When lots of people who have at some point been games console players look back at their youth, then it seems so great back then. Every little thing as a child seemed bigger and better than when you grow up. That is of course apart from sports and NHL games for Xbox & Playstation game consoles. In the last thirty years we have been privileged to benefit from the advances in technology.
It's no longer a case of pushing a little puck which looks more like a white dot around the screen. Or even controlling a matchstick version of Wayne Gretsky around as if that made you feel like it was him on the screen. No though people can play a game of hockey on their console for pure enjoyment. Not all games have advanced their game play to keep up with the increased ability of the platform they are written for. Lots have relied too much on the game's graphical presentation and not enough on the actual gaming essence. No matter how good something looks, it still has to be great fun to play and that is what games players will look for. The games that have gone down in history whether they have been hockey, NHL, console based or not, have all had one thing in common. They have all been very playable. In some, the presentation didn't really matter at all. Like the type with the falling blocks that you have to arrange, many games relied solely on their ability to keep you coming back for more. Hockey games have been no different and no matter who is on the cover of any NHL title, it's what's inside the box that has really mattered. The thing that games developers back in the day knew is what people really liked in a game. They didn't have the ability to display a few thousand fans jumping up and down every time a ball hit the back of the net in a hockey game. Well even if they had the ability then they didn't have the processing power of today's machines. Now Hockey games are particularly entertaining on any games platform because they combine control, timing and quick perception. These are all vital components in any entertaining sports game. Thankfully there are many talented programmers working hard to produce something that they also like.
It's the clever people who make the games that have made sports games of today such as hockey, look good and still keep the game play of the games of old. They realized a long time ago that your couldn't just paint a pretty picture on the screen, you had to actually let the player live it too. They now know that there is no point in releasing a game on to the market that is not up to speed. Especially not when the game in question is carrying the NHL brand.
People and especially the younger generation of today are extremely luck to be able to play NHL games for Xbox & Playstation game consoles the way that they do. So much has been done over years of development that it's hard to comprehend what early games were like. Suffice to say they were cumbersome at best.
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