NHL 94

NHL 94 is an ice hockey game by EA Sports for the Genesis, Super NES, and Sega CD, as well as the first release for the PC (DOS), simply titled “NHL Hockey”, without the “94” in the title. The game is officially licensed from the National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association, and was the first game in the series to have both combined licenses.^[1] Being the third game in the NHL series media franchise, it was released in October 1993.^[2] NHL ’94 launched to critical acclaim, and it has since been referred to as both the greatest sports game of all time as well as one of the best games ever made.

Gameplay – NHL 94

The game maintained the series’ signature vertical camera angle, which offered the player distinct gameplay and strategic advantages over contemporary side-view hockey games, and kept the 2D sprite character models of NHLPA ’93 (albeit with some new animations). The team rosters and player attributes in the game reflect that of the 1993-94 season, and include the league’s two new expansion teams for that season, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now the Anaheim Ducks) and Florida Panthers.

Many improvements were made to the engine by EA between 1992 and 1993. Notably, NHL ’94 introduced the “one timer“, an authentic hockey move where a player shoots the puck directly off of a pass. NHL 94 also added the ability to save records,^[3] and has four modes: Exhibition Game, Playoffs, Best of Seven Playoffs, and Shootout.

There are no international teams, but both all-star teams are present. Also introduced were team-specific organ songs played at the start of periods and after goals—examples included the Hartford Whalers‘ trademark “Brass Bonanza“, “Halte-là! Les Canadiens sont là!” for the Montreal Canadiens, “When the Saints Go Marching In” for the St. Louis Blues, “The Sabre Dance” for the Buffalo Sabres, and the Chicago Blackhawks theme song “Here Come the Hawks“. “Birthday” by The Beatles is also featured as an organ song after a goal is scored.

Game modes – NHL 94

Exhibition Game
Stanley Cup Playoffs: Single Game Series
Stanley Cup Playoffs: Best of Seven Series
Shootout Mini-Game

Other versions – NHL 94

A version titled NHL Pro Hockey ’94^[a] was released in Japan for the Super Famicom which has all the important text in Japanese including the main menu, the actual hockey players, the secondary (end of period and post-game) menus, and the crowd meter. However, the passwords still use ASCII letters and numbers exclusively.

The National Hockey League had EA Sports remove fighting from the Sega CD version of the game.^[4]

The NHL 94 game engine was later used (albeit modified for extra violence) for EA’s Sega Genesis game Mutant League Hockey.^[5]

The game was included in the PlayStation 2 version of NHL 06. The port included was based on the Sega Genesis version, but lacks the official NHL rosters from the original title. Furthermore, the Hartford Whalers were known as the Hartford Canes in that version, as a nod to the team’s current name, the Carolina Hurricanes.^[3]

On July 11, 2013, it was announced that NHL 14 would include an NHL ’94 Anniversary Mode, celebrating the 20th anniversary of NHL ’94. It changes NHL 14 audiovisually and control-wise to resemble NHL ’94, using the teams and players from the 2013-2014 NHL season, alongside the music from the Sega Genesis version. It also changes other gameplay elements like including faster game speed and having relaxed game rules.^[6] It would later return in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of NHL 15, using the teams and players from the 2014-15 NHL season, and NHL: Legacy Edition, using the teams and players from the 2015-16 NHL season.