Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Released: 1988 Genre: Sports
Believe it or not Blades of Steel was my introduction to Hockey. Growing up Hockey was not really shown on local television like the NFL or NBA so it always seemed like some foreign sport. Konami’s arcade classic brought the right blend of arcade gameplay with sim tactics that a complete newbie like myself could pick it up quickly. And unlike Double Dribble it has held up, although Blades of Steel is not the game you go to for stats and such. But that is okay.
Blades of Steel originally released in the arcade in 1987. It quickly built up a reputation for its fast pace, large amount of sampled speech, and for its fighting mode. All of that has been brought over largely intact for the NES port with some caveats. The voice samples in Blades of Steel are of mixed quality. The title and “Face-off” are clear enough. But the one that still causes confusion to this day is “Get the Pass”. In game it sounds like any number of phrases; for the longest time I thought the game said “fight the pass” which is stupid but whatever. That the game had so many phrases to begin with is impressive in itself for the time no matter how garbled they sounded.
You are presented with a few options from the start. Exhibition is a single match against a team of your choice. Tournament can be played at the junior, college, or pro level. It’s a fancy way of saying easy, normal or hard difficulty. Depending on the level you will play a short season against 3,5, or all 8 teams for the Stanley Cup. Blades of Steel is not a licensed title so it uses generic names from the United States and Canada.
Once on the ice Blades of Steel is an incredibly simple game. There are no sim elements whatsoever. All team members are exactly the same meaning you won’t have to juggle players based on skill. Hell there are not any differences between teams outside of colors! That keeps the focus on the action. The pace of Blades of Steel is incredibly fast yet the game does a good job of helping you keep up. For the most part it will automatically switch control to the nearest defender if you don’t have the puck. Steals and checks don’t exist either. It sounds incredibly limiting yet the game remains compelling for a number of reasons.
Although you can’t manually check players you can bump into them. A hard bump will send them flying and give you possession of the puck. Bump in to the same player three times in a row will initiate fisticuffs. Mashing the buttons can knock a defender on their ass or if it goes on long enough initiate a fight. This is what everyone remembers Blades of Steel for. The game shifts to a side view like Urban Champion as you block and trade blows. The loser sits in the penalty box for two minutes, leaving their team down a player on the ice. Fighting happens semi regularly adds flavor to what would otherwise be a generic Hockey title.
Depending on the difficulty level the computer AI is either a pushover or incredibly aggressive. At the pro level you can expect to get in fights every twenty or so seconds which is ridiculous. The game’s arcade simplicity hurts its longevity in the long run. The lack of most of Hockey’s rules means the game devolves into bumping off the AI back and forth with the occasional shot at the goal. Despite the game’s quick pace the twenty minute long periods are still grueling. Without unique player or team stats the tournament cannot hold your attention as every match is literally the same. But at least the game does not have a hot spot like Double Dribble that makes every game trivial.
In Closing
Blades of Steel is one of the few NES sports games that has held up. Don’t come to it for a deep simulation. Quick, pick up and play gameplay is where it excels. There is a reason this is a classic within the NES library and while arcade hockey titles have grown since it can still entertain for a brief time.
