 SNES DRUGS On the surface, Blades of Steel seems really dated, especially for a sports game. No actual NHL players, not even any numbers, just 8 teams, and oddball controls, the way you control the goalie is confusing at best. And there's extremely limited gameplay overall. That's one way to look at it, but I think there's a better way to look at Blades of Steel. There's a simplicity to this game that I appreciate. You don't have to know line changes or offsides or any of that, it's just put the puck in the other team's net, and watch their goalie get all pissed off. The gameplay makes hockey accessible to anyone to this day. And that should be commended. There's an arcade-style, straightforward nature to this game. And like so many Nintendo games of the time, they really knew how to amp up the charm with basic games like this. Like the goal celebrations, the goaltender getting mad, the fights, the loser of the fight getting dragged off the ice by the ref, the sound a player makes when he falls, the announcer. Okay, now some of you are going to think I'm an idiot if you don't already, but what is he saying here? Catch that pass? This is hockey. You don't catch anything, except the occasional fist to the face. I had a friend long ago who always told me he clearly says it's a pass, but I don't hear that at all. Oh well. As an aside, it always annoyed me so much that they made Minnesota purple. They're supposed to be green, like the North Stars, not purple, like the Vikings. And real quick, I have to mention the intermission game. When I saw this as a kid, it blew my mind to smithereens, whoa, a game within a game? Well, barely. More like a commercial within a game. To its credit, this minigame did get me to play Contra and Jackal, although neither are this shoot-em-up game, which is kind of confusing. So is Blades of Steel worth playing today? I actually think it is, because of its immediate accessibility. The best sports games are the games that are still fun, even if you don't particularly care for the sport. NBA Jam falls into that category, as well as Tecmo Super Bowl, the NHL series on Genesis and Super Nintendo, and Blades of Steel does as well.