(10/24/2015 - 10/30/2015) Game of the Week: TV Sports Hockey

[SamIAm]

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October 24 - October 30: TV Sports Hockey
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(chosen by Gredler)

TV Sports Hockey - The blind rage of hockey fanboysm


First off before I say anything about the game, let me thank all of you who try it for your patience and I apologize that this game fell after all of the glorious classics in the recent weeks.  I hope you all find some fun in this one, it's about as good as hockey gets on the turbob for me


General Tips:
   Each team has strengths and weaknesses, but I prefer the Norway team for their speed. I would recommend starting with them
   Shoot a lot
   Passing is faster than skating, and can free up a lot of room for players to skate
   When chasing opponents try to take a path that puts you to a good defensive position
   Slap shots often take longer and are less effective than a quick wrist shot
   Shooting from close is often worse than shooting from farther away
   Don't move your goalie away from the net


I highly recommend reading a faq (http://www.gamefaqs.com/tg16/589152-tv-sports-hockey/faqs/53116) to learn the controls of the game, but here's a brief overview:



Skating/normal game time -
   D pad stears player, (move opposite direction of player momentum to slow/stop)
   II - Changes currently controlled player, and passes the puck in the direction the d pad is pressed
   I - Shoots the puck or attempts to knock a puck away from opponent (stick check)
   Hold to perform a slap shot
   Press II while holding I to perform a fake shot (cancel slap shot)



Faceoff
   Position the player with the d pad so that the stick blade will hit the puck Press and hold a button, release it to attempt to hit the puck. First person to hit the puck will usually get puck.
   II - backhand attempt
   I - forehand atteMpt





Fighting
   Up and II - Defend high
   Down and II - Defend low
   Up and I - High punch
   Down and I - Low punch





Shooting cut-scene mini event
   Occasionally when shooting on a breakaway the game will cut away to a large animated image of the player facing the goalie. At this moment the player must push a direction and the shoot button again to pick where the shot will go, and the player will score or the goalie will stop the puck depending the players choice of shot placement.


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GOTW Schedule:
3. 9/5/2015 - 9/11/2015: Street Fighter 2 (Nec.Game.head)
4. 9/12/2015 - 9/18/2015: Bloody Wolf (Gentlegamer)
5. 9/19/2015 - 9/25/2015: Kabuki Itoryodan (Sadler)
6. 9/26/2015 - 10/2/2015: R-Type (crazydean)
8. 10/10/2015 - 10/16/2015: Wizardry 3&4 (BigusSchmuck)
9. 10/17/2015 - 10/23/2015: Lords of Thunder (SamIAm)
10. 10/24/2015 - 10/30/2015: TV Sports Hockey (gredler)
11. 10/31/2015 - 11/6/2015: Blazing Lazers (escarioth)
12. 11/7/2015 - 11/13/2015: Genpei Toumaden (VenomMacbeth)
14. 11/21/2015 - 11/27/2015: Drop Off (turboswimbz)
15. 11/28/2015 - 12/4/2015: World Court Tennis (grolt)
18. 12/19/2015 - 12/25/2015: Galaxy Dekka Gayvan (tknjin)
19. OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).

[Gredler]

PM Sent with the description. Hopefully everyone gets to play a few games and have some fun, then catch up on the past GoTWs

No for real, playing it again tonight was a lot of fun for me. I really recommend starting as Norway, they are so fast it makes the game feel a lot more like the later NHL series. I think it's easy to forget this game came out before the EA NHL games hit their stride, so I think The Swingers can thank the obey for Gretzky's head bleeding.

I love getting the shooting closeups and picking corners. The animations on the goalies are rad, and it is generally a pretty cool little early hockey game

[SamIAm]

Holy cow. Now that's a write up! Thanks, Gredler!

[MNKyDeth]

Never played it, but I own the TurboChip, loose...

Just grabbed a beer and turning on the Duo to try it out.


Edit:

It is a couple hours after I started playing this game.... I have never been fond of sports games. This game didn't change much for me in that respect. Maybe I just need more practice at it and it also most likely doesn't help that I have no idea what rules there are in hockey. But I kept getting Icing penalties, never got into a fight, and never won the puck from a faceoff... lol

This is most likely a lack of experience on my part but my first hockey game I ever enjoyed was Wayne Gretzky on the N64. I think Blades of Steel on the NES was ok but I only ever played that at my friends house and honestly I don't remember that game much.

I hung myself out to dry, crucify me now... I own all the TV Sports games but I never play them....

[Gredler]

If you are not a hockey fan this game is probably no fun at all Sorry!

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey is the only reason to own a N64, and is in my top 10 all time favorite hockey games, and you might be surprised to hear that its roots started on the Turbob/PCE (and other 16 bit systems of the time, SNES and Genesis, with a NES port cancelled though it had a unique RPG mode) - Hit The Ice - I debated if I should have HTI or TVSH for my GoTW nomination (holy acronym Batman) but TV Sports Hockey ultimately is the better hockey game, despite the higher learning curve and slower frame rate. There is a surprising amount of depth to TVSH, and that depth makes it much less approachable than the very fun arcade action of the Williams line of hockey games.

Some rule explanations:

Icing - if you shoot the puck across 3 lines and then the other team touches it, the play will be stopped and there will be a face off in your defensive zone. To avoid icing wait until you get past the center line to shoot the puck towards the net.

Offsides - If your team is in the offensive zone, the side of the rink where you are shooting the puck - the boarder of which is defined by the blue line, before the puck and then you touch the puck play will stop and a faceoff will happen outside of the zone. To avoid offsides either carry the puck into offensive zone, or shoot the puck in before a team mate crosses the blue line.

Penalties - I am surprised to hear you got penalties, I only have gotten penalties after losing fights (a videogame rule, in real hockey both fighters get a penalty) . You're probably checking the wrong player (checking means intentionally skating into someone to knock them down). You are only allowed to check the player who has the puck, and never the goalie.

Also, here are some more tips for playing the game / hockey

- Shoot from inside the faceoff circle dots, or between them, above/below/outside of are all less likely to score (this is often called the sweet spot)

- Carry the puck until you are about to be checked, then pass the puck to an open player, and if there is no open player to pass to then shoot the puck to a safe area (if behind the center line, shoot the puck back into your own zone and retrieve it.

-Giving the puck away, and having faceoffs in your own zone, are the easiest ways to get scored on aside from moving your goalie out of the way or giving the puck away as the goalie.

- aim your passes by pressing the directional pad towards the direction you want to pass the puck before passing

- the arrow shows where you are going to shoot, try to shoot to the side of the net the goalie is not standing,  and then quickly skate to that area incase the goalie saves the shot so that you have a chance to get a rebound. rebounds are not very common in this game, but you can still get a rebound goal here and there

-pokecheck often (1 button) to try to poke the puck away from the other player, but try to avoid pokechecking into players feet (tripping penalties, hooking penalties, can be called if you do this)

-use norway

[o.pwuaioc]

I hung myself out to dry, crucify me now...

No worries. De gustibus non est disputandum. I don't care for hockey or most sports video games either.

I own all the TV Sports games but I never play them....

But then why have them if you don't like them?

[Psycho Punch]

Despite the "we've ran out of budget and cinemaware closed shop!" quality of the title screen, the game was surprisingly good in all departments. That said I never played a hockey game before (even in real life) so it's all new to me haha.

I kinda understand gredler's worship of this game now. Sort of.

[Warbucks]

Awesome review, I don't have this one yet.  I might have to pick one up, it looks fun.

[MNKyDeth]

I hung myself out to dry, crucify me now...

No worries. De gustibus non est disputandum. I don't care for hockey or most sports video games either.

I own all the TV Sports games but I never play them....

But then why have them if you don't like them?

I got these games back in the early 90's. One of my bro's enjoys sports games so my dad had bought most of them. Ultimately each console, US Duo, Genesis and SNES... one was given to each of us. I got the Duo, my other brothers obviously the others. But, I eventually convinced my dad to get a SegaCD as well so he also bought another Genesis at the time. So I ended up with a Genny + SegaCD and a Duo.

The sports games that I have I keep around if my youngest brother comes over as if he wants to enjoy some Obey goodness I have it there for him. If I want some Zelda: A link to the Past or Earthbound I go to his place for the snes or maybe some Super Metroid.

So... Hopefully that explains why I have them. They are all loose, been thinking of buying the cases on these forums for my loose cards.

[o.pwuaioc]

I got these games back in the early 90's. One of my bro's enjoys sports games so my dad had bought most of them. Ultimately each console, US Duo, Genesis and SNES... one was given to each of us. I got the Duo, my other brothers obviously the others. But, I eventually convinced my dad to get a SegaCD as well so he also bought another Genesis at the time. So I ended up with a Genny + SegaCD and a Duo.

...

So... Hopefully that explains why I have them. They are all loose, been thinking of buying the cases on these forums for my loose cards.

Yeah, totally fair and legit reasoning! I do the same, keep a few games around that I don't like that friends do. I do draw the line somewhere, though: no Smash Bros in this house!

[grolt]

Sorry I'm late to the party, but what kind of good Canadian would I be if I didn't at least give this one a shot.  I played through a few games last night and had a good time.  I like the presentation here and the added close-up breakaway shot for more variety.  It's easy to see which character you're controlling and when you have the puck thanks to the visual indicators - that's actually a major feat compared to a lot of sports games from the era.  Of all the games I've played the fighting engine is definitely strongest here and it's pretty fun - hilarious that if you win the fight you're not given a penalty...that's not quite how it works haha.

I think the game is lacking on attention to detail though - it's kind of odd that there's no timer or scoreboard on the main screen (you can only access it on the select menu) and the choice of colors for teams is off.  I played USA vs. Canada and the US team was red and the Canadian team was blue.  Okay.  What's with the music just cutting in and out and looping terribly all the time - that really got on my nerves and took away from the experience.  Very grating.  Also, never liked how the close-up shot perspective would cut away before you ever really knew what happened; you'd take a shot and it looks like it's going top shelf and then it cuts away and there's a whistle...I guess it went over the glass then?

In terms of control, I like the momentum in the game and how you can weave through people to create chances - it has an arcade-like level of breakaways and scoring chances because of that.  The game is also forgiving enough that you're able to get back on a backcheck pretty well so you're never totally hung out to dry if you lose coverage.  What I don't like though is the passing - in the EA games, when you pass there's kind of a homing effect to the pass where it'll usually go right to the other guy you're passing to in that vicinity.  In this game, you press the direction you want to pass but in my experience it's very tough to actually get the pass to the other player.  My favorite part of sports games are setting up that nice cross ice one-timer for the goal, and in the game I played, I scored 15 times but never once was I able to pull off a one-timer goal.  I found the strategy of just taking the puck behind my own net and juking out the defenders as I built up momentum up the ice was the most effective.

Flaws and all, TV Sports Hockey is a pretty worthy hockey game and good fun for a pick up and play.  Don't know if it will get the play from me that games like Great Ice Hockey on the SMS or Blades of Steel on the NES do, but I'll definitely be returning to this one and thank you for vouching for it, Gredler.  Excited to one day track down a decently-priced Hit the Ice though, especially considering its comparisons here to Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey - I love that game!

Oh, and what's with the faceoffs in this game?  I cannot win any for the life of me on my backhand.  I can win the forehand most of the time, but there have been times where I've hit the backhand button 20 times in a row and fanned on the puck each time before the opposing player just swings once and hits it.

[CrackTiger]

During the brief period that I cared about hockey and when everyone my age was playing EA's NHL games, I rented TSH and played through it and some friends and I played a bunch of multiplayer. It felt very solid and enjoyable for the time and held up well to the current NHL game, other than lacking the license.