Super Blood Hockey is an arcade sports game that took inspiration from Ice Hockey on the NES. It is more violent and has way more features. This is a solid arcade sports game, and it is really fun to play!
There are a lot of similarities to Ice Hockey on the NES. The rules are practically non-existent, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It feels like a hybrid of Ice Hockey and Mutant League Hockey.
I picked this game up a while ago on the Nintendo Switch, but I’ll be playing it on my Xbox. From what I remember, this is a fun game that takes a little time to adjust to. There is a little story to this game, which is always fun to see.
TLDR: A fun and violent sports game with pixel art graphics.
Narrative
If you play the franchise mode, then you’ll get a little story. It’s something that I didn’t know I wanted. Stuff like this makes these games a little more fun than they normally are.
In the franchise mode, you play as a coach who wants to start up a team in the Blood Sports League. You choose what nation to represent, and then you’re told that you don’t have enough money for a license fee. So, they take one of your kidneys. Sure, that makes perfect sense to me.
Then you get a little tour of your facility, and purchase some criminals to play for you. I wish I could see more of this game’s world. It seems like a lot of fun. From here, things play out like a tycoon game. It is pretty fun.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very good! There are quite a few game modes, and I love that this can be a four-player game. The humor in the game is fun, too. I like that this draws on elements from other retro hockey games.
There are a bunch of game modes, which is really fun to see:
- Exhibition
- Tournament
- Challenge
- Franchise
The teams are mostly taken from Ice Hockey on the NES. In Franchise mode, these countries are used as a basis for the other teams. Here are the countries in the game:
- USA
- Sweden
- Finland
- Germany
- Canada
- Czechia
- Russia
- North Korea
Just like the NES game that it is emulating, there are three body types, but they have four different roles they can play. These are all prisoners, which goes along with the story. Here are the roles:
- Goalie – Medium Guy
- Enforcer – Big or Fat guy
- Playmaker – Medium Guy
- Sniper — Skinny Guy
The controls are very simple. You can pass, shoot, check, and swap players. You have a lot of control over the power and angle of your shots. I like this quite a bit, and it is great that you don’t have to control the goalie.
I didn’t see if this had online play or not. You can play with up to four players, which is nice. I didn’t have three other people who wanted to play this with me, but the idea that I can have that many people play is pretty cool.
Your players can get hurt or even killed. When there are fights, all the players on the ice are involved. There are no penalties, but one of the players can suffer a comedic injury or they can die.
It isn’t all good, but I can overlook the faults because of how much fun I had. Some things took me some time before I got the hang of them. Like many sports games, you might get tired of doing the same things. It is a fun change of place game, and I had fun during the different modes.
Visuals
The graphics are a lot of fun! It looks like a 16-bit version of the NES game, which made me smile. It is a violent version of that style of gameplay, and everything looks great.
The character sprites look very good. If there were an SNES or Genesis follow-up to Ice Hockey, then this is what it would look like. There is more variety in the character sprites and more team colors.
The violence looks pretty good. Pixelated blood flies across the ice, and it looks pretty good. It does disappear immediately, which is odd. If a player gets injured, then they pay on the ice in a pool of their own blood and twitch about. It is funnier than it was probably intended to be.
The rink looks good, but there isn’t much variety in it. This is one of the areas that I wish had more done with it. The little facility that you have in franchise mode looks good. It isn’t anything amazing, but it looks good enough for what it is.
The graphics in Super Blood Hockey are fun. It is a nice looking indie game, and a good looking hokey game. This won’t blow anyone away, but I like the modern pixel art in this game. Everything looks good, or at least gets the job done.
8/10. This is a solid arcade sports game. I love the graphics, and the gameplay is solid. It is a fun take on a classic NES game.
Pros
- Good Controls
- Fun Gameplay
- Lots of Game modes
- Good Graphics
Cons
- Repetitive
- Tedious management system
Conclusion
Super Blood Hockey is a very fun game. This game plays like a combination of Mutant League Hockey and Ice Hockey. It is a nice mash-up of ideas, and I like that I can have a franchise in the game. It made things a little more fun.
After playing several other arcade sports games, it was nice to come back and play this one. It has a few flaws, but I still had fun with it. I like that it looks like a follow-up to a classic NES game, and that many of the rules of hockey were ditched in favor of making a violent arcade game.
Arcade sports games might not be the most popular, but they’re a lot of fun. Not every sport translates well to this style of gameplay, but the ones that do are a lot of fun. This is a wonderful game, and I enjoy that it is a different take on the genre.
If you liked this post, check out some of my other reviews of indie games. Such as Demonschool or News Tower.