1994 was a funky time for hockey games. Unlike today, where EA Sports’ NHL series owns the ice completely, there was a bevy of challengers for the video game Stanley Cup.
With its side-view and frenetic arcade action, “Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars” will automatically hook fans of NES classics “Ice Hockey” and “Blades of Steel,” but in the 16-bit world, it pales in comparison to “NHL 94.” Although it had an NHLPA license, the lack of real team colors and other bells and whistles hurts its long-term appeal. When compared to the top-down view of the NHL series, this game just feels stale and boring.
But regardless of its warts, “Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars” is fun, albeit-short trip down memory lane if you just take the game for what it is- a brainless, but straight and physical game of hockey that will induce more laughs than goals.
Offense in “Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars” is hard to come by. You’d think that a game featuring the sport’s greatest offense player of all time would make it a bit easier to hit the back of the net, but goals in “Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars” feel like an impossibility at times.
Physicality, on the other hand, is always on its way. Every player throws the body with reckless abandon. This makes for some wild gameplay, especially with friends, but with offense a rarity, the game is never about skill.
Instead, it’s a brawl for all that requires a lucky hand more than anything else.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
1994 was a funky time for hockey games. Unlike today, where EA Sports’ NHL series owns the ice completely, there was a bevy of challengers for the video game Stanley Cup.
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