

Mario Lemieux featured on an absolutely stacked Penguins team that was almost always my backup to playing as the Blues. Finesse doesn’t necessarily translate to a 16 bit video game the same way that it does to our modern games, so Gretzky wound up being underpowered. In contrast to JR, Wayne Gretzky wasn’t fast and he certainly wasn’t big, so the best player in the game had a lower rating. Now, a big enough hit in NHL 20 can get you kicked out of the game. Size was key because back in the ‘90s, a giant, bone crunching hit was a major selling point for a hockey video game. Michael Brook, in this outstanding interview with Kill Screen, explains how they rated the players - and JR was rated high because of size and speed. I posit that the best player in NHL 94 is Mario Lemieux when handled by the right player. Yes, I know that’s a logical fallacy, but roll with it. If we’re assuming NHL 94 is the greatest NHL video game ever put together ( and honestly, it is) then whoever the best player in that game is should be considered the best player in a NHL video game. I do not think that he is the best in the game. Obviously, he deserves to be a standout player in NHL 94. Roenick finished with 50 goals and 57 assists, which is an incredible campaign. In 1992-1993 (the stats EA used to base his ratings off of, since NHL 94 was released on March 15, 1993). His in-game stats are jacked up past where they should be.

Poke check JR? Pffft, he’s just going to slap that puck right past your goalie. The puck is glued to his stick in a way that no other player can control it. (I don’t know why they chose “More than a Feeling” for this but it adds something, I think) The number of YouTube videos of Roenick highlights is bizonkers. There’s absolutely no arguing that point. It’s today’s teams and today’s rosters with controls and graphics from 1994.

Whoever it was at EA who gave me the rating in ‘94, you’ve left me something to be proud of for eternity.” EA SPORTS is throwing it back with NHL® 94 Rewind. I’m down in the annals of history, whether it’s being on the ice or in video games. “It’s one of my claims to fame,” Roenick said. In NHL 94, one of the greatest sports games of all-time, most folks believe that Jeremy Roenick is the greatest athlete in the game. Little Mike can only hope that whoever’s controlling him has quick reflexes and pattern recognition or else he’s getting knocked into next Tuesday and referee Mario is counting down into a KO.īut this is a hockey blog, so we’ll be focusing this debate on hockey video game athletes. Mike Tyson? He probably should get a mention in this category, though you can’t play as him. All I know is that playing as Jackson as a kid was like having a Game Genie hooked up without having to type in all of those codes. There are a few video game athletes that are so overpowered, such an absolute truck, that when you were a kid you’d fight your friends over playing as whatever team they were on Bo Jackson in Temco Super Bowl comes to mind, but unlike like Bo, I don’t know diddly about football video games.
