Last Years Rank - 4

NHL 94 is perhaps EA's greatest accomplishment in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay for their old school days. The Super Nintendo version of 94 was far superior than it's Sega counterpart, the only year it actually surpassed Sega. It was the first game that used the "EA Sports... It's in the Game!" statement when you booted it up and it introduced perhaps the most important element of hockey, the one-timer. It made scoring goals realistic and feasible for the first time in three years. Compared to NHLPA 93 on the SNES, NHL 94 was almost a different game. The bigger sprites which were much more colorful and animated way more than the previous years also had the best sound effects of any hockey game, almost to this date. The checks, passing, shots, rebounds, and crowd were just perfect. The game also moved at a slower pace which provided a more realistic feel to the action. You could set up plays on the powerplay and move the puck around in a realistic fashion, though it was still far from perfect, it was hockey heaven for me.

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