Publisher - Acclaim Entertainment
Developer - Iguana
Platform - N64
Type - Sports
Score - 7/10
After three hockey games from Midway that are all exactly the same, Nintendo 64 owners now have a choice
with NHL Breakaway '98, the first game that comes close to realizing the potential for hockey on the Nintendo
64. Unlike the Gretzky Hockey series, which are basically arcade hockey with a simulation hockey mode
tacked on, Breakaway makes realism its goal from the ground up, and it pays off.
NHL Breakaway bills itself as a simulation, and it has everything you would expect from a sports simulation.
Both the players and the teams match their real world counterparts, in look and in performance. The gameplay
and rules are those of real hockey, and Breakaway comes much closer in feel to a real hockey game than
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. Some aspects of the game are exaggerated. The way that equipment goes flying
all over the ice after really hard checks seems a bit overdone, but it's cool anyway, and the puck spends more
time in the air than is really plausible, but I chalk this up to the overstatement typical of sports games. Why stop
at the limitations of the real world when you don't have to?
To its credit, Breakaway takes things farther than it has to in the simulation department. Like International
Superstar Soccer, Breakaway gives you strategies. Breakaway actually gives you more options in this respect
that ISS, allowing you to choose a separate strategy for most of the situations in a hockey game. In addition to
offense and defense, you can also control your powerplay, penalty killing, and two man down strategies, so that
you can always play to the strengths of your own team. In addition to player trading, NHL Breakaway also
provides coach trading. If you're not winning, you can always blaming it on your coach, fire him, and get a
replacement.
Breakaway has an understanding of hockey rules, but it also has an understanding of the mentality of video
gamers, so you can turn penalties on and off individually. If offsides strikes you as a stupid rule, no problem,
just turn it off. Unlike Gretzky Hockey, Breakaway has heard of delayed calls, so you can make long passes off
the far boards without getting erroneously called for icing. On the other hand, you can't get out of a potential
opponent scoring situation with a cheap penalty. The game waits until they lose control of the puck before
calling it, the way it should. NHL Breakaway puts the ref on the ice, so you'll know when a delayed call is
coming, but it's also another person on the ice to be avoided.
Given how well the game handles other aspects of hockey, you would be justified with high hopes for the
gameplay. It's somewhat mixed, unfortunately. Certain aspects are exactly how you would expect them to be.
One thing missing from Gretzky Hockey, for example, is passing off the boards, and NHL Breakaway gives
you the control and computer AI so if you can't get the puck directly to a teammate, you can deflect it off the
wall and it will get to them. You also get control over other basic hockey moves, like skating backwards, that
are also mysteriously absent from Midway's games. However, the game has some other aspects to be worked
on. The puck moves as if it's magnetic, snapping to the player's stick rather than sliding smoothly across the ice.
Also, the control is somewhat slippery. While the players are on ice, I'd like tighter control over turning,
starting, and stopping.
Since it's hockey, there has to be fights. (I assume this is in the
hockey rulebook somewhere, but I'd actually like to see it in
writing.) Not much needs to be said here, beyond the fact that
Breakaway is a hockey game, not a fighting game, and you
shouldn't expect it to behave like a fighting game. For what it's
worth, I preferred the fights in the Gretzky series, but I'd be
just as happy without fighting anyway.
The game is generally pretty, but not without its flaws. The
player models are significantly better than Gretzky's, so they
look like real hockey players, but the motion capture is a little
worse. In other words, they look good standing still, but they
could move better. The stadiums look like stadiums, rather than the disembodied space of Gretzky. It looks like
you're playing a real game in a real place. The camera angles could be better. In particular, when the puck is at
the boards on the close side of the rink, the wall is completely transparent, but the glass above is still
translucent, which is a disjointed effect that damages the illusion that the rink is a physical object. It would be
better if the boards were partly transparent, so you could see what's going on, but you would know the wall
was still there.
The sound really failed to grab my attention one way or the other. It's there, with the puck making good
whacking noises as it deflects off things and the audience cheering along, but it doesn't really stand out in any
way.
The control is good, although a little complex. While skating backwards is cool, it takes some effort to master
it, and the fact that there are two different ways to pass the puck can make you inefficient at both. On the other
hand, the freedom to put the puck where you want it or pass to a particular person as you see fit is liberating, if
you get the hang of it. As I said, the controls feel slippery, but you don't feel as detached from the game as you
do with Gretzky.
Most sports games are now supporting the Rumble Pak, but most aren't using them very efficiently. NHL
Breakaway is no exception to this rule. The Rumble Pak is there, but it doesn't add to the game.
Much like Acclaim's first sports game, NFL Quarterback Club, NHL Breakaway has some impressive features
and innovations, but also has some significant flaws. If you're looking for a hockey game, NHL Breakaway is
better than all three of Midway's games combined, but I hope that Acclaim doesn't follow Midway's route and
there are improvements (or any changes at all) in next year's version.