Ice Hockey brings the sport to the Famicom Disk System and NES.
It proved to be very popular, until Konami successfully stole the spotlight from Nintendo months later.
Build Dates#
Present at A13D in the Japanese ROM and 7FF0 in the US and European ROMs. Similar text is present in Super Dyna'mix Badminton, another Pax Softnica game.
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Japan/US |
Europe |
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Version Differences#
Ice Hockey was first released in Japan on January 21, 1988 for the Famicom Disk System. The game would later be released for the NES a few months later in the US and Europe.
Note that Ice Hockey was also released for the FamicomBox which uses the NES version. The FDS version is playable in Animal Crossing: New Horizons in all regions.
Teams#
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FDS |
NES |
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Japan was replaced with Sweden. The first two teams in the lineup were also swapped so USA appears first.
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FDS |
NES |
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Despite this, the player types for the CPU teams (pictured on the right-hand side of the screen) weren't edited to reflect this change.
Music#
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FDS |
NES |
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The main game music was completely redone. Interestingly, the Ice Hockey microgame in WarioWare: Twisted! uses the FDS theme in all regions.
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FDS |
NES |
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The jingle that plays after a goal is scored was changed to the traditional victory theme usually heard in real-life ice hockey matches. Interestingly, the FDS jingle can still be heard in NES Remix 2 as part of the main theme.
Ending#
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FDS |
NES |
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The ending screen, accessible by beating all 6 teams in a row on the maximum speed setting, had its rather awkward grammar revised.
In case you're wondering, the "secret tricks" referenced are:
- Holding A+B on both controllers and then pressing Start on the title screen will remove the goalies.
- Holding A+B on both controllers and then pressing Start on the team selection screen will prevent the puck from being slowed down by friction.