice hockey games, so whether you’re a fan of the sport or not, there’s still a game or two here that you can’t fail to enjoy!