If you ask someone from an older generation about Hockey (or really any major sport), they’ll likely tell you that it isn’t like it was in the good old days. Money, fame and the quest for individual glory are common, and the amount of advertising and commercialization present makes most sports feel like a product or commodity, rather than a passion. Old Time Hockey, which comes from Vancouver-based developer V7 Entertainment, strips the sport of hockey back to its barebones, with helmetless players, small local arenas, and a general sense of violence underlying the thin veneer of sportsmanship.
While Old Time Hockey looks to recreate the look of hockey from 40 years ago, it also seeks to re-enact the feel of hockey videogames from 25 years ago too. Almost every input is done using the face buttons, and there’s no sign of any form of EA’s skill-stick approach to their NHL series. While you can start from a two-button approach, and increase inputs up to using the shoulder buttons, this is very much a pick-up-and-play style of hockey game, where there’s a button to pass, a button to shoot, and not a whole lot else.
In line with a current trend of sports videogames, Old Time Hockey features a story mode, but the difference here is that the story mode is pretty much all that the game has to offer. There’s an Exhibition option, where you can play against the computer or against a friend on the same console, but there’s no online option, and no other modes to explore. The story mode sets you up as the Schuylkill Hinto Brews, a team within the Bush Hockey League who find themselves in a bad way. You come in mid-season in an attempt to turn their fortunes around and are tasked with various objectives in each game to make your mark on the league and turn the team’s fortunes around.
As the game is set in the 1975-76 season, you might be surprised at the visual differences between the game 40 years ago and the game today. Frankly, Old Time Hockey does a great job of nailing the feel of hockey from this period, from the lack of helmets (even on the goalies!) to the general TV-broadcast feel of the game. Fights are rife, hits are huge, and you get a feeling that some of the players would have to have downed a couple of cans before being brave enough to step onto the ice. The only downside to the experience that I found was the commentary, which is monotonous and delivered by someone who sounds like he doesn’t really want to be there.
Though the objectives given in each game through story mode add a decent amount of variety to the experience, and the ability to improve your team by meeting these objectives adds a sense of ownership, I found that Old Time Hockey didn’t offer a lot of staying power. Most games are indistinguishable from one another, and the fact that you can collect hockey cards by completing areas of the game wasn’t enough to encourage me to stick around longer than I had to.
Old Time Hockey is the kind of game that you might dig out when you have friends over, looking to inspire a little bit of videogame nostalgia, but there isn’t much to it that will encourage you to play again by yourself. It’s not that Old Time Hockey is a bad game, but when it’s in a sports videogame world populated by giants such as EA Sports or the NBA 2K series; the lack of content on offer becomes glaring. Grab a couple of friends and a few beers, and you’ll likely have some fun with Old Time Hockey, but it’s unlikely that this game will hold your attention long enough to last the season.
