Brett Hull Hockey

One of the NHL's premiere superstars, St. Louis Blues right-winger Brett Hull, is lacing 'em up for a new team -- Accolade. Brett Hull Hockey for the SNES plays with as much flash and style as its famous namesake, but this game doesn't quite qualify for the Stanley Cup.

Stats Now!

There's good news right away -- Hull's brought all the NHLPA players with him, making these some of the most complete rosters you'll ever see. The stats, compiled after last year's season had ended, are accurate and up to date. In fact, both expansion teams for '93-'94 (Anaheim and Florida) are included. The only things missing are real NHL team names, but you get real cities and accurate jersey colors.

In-Your-Face Hockey

Hull offers a great variety of options and modes. You can practice your skills in an Exhibition, compete in Tournament Mode, or go all-out in adjustable-length Season Play. Unfortunately, you can't play in just a Trophy Tournament, you have to play the whole season and try to qualify. Thankfully, the game has some nifty customizing options, though, such as team roster editing and line changes. However, it would've been better if you could set the computer to automatically make line changes for you.

Hull introduces a superb new visual Mode 7 perspective that bears a strong resemblance to Nintendo's acclaimed NCAA Basketball. The floating camera looks down on the 3D rink, enabling you to see superb depth and detail. The animation is very slick, and the screen movement is surprisingly fast and fluid. There are no problems with the screen moving too quickly or too slowly and obstructing your view of the action.

One minor flaw is in the shading of the on-screen icons, so that it's hard to tell when your player takes the puck. You occasionally find yourself breaking down the ice with nothing but a stick coated with ice shavings. This really is minor, though, compared to the biggest graphic annoyance -- the generic blue field that attempts to pass for a crowd. It doesn't.

Doin' the Hockey Pokey

Your skater's moves are pretty good. You get Wrist Shots and Slapshots (in two degrees of strength), plus Body Checks and Poke Checks. Your goalie's got lots of fancy moves, too, and he can be controlled by the CPU or by you. You'll find, though, that there aren't as many moves and dekes in this game as in NHL Hockey '94. What's worse, the cumbersome controls aren't as responsive as they should be. The skating is natural, but manipulating the selected player can be problematic. For instance, the Pass button on offense is different from the Change Players button on defense, which really throws you off kilter.

In Hull, you can only play with up to two players -- you can't go five via the Multitap, which is NHL's strongest feature. While Hull gives you true-to-life fights, strategies, penalties, and shootouts, you don't quite get the thrills of NHL '94's One-Timers, it's awesome crowd details, its constant network updates, and its generally more exciting game play.

That Rallying Cheer

One area where Hull rules is in sound. Hull's audio is absolutely superb and presents some of the best effects heard in a sports game! A1 Michaels is the banner attraction, and he pours forth a fairly diverse running commentary with phrases such as "He just leveled him!" You'll hear an occasional garble and lag, but overall the voices sound clean. The deep- horn music is impressive, and there are plenty of sound effects and crowd chants.

Sudden Death?

Hull is a top-notch hockey game that all fans should place in their starting lineup. However, while Hull moves fast and has innovative graphics and sound, this game is not as polished as NHL Hockey '94 for the SNES, and it's nowhere close to the all-around 16-bit Stanley Cup winner, NHL '94 for the Genesis. Unlike its real-life counterpart, Brett Hull Hockey will be on center ice most of the time, but it may be spending a few minutes in the box.

Accolade's first foray into the ice rink is scheduled to hit the shelves this month. Brett Hull Hockey, for Genesis and SNES, is an ambitious mix of digitized live action and detailed play-by-play commentary from ABC sportscaster Al Michaels.

With a vertically scrolling perspective similar to Ea's NHLpa Hockey '93, Hull features bigger characters and a behind-the-player view (instead of NHLpa's three-quarter, top-down look). The advantage to Hull's view is you can see almost all the ice, so hitting a breaking winger with a long pass becomes a possibility.

Realistic features abound, including instant replay, the ability to select and change line settings, and a wide range of penalties. Both SNES and Genesis versions have save-game options.

An edit-team screen lets you set your lines with the players you prefer and even change your team's ability rating in any of six categories.

The play modes include exhibition, 11-game short season, half season, full season, playoffs, and an all-star skills competition.

We haven't seen a finished cart yet, but with an NHL Players' Association license behind it, Brett Hull seemingly has it all. There's more to a high quality sports games than good looks, and the producers at Accolade seem to have taken that into account when putting together this simulation.

To invoke the feelings of the popular sport of hockey, you can try Brett Hull Hockey. It is an intense simulation of everyone's favorite violent ice sport.

Brett Hull Hockey has a unique point of view, never before seen in a hockey game. Similar to the view shown in the Madden games, you get the feeling of looking over the rink. Extensive options let you have complete control over your characters. Digitized players are also shown to enhance the realism. Al Michaels is the announcer of the game, and his voice is smooth. Other neat features include fights, players getting fatigued, and penalties. Brett Hull Hockey is a realistic simulation that shouldn't be missed.

Let us get ready for some hard hitting, cross checking, two player hockey action. In this fast-paced game, enjoy listening to play by play, announcements from the great Al Michaels. Listen for Brett Hull and all other players announced with their jersey numbers. With this game, you have the choice between Exhibition mode, Regular season, and playoff mode. Before beginning the game, you have the option to turn on or off the music, sound effects, and last choice is the pre-game coaching mode. This is a high scoring action packed sports junkie’s heaven. Awesome graphics to go along with the game makes it that much more life like. This game was developed by Radical Entertainment, Published by Accolade Inc. This game is compatible with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Mega Drive platforms.

One of the brightest spots on Accolade's schedule of upcoming releases is this speedy "Mode 7" hockey game. Though many of the game's features are still up in the air, it's expected to be a 16-megabit cartridge, with a considerable amount of that memory used to store the digitized voice of announcer Al Michaels.