Do you want season stats, leauge leaders, the ability to trade players, the ability to create players, left handed players,
different camera angles, and a competitive computer goalie? If you answer yes, LEAVE NOW!, as NHL Powerplay '96 for
the Sega Saturn contains none of the above features. Despite being delayed for months Virgin did not add any of those
above features that were all missing at E3. What you have here with Powerplay '96 is the impressive gameplay engine
that every gaming magazine is giving perfect scores, without any of the basic features that all hockey games, wait, all
sports games should contain.
I can not understand how these features have been left out. No season stats, and league leaders. What? Come on
now, withought these two features, the replay value of a sports game flat out sucks. What is the incetive to play and
complete an entire season? There is none. No player trades. What are we supposed to do when our favorite team
trades a bunch of players? Play with the old ones. I don't know about you, but that is not acceptable. No left-handed players.
Huh? Talk about unrealistic. Who wants to play with a right-handed Wayne Gretzy? Not me. This was not acceptable
in the 16 bit generation, and will not be accepted in the 32 bit generation. I don't even want to talk about the goalie. Well,
I guess I should. He is easy, nuff said. Give him a deak to the left, he moves over, shoot to the right, you score at a
50% rate. I can forgive them for not using multiple camera angles, because the view used was simply perfect. While
the players may be small for some, it lets you see all of the action.
You may be asking yourself now, why has all the magazines given it such a great score? Well, if you can get over the
above flaws, this is the best Hockey game ever made. The graphics are better than any other, the players, although a
bit pixely, are animated greatly. The physics of the players' movements, the puck, checks, ect. are all displayed
brilliantly. This is the first hockey game to sport realistic offensive and defensive styles, and plays. You can actually
move the puck and play like real hockey, and the game can be extremely fun to play.
Another somewhat positive feature is the sound. The players movement, crowd noise, puck noise, and checks all
sound great. Most noticeably the sound of the puck hitting the side of the goal is excellent. Missing from the sound
is organ music, which is a part of most hockey games.
While the game's replay value is hurt by the lack of stats, player trades, and leauge leaders, Powerplay makes up some
of it with features like a World Tournament mode, which lets you battle it out with different countries from around the
globe.
Overall, NHL Powerplay is both the best hockey game ever made and the most dissappointing, as well. That may seem
like a contradiction, but if you play it you'll completely understand. Should you buy it? Despite the huge flaws, I don't see
any other hockey game that can compete with this, so you decide.
Overall: - 7/10