Play Ice Hockey Online

Ice Hockey came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, developed and published by Nintendo. It was one of the more straightforward sports titles on the console, a time when many games were still figuring out how to translate real world action into 8-bit fun.

You control a team of three players, skating up and down the rink trying to shoot the puck into the opponent's net. Before each game, you pick your lineup from three player types: skinny guys who are fast but weak, fat guys who are slow but powerful, and medium players who offer a balance. The signature mechanics are the body check, which you use to steal the puck or just knock an opponent over, and the ability to start a fight, which sends both players to the penalty box. The pacing is frantic, especially on the higher difficulty settings where the computer-controlled goalie becomes nearly impenetrable. It feels like a scrappy, unpredictable arcade version of the sport.