NHL 94 CD - Impressions from a cart owner
john laird
First off a little background, I own the NHL 94 Genesis cart and even with its
flaws I love it. Cut to the chase...I no longer have NHL 94 CD, I returned it.
After playing with it for a few hours my impressions were, 1) They threw this
thing together as an afterthought to squeeze more money out of an excellent
game. 2) Why would they go and screw up an already good game without fixing
any of the few flaws it had?
Here's what I liked about NHL 94 CD:
1) Good intro with nice FMV of hockey action.
2) Excellent theme music in 44kHz stereo.
3) Background crowd noise and organ during game were much improved.
4) Player cards have been greatly improved.
Here's what I couldn't stand about NHL 94 CD:
1) Is there any particular reason that the entire menu screen has to
flash when you switch between options (ie. Player, Team, Penalties)?
The cart didn't do this...so much for the epilepsy warnings, maybe
it's the CD music in the background that taxes the processor too much
so it can't refresh the options menu very well (yeah right!)
I think it's just sloppy programming.
2) Why the hell did they find it necessary to raise the
end of period/end of penalty warning sound a half
octave? They're annoyingly high pitched compared to the cart.
3) What's the deal with the goal siren? It sounds like it's sick.
Compare it to the cart and you'll know what I mean. It takes some
fun out of scoring a goal.
4) And finally, if they were going to release a new version of NHL 94
why the hell didn't they fix the flaws that were already in the
game!?!?! Everyone knows and has complained about them; would it
have been that hard to change the navy blue or dark green? I don't
know, FIFA Soccer doesn't have this problem.
In conclusion, I was disappointed overall. The additions to the game didn't
make up for the annoying changes they made from the cart version. Sure the
FMV at the beginning was nice but hey, if I want to see real life hockey
high-lites I'll flip on ESPN Hockey Night, instead of paying $10 more than the
price of the cart.
Disclaimer for those of you who already own NHL 94 CD:
I'm not trying to cut you down for buying it. These opinions are my own and
if you think I'm totally wrong, so be it. Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
Post yours.
--
John Laird | (319) 335-7900
University of Iowa, Image Analysis Facility | 70 EMRB
la...@tessa.iaf.uiowa.edu | Iowa City, IA 52242