Published by 1995 by Electronic Arts, NHL Hockey is an officially-licensed ice hockey game featuring real players and teams from the North American National Hockey League. It was developed by High Score Productions and Realtime Associates.

The game takes an overhead, scrolling viewpoint of the field, with teams represented by five outfield players and one goalie. The aim, of course, is to score more goals than your opponent.

NHL Hockey is a game that wouldn’t have been that popular in my own country (the UK), but in North America (the USA and Canada) it would’ve been huge. And, since the game features digitised portraits of real players and real team logos, that gave it the edge over its competitors.

NHL Hockey plays great too. Ice hockey is a simple game that translates well to video games – even handheld ones, like this.

Note: NOT to be confused with NHL All-Star Hockey by Sega, also released in 1995, which is a completely different game.

More: NHL Hockey on Moby Games