Genesis

Brett Hull Hockey 95

Excellent sounds and realistic bounces will make hockey purists take to this game. The game starts out slowly, but it grows on you. The mechanics of hockey, skating and passing are stressed. You can lay hard body checks at your opponents. It's an improvement over last year's effort. It still hard to score, but it is fun to play. Brett Hull fans will love this game.

The rest of the game's modes, options and extras mimics those found on the Super NES version. Sportscaster Al Michaels calls play-by-play, but he has a few too many pet phrases that he constantly repeats. Exhibition, playoff, seasonal and coaching play modes are featured, with the length of playoffs and seasons being adjustable. Other options allow you to toggle penalties, line changes and period duration.

On the Genesis, the rink is seen from a three-quarter angle, somewhat like Accolade's Pele! soccer games. The camera scrolls up and down the rink without any zooming effects. Both games feature well drawn graphics, but the Genesis players seem a bit sharper, probably since there's no scaling going on. The SNES game, however, has smoother and much more detailed animation, including some great goalie glove saves.

Pro hockey is a fast game, and unfortunately, the speed and control required to simulate this sport effectively have been sacrificed for the graphics. There are better rinks to play on.