Now it is ice hockey, in this slapshot review on the MSX. A game from Anirog so the expectations are set high.
My experience is that ice hockey games have a challenge to obtain that feeling. If I remember right it was on the Sega Mega Drive with Elitserien, a conversion of NHL, that I firstly felt that an ice hockey game can be fun.
But now it is Slapshot on the MSX we are playing. To start with I must say that the graphics are really poor. When you come close to your opponent the players just blend into eachother. They are constantly flickering and that is really annoying.
The steering has many options but it is lacking that prescision I wish from a sportsgame. Maybe it is to much to ask when playing these old games. This giving a sensation of a hard to play game. And knowing that you need to play three periods gives you panic. So when that occurs I end playing and start looking for a new game to play.
Will look for some more ice hockey games to review to check if there is a good one out there?
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Our Playability Rating
In the Magazines
Ice hockey is one of the roughest and most demanding of the team sports. It requires courage, determination plus a lot of skill. To play Slapshot, Anirog’s version of ice hockey, players will also need some measure of these characteristics as it isn’t easy for the newcomer to play successfully straight away. In fact we found it quite difficult to master, but like many sports simulation games, once you get the hang of the necessary techniques, they are great fun especially if you play with a friend.
A large ice hockey rink is displayed on the screen surrounded by a rather strange assortment of onlookers. The screen isn’t large enough to hold the whole pitch so only the bits where the action is taking place are shown. Anirog has tried to keep the game as close to the real rules as possible and has divided the game into three minute periods. These periods are timed together with a score display. If you are playing the computer, the player takes charge of the team in green shirts and after the bully off — you have to be quick because the computer controlled team doesn’t hang around — you can do all sorts of things to try and take or even keep control of the puck.
Match – 1st period Slapshot
Methods available in the program are to outskate the opponent, manoeuvre across his path or intercept a pass or check (knock into) the player. It is possible to pass the puck from player to player in a number of directions and at several different speeds. Bumping into the opponents too roughly constitutes a foul, but you can control the strength with which you check. Controlling your players with the keyboard isn’t easy as you have to use the letter keys — very fiddly! If you have a good responsive joystick, you will probably find it much easier. It’s a pity the programmer didn’t incorporate a cursor-key alternative for the ham-fisted! Every goal is cheered by an enthusiastic crowd and is accompanied by a replay.
The players then all return to the centre of the rink for another play off. Slapshot’s graphics are not the most sophisticated we’ve ever seen, in fact they are quite crude. But it is just about possible to see what the players are trying to do when they check each other, intercept a pass and so on. Slapshot is a fairly good implementation of a ice hockey game, but the quality of the graphics did irritate us especially when you compare them with the likes of Konami’s sport simulation games.
From MSX Computing Issue 12 in 1985
On the Covers
This is a very different cover compared to the fantasy covers that Anirog are known for. This time they offer us a “real” situation from a presumed ice hockey game. Anirog, you don’t convince me! The goalie has some action and coolness but is so destroyed by the two players in face off. Have you ever seen a more staged picture? It is so unatural, and it is so unreal. If I would guess thay have added three different shots into one. This is in my opinion one of the less creative covers from Anirog.
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Cover Rating
Slap shot is a fast-action, one or two player ice hockey game. The rules are the same as in any ice hockey game. There are 3 three minute periods in the game. To score you must take and maintain possession of the puck, skate down ice to your opponent’s goal and shoot the puck into the net. Your opponent will attempt, to steal the puck from your player in the following ways by out-skating you, manoeuvring across your path, intercepting a pass or by “chocking” the player.
The puck, can be passed from player to player in a number of directions and at varying speeds, It is also possible to control the strength of a bodycheck on your opponent: however, you will be penalized for unnecessary roughness if you check too aggressively.
Ice Hockey is an international sport recognised as one of the roughest and most demanding of team sports. But more than brute strength is needed to excel at this game. Strategy, skill and quick reflexes combine to create winning plays. You too can enjoy the challenge and excitement of ice hockey with this realistic program that puts you “on the ice’ Controls; joystick or Keyboard.
