This was posted on GameFAQs months ago and is essentially a text version of a video review that was done ages ago. Now you get to read it in slightly more family friendly terms. Enjoy.
Nobody got ready for this…
EA attempted to bring over their famed NHL series from the 16-bit consoles to Game Boy with NHL Hockey 95 to pitiful results. You could make the argument that any negative reaction to the game is uncalled for because it was taking a 16-bit game and trying to make it work with Game Boy was a tall order. But then you’ve got NHL ’96 for Game Boy, which is pretty much the same game – right down to sitting through thirty seconds of unskippable logos, copyright information, and game credits in case you want to know who was responsible for this travesty.
Like in the previous game, you have all the NHL teams of the time available to play along with the two all-star teams, but no actual players due to no NHLPA license. You can play a single game, regular season, skip to the play-offs in either best-of-seven or single knockout varieties, or test your shootout skills. There’s a sixteen-digit password system for resuming seasons and playoff runs; how fun. And you can toggle penalties and line changes if desired. For the most part, the same options you get from playing the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis versions of this same game… save for the fact that those games play much better than this.
GRAPHICS: To the game’s credit, the in-game menus and even the intermission with the sports guy aren’t too bad looking. But then we get to the in-game graphics, which, much like the previous iteration, retains the full resolution graphics of its console iterations. This naturally results in VERY reduced visibility in the playfield, which makes setting up potential passes or scoring opportunities very difficult. Not only is reduced visibility an issue, but the low framerate kills things further with a very apparent choppiness that slows the game down considerably. Flicker is also a killer on an actual Game Boy, but not so much on Super Game Boy, which gives you a custom palette and border… which makes no sense since if you’re going to play NHL on Super Nintendo, there’s a version for Super Nintendo that more than suits your needs. 1/10
SOUND: NHL 96 has an annoying tune playing in the background during intermissions that is a far cry from “Get Ready For This”, which was the theme of NHL 96 on the console releases. Amazingly, nobody got ready for this on the second go-around. As before, the sound effects in NHL 96 have ear violating tendencies, which means that the mute button or volume dial is your friend in lowering further exposure to this white noise. 1/10
GAMEPLAY: It seems like a broken record, but NHL 96 boasts all the same flaws of the previous NHL Hockey outing on Game Boy. Broken, chugging gameplay that is crippled as a result of the choppy framerate, with excruciatingly laggy controls that are delayed at best and nonfunctional at worst. Moving your player with the D-Pad isn’t the smoothest thing around – which is sadly to be expected in this mess – and despite having only two buttons for passing and shooting, you’d figure they’d at least work, but they don’t. Sometimes, it’d take two or three button presses to get my player to pass the puck or shoot a shot… or whatever needs to be done involving pressing buttons or doing anything beyond turning off the game. As for the AI, every once in a while, it’ll score by accident, but for the most part, it’s fumbles about much like the framerate. 1/10
REPLAY VALUE: Non applicable. 1/10
OVERALL: There is a way to do console hockey games on Game Boy and not have them be terrible. Blades Of Steel is a good example of that and is actually one of the better hockey games on the go. NHL 96, on the other hand, is a travesty of nature that shouldn’t have been allowed to exist, especially given that the previous entry was just as bad. There is no reason to play this version or its predecessor on Game Boy. Dreadful. 1/10
dtm666 