NHL 94 Rewind

[newmodelarmy]

Happy New Year to you all. Well I cannot resist a PSN sale so I picked up NHL 21/NHL94 Rewind for $30 as part of the PSN Holiday Sale. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to be able to play NHL 94 with updated rosters on the PS4. What could go wrong? Well, how about the speed? When I started playing I thought for sure it was a setting issue but alas, there is no way to adjust the speed of the game. The game plays as if the players are skating in mud instead of on ice. After playing a few games and pretending I was enjoying it I thought "maybe it was not as fast or fluid as I remember". So, I fired up my modded Sega Genesis Mini and played NHL 94 on that and sure enough, that version played just like I remembered it. Very fast and fluid. Needless to say NHL 94 Rewind is a complete disappointment. Has anybody else played this? Am I missing something? I hope I am otherwise I would not recommend this version of NHL 94, you are not missing anything.

[VideoGameCritic]

I remember having the same basic experience with the "rewind" edition when I played it over a friend's house a few years back. It was probably NHL 14 which would have been the 20th anniversary. It had the controls and sound effects of the old 94 game, but not the graphics or gameplay. Kind of misleading. Kids playing this today must think NHL 94 stinks!

[newmodelarmy]

I remember having the same basic experience with the "rewind" edition when I played it over a friend's house a few years back. It was probably NHL 14 which would have been the 20th anniversary. It had the controls and sound effects of the old 94 game, but not the graphics or gameplay. Kind of misleading. Kids playing this today must think NHL 94 stinks!

My guess is they used the same engine, just updated the rosters. I have not checked out NHL 21 yet, hopefully that is better. If and when I want to play NHL 94, I will stick to my modded Sega Genesis Mini.

[Lucifixion]

For those who wish to play with updated rosters, there exist ROM hacks. I've downloaded a few and they even work on a flashcart with original Genesis hardware. You are, however, at the mercy of the hacker's choices regarding player ratings. The cool thing is that they've even included all current franchises as back in 1994 there were maybe 26 teams as opposed to 31 now. No Columbus, no Vegas, no Coyotes (still Winnipeg), no Nashville, no Colorado (still Quebec Nordiques), no Carolina (stil Hartford) and no Minnesota (moved to Dallas, 2000 saw Minnesota regain a team in the Wild). That said, the original player ratings were also highly debatable. Biggest gripe with NHL 94 that has yet to be addressed (to my knowledge) is there is no fighting. In a year when my team had acquired Tie Domi, this is a huge loss.