Old School Gamer Magazine chats with ‘Super Blood Hockey’ creator Loren Lemcke, who lets us know why the tribute to NHL ’94, Ice Hockey and Mutant League Hockey, may be the best current arcade hockey game on Steam. With an Xbox One version on the way as well, the game’s legacy is just beginning to take shape.
OSGM:Â How was this game born?
Loren Lemcke:Â My friends and I enjoy getting together to drink some beers and play retro hockey games, but we desired a new take on the retro formula with modern features (plus our NES controllers were thoroughly worn out from aggressive button mashing). So we went looking for just such a game, and after a quick search on Steam revealed essentially nothing fitting the bill, I realized that it was an opportunity to fill that gap in the market myself. So I set off to make my own violent, arcade-style hockey game that had been brewing since my childhood.
OSGM:Â What has development been like so far?
Lemcke: Development has been nice and smooth so far. I tend to be rather picky and self critical about the stuff I make, so a portion of the content I have made for the game has either been cut or redone several times over (I had an entire story-mode in the game, but decided to cut it, because I ended up just not really liking it). I am under little pressure to pump out titles, so I tend to focus on making sure things end up exactly the way I want them to. “Game feel†is very important to me, so a lot of development time goes into make sure everything feels nice and crispy.
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.
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