144 · BLADES OF STEEL

• Fight for victory in the hottest hockey game on ice.
• Introductions
  • Second Hockey Game
  • Hockey just ended - Lightning (Rangers Part 2) are champions
• Gameplay
  • All teams are fictional but based out of real Canadian and American cities.
  • "Exhibition" or "Tournament"
    • Nice Zamboni driving around
    • Tournament is NHL Playoff style
  • General Observations
    • Press start AGAIN to confirm what you’ve already confirmed
    • Voice FX are cool!
    • Pretty easy against any computer
    • Ice Hockey had more flair (choose types of player for team, slippery, cute style) BUT Blades of Steel feels like it controls better for the purposes of playing hockey.
  • Hockey Fights
    • The loser, the first person to get hit five times, is given a penalty and sent to the penalty box (the winner is not punished)
      • no offside rule
    • Should a fight break out in front of one team's net, then the player on offense gets a penalty shot. The penalty shot is administered in the style of a soccer penalty shot, in that the shooting player must stand on the blue line, instead of moving towards the goaltender.
  • GRADIUS
    • In the NES version, between the second and third period of a hockey game, a quick mini game of Gradius is sometimes playable in which the player has a few seconds to try to blow up an enemy ship. There are also ads for other Konami games of that era displayed after the mini game is over.
  • Ties
    • If the score is tied at the end of the game, a shoot out (similar to a penalty shot) is used to determine the winner. Each team gets five shots. The team with the most goals after five shots is the winner. If, after that, the game is still tied, each team keeps getting one more shot until a winner is determined.
• Konami Sports games
  • Double Dribble
  • Track and Field
  • Blades of Steel
• EGL
• Next week -

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Blades of Steel, fight for victory in the hottest hockey game on ice.

00:20 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. You know, guys, last week I said at the very end of the episode that we were going to give Blades of Steel a fair shot, just like we gave Bionic Commando last week. And I didn't really know what I meant by that. Like, that doesn't, that doesn't, that kind of sounds a little suspicious of me. Yeah, I would say, Mike, I was going to say something.

00:54 Uh, but it sounds like, and it's just the way that you have conducted the Essential Games list, uh, these past 140 something episodes, uh, you try and put your finger on the scales a little too much. And, uh, I think that just by virtue of being, uh, a man who loves democracy, it's never something that I've been a very big fan of. And you couldn't be more timely with that with the election right around the corner. Well, I just thought that, you know, if, uh, Konami doesn't reach out to us and kind of, kind of line our pockets a little bit, we don't vote at Essential.

01:31 Isn't that what we do with, isn't that how Bionic Commando got on? Yeah. Uh, well, Konami actually funds the whole show. We should just say that up front. Like, we received a very generous, uh, you know, startup investor from an angel investor from Konami.

01:46 Uh, and that's how we've been running the whole show. So what I really meant to say when, before this whole thing got derailed was that, are we just, are we giving sports games a fair shot in general on the NES? Or do we, do we see sports titles and we're like, oh, we know this one's not, not happening. And we've gone on record as saying that there would never be a sports game on the Essential Games list, but I always still try and look at them in a way that does give them a shot.

02:13 Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat. I have a hard time seeing that happening, but I'm, I'm for it. But also it's just, uh, I'm probably not the guy to, to be, to be judging sports games. So yeah, I do my best. I would argue that there already is an Essential Sports game in Duck Hunt.

02:32 It's a good plus. And Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Oh yeah, that one too, does. It's more, yeah, Punch-Out is definitely a better example. But I think that like for sports games to be successful on the NES, they can't try to make, to be like the whole game. They should focus on like one aspect of a game or of a sport. You know, like Punch-Out isn't really, it's more of like an action puzzle game.

02:58 And you're not like going through boxing training and stuff. It's a rhythm game, Sam. Yeah, yeah. Rhythm puzzle something. I don't know. So this is our second hockey game. I think before Blades of Steel, we just had ice hockey, which came to us directly from Nintendo. So this is Konami's shot at upstaging Nintendo on what it takes to make a hockey game. Hockey, of course, just ended like last month. The Tampa Bay Lightning, aka the New York Rangers Part 2, won the Stanley Cup. So in many ways, the Rangers also won. They also won the Stanley Cup in a way.

03:35 I was happy to see some old teammates lift the cup. But we all know that next year, the Buffalo Bills will win the Stanley Cup championship for sure. The Stanley Cup. Anyway, well, yeah, after they win the Super Bowl, they'll just take the Stanley Cup too. They'll just go for the 14. Josh Allen cannot be stopped. There you go. Anyway, I think it's time we start talking about Blades of Steel. You know, the difference here, the immediate difference from ice hockey is that all the teams are fictional, but they're based on they're based out of real Canadian and American cities.

04:13 And now that I'm reading that sentence that I wrote, I don't think that was true in ice hockey. Did you actually get to play as the New York Rangers? I don't I don't remember if you could be. I think that. They were they were teams based off of nationalities. It was an American. Oh, right, right. That one was. Yes. So you were able to. This is this is the first game that it cities. And they only have eight of them, I think, or 12 or I don't know. But it's just it's it's it's eight. There are four Canadian teams. There's four American teams. And they try and get the colors right for the most part. But in no way is this an NHL or NHLPA sanctioned game.

05:00 But yeah, since Buffalo is not included, that's already points off. Right. Absolutely. It's OK. We'll get into that. Yeah. I forgot that ice hockey included like Soviet Russia and and like, no, they said that, too. Like, I'm not I'm not saying that. No, it's a side. I think West Germany. Right. One of those Germany. Yeah. So that was strange and definitely a relic. So I thought that was cool. But, you know, playing as cities maybe feels a little more like you don't just always choose USA. I always chose USA when we played ice hockey. Yeah. So now I have more choices. Now you choose New York. Yeah, I choose New York. I can't wait for the version where I can just specifically pick my town in Queens. And be like, yeah, I'm.

05:46 That's Urban Champion. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. Exactly. So you get a choice between exhibition or tournament mode. And, you know, I just want to say off the bat, I have a beef with the the choices here. So it says exhibition or tournament. OK, I'm totally fine with just having two choices. That's normal. I'm not expecting some like new way to play hockey. But you choose exhibition and then you choose your team and then you choose the other team. And then you have to hit the A button again. Oh, I knew you were going to bring this up. I knew you were going to bring this up. Just for no reason at all. You have to. It's just confirming, Mike. I don't get it, though. You've already confirmed. You've picked everything.

06:32 I think. I mean. I appreciate having the like. Oh, are you sure? Yeah. It's it's trying to make sure like you're being responsible. It's like, OK, you hit it. But we're going to give you one last chance to back out if you want. Otherwise, like it's like this is what you're playing or you got to get up and hit the reset button. So you have to wait like a full minute before you actually start playing.

06:51 So get ready. Yeah. Exactly. You have like this whole cut scene beforehand. I don't know. There's something about the flow of things that it just felt off to me. Every time I started a new match, I had to press that extra A press when it wasn't necessary. Well, if it was just a half A press. But whatever. Yeah, I get it. Yes. You know, and then there's also on, you know, on the positive side, when you choose exhibition or tournament or whatever, there's a nice little Zamboni driving around.

07:22 Zambonis are always cool. I appreciate the extra touch there that they didn't just like have a blue Final Fantasy like menu screen where you just like are hung on that. And instead, you get to see the ring and watch the Zamboni kind of satisfyingly drive across all of the ring, too. It doesn't just scroll from right to left and then back over. It actually does like the whole ice. One other thing that I'd like to bring up, it's always like a thing that I appreciate, is they have contextualized difficulty settings where it's not just easy, medium, and hard.

07:55 It's junior, college, and pro. So that was, I appreciate that because, you know, there's the juniors and then there's college. Then there's professional hockey. So that's always fun. Yeah, you're right. I never thought about that, but in a way, I'm playing as NYU when I pick the college mode and pick New York as opposed to playing as the New York Rangers. True, yeah. I'd love to see an NYU hockey team. Well, who would be like the de facto New York college for hockey? You're right. Other than the Tisch School of Arts.

08:35 Anyway. All right. Let's talk about the actual game, though. Just, you know, for me, some general observations and then everybody else can kind of go around, too. Right away, the voice effects. Very cool. Clear for the most part. Apparently, some people have problems with hearing what he says when you get a pass. But I heard pass, so I could care less what else he was trying to say. But do we have a verdict on what he was trying to say there? Get the pass. It's a pass. Okay. It's a pass. Yeah. I guess that was cool. And it's like, oh, the announcer is talking. No, it's everything. It's a every pass. Yeah. Do we need it every time? I mean, I'm playing the game. I know I'm passing.

09:20 I would have appreciated it more. Go ahead. I would have appreciated it more if it was just like, with the shot or something like that. Not every pass. I don't know. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Joe. No, I was just saying, I do like the voice effect, you know, even at the beginning when it goes, blades of steel. I mean, I can't do it as badly as they do it, but it still sounds pretty good for the NES. Mike can pixelize that. Yeah. I'll do my best. And here's another thing, too, just since we're talking about the voice effects thing.

09:48 Sean, do they actually ever say when you take a shot or is it just when you pass that they have voice effects? It's just passing. I don't remember that. Yeah. Why wouldn't they? They have the main title screen. They have face-offs. They have passing. They have fights.

10:04 And they might say penalty shot, but I don't think so. And that's it. Well, I mean, if that's not the whole game of hockey, you know, who needs shooting? Why even, you know, they probably said, why bother with the voice effects? I love it, yeah. That's the least exciting part. When someone scores, nobody cares. I hate scoring, yeah. Passing, that's where you're, oh my God, you see that pass? Nine out of ten hockey fans will tell you that during a power play, nobody shoots anyway. Yeah, it's true. Just wheel.

10:32 Right. So there's that. And then another general observation, and maybe I should have saved this for later on, but, you know, it's nice that they contextualize junior, college, and pro, but I found all three computers to be pretty easy in this game. Even pro.

10:51 I won pretty convincingly on every single game I played. And that enhanced my enjoyment of this game. So I, okay, so before we get into, like, how good the computer plays this version of hockey, we should probably get into what this version of hockey is. Yes, because it is a little different. Yeah. So, hockey so far, I think, has done the worst job in these early iterations of sports games of, like, simulating the rules, aside from maybe, like, ten-yard fight, because we haven't really had another football game yet. But, so in this game, they, like, there's no offside, which is a pretty, it's a pretty important part of the game.

11:38 There is, they do do icing, which was surprising for me, when you just clear the puck immediately down the ice. They have an interesting way of doing penalties, though, because there's only one kind of, there's two kinds of penalties. Getting in a fight, and it's not really just that fighting is a penalty, it's the way that they enforce the penalty. And I love this, and I really, I wish that there was an alternate reality in which this was just hockey was played. But whoever loses the fight gets penalized, and the winner gets to stay on, and they don't even, like, stop the game. Like, you just continue to skate while the refs come and just take him away to the cage. And, like, that's just how you get, that's just how you get scoring opportunities.

12:26 The other one is that if that happens in front of the goalie, you get, like, some weird soccer-style penalty shot. But that fight mechanic and the way that they penalize those, I love it, and I want to see it in action. Yeah, I feel like they were just like, well, we have to, fighting's a big part of hockey, we have to include it. But then, like, from the video game mechanic side of it, like, well, you need to have an incentive to win the fight. You know? So, like, they're like, oh, let's just change the rules a little bit. Yeah. It was by far, like, the games that I played while I was playing Blades of Steel

13:00 were probably the most fights I've ever seen in a hockey game because it was, I just loved that aspect of it so much. It's also, like, three bumps and a fight starts. You know? I don't know any hockey game that would get escalated that quickly. But, yeah, you do find yourself fighting a lot. And if we're being honest here, this is some of the best fighting,

13:23 you know, like, side-scrolling fighting we've seen in an NES game yet. Like, this is good combat. You're able to, like, choose to hit in the chest or the head. You can choose to block. Like, it felt a little proto Street Fighter. I mean, I feel like it felt a little bit more, like, on the level with Urban Champion. But I agree. I agree that it is better than Urban Champion. And that's weird that it's a hockey game that's better than Urban Champion. Yeah, there's just, like, one little gameplay element that's better than that entire game.

13:54 Yeah. Sean, you mentioned no offside rule, and that is true. But were you able to, like, pass in a way that would have been illegal? Like, I found that I actually couldn't pass to somebody who was in the next zone over. It just, like, wouldn't let me do that because it would pass. What I'll say is that while it's really hard to choose a specific player that you want to pass to, you do have a little bit of input.

14:24 But regardless of that, you can cross the blue – I'm sorry. You can cross the offensive zone – into the offensive zone while you already have guys over there, which should not happen. Right, that's true. Yes, that's what I'm not thinking of. Yeah, and that's why offsides is not in the game.

14:43 But, like, just going back to icing, I was just surprised that they put that in there at all because it just seems so unlikely that it'll happen. And when it did happen, I was just caught off guard because they actually, like, brought the face off into the other zone. It was just – it was weird. It was weird. Was there icing in – there wasn't icing in ice hockey. I don't recall. I don't think so. I recall ice hockey being, like, lawless. Yeah, pretty much. Like, there were barely any rules. It was just, like, they figured out that – they programmed it so that if the puck went into the net, it counted as a goal. But otherwise, not many other things were enforced.

15:16 You know, how did you guys feel, though, about, like, how the players control on the ice, you know, like, skating? Like, was it slippery? Was it too much friction? Did you enjoy, like, controlling all your different players and just playing hockey? Was that fun? I didn't think it really felt like ice too much, but I thought that everyone was really responsive and very arcade-like in the way that they played, so I thought that it was successful in that way.

15:43 Yeah, I felt like you had the – you know, I agree it didn't feel like ice, but I feel like it was – it's not supposed to. You know, if you're playing as professional hockey players, then it's not going to be super slippery like a Mario ice would be. So, I mean, it didn't bother me. Ice is not supposed to feel like ice.

16:01 I appreciate that. You know what I mean. No, I know what you mean. If you're skating, yeah, it's not going to – Mario ice is there as, like, a challenge, but, like, being on ice in this isn't supposed to be a challenge. I will say that from my memory of ice hockey, which is kind of foggy, I think that it did a better job of feeling like hockey, like, in just, like, that moment-to-moment, like, moving in a direction, whereas this felt a bit more one-to-one and less momentum-based, like I'll use that phrase again.

16:33 But it didn't – it wasn't something that called attention to itself. Yeah, Sean, I think you're spot on there. Ice hockey had more flair to it, you know. You were able to choose the types of player for your team, you know, between, like, three different guys, a bulky guy, a skinny guy, a tall guy. Like, you were able to choose your players, and it was a lot more momentum-based in the sense that, like, if you started skating in a direction and skated long enough, you wouldn't be able to just stop on a dime. So you did have to think about how you were skating around on the ice. And it had, like, a, you know, a cute Nintendo way of presenting hockey. But I'd argue that Blades of Steel,

17:11 even if it doesn't control quite like how we would expect ice hockey to control, it's better for these purposes of playing hockey. And it was easier for me to be really good at playing hockey in Blades of Steel comparatively to ice hockey because of the way that you're able to, like, have more control over your players. And you can kind of, you can get a better idea of who you are because they're glowing. And when you pass, it's like, it doesn't just,

17:39 the puck doesn't just kind of, like, float out into the ether. It goes to another one of your players. Like, those things, the way that the game kind of assists you, made it easier and more enjoyable to play Blades of Steel for me than ice hockey did. Yeah, there were still a couple things that I would have hoped that they'd have solved by now. I mean, I think that ice hockey was still 88, so there wasn't really much time between these two to make improvements.

18:08 I know they're not made by the same people, but the one thing that I was still a little annoyed by was the way in which you, like, choose where you're shooting, and that's just sort of waiting until a constantly scrolling cursor picks a spot for you when you used to time it correctly. I think, I mean, I think it worked a little differently in ice hockey, but it's sort of the same principle.

18:35 And also the fact that you are simultaneously controlling your goalie, which is kind of difficult when you're also trying to retrieve the puck from the slot and, like, stop constant, like, shot after shot after shot. It's just a little mind-bendy to try and do that, like, both of those things at once.

18:56 But all in all, I do think that it is an improvement in the moment-to-moment gameplay from ice hockey. It's an interesting dilemma, though, right? Like, I totally get that it's upsetting that you can't choose your own shot, but in a way, it helps to have it that way because when you're playing as the goalie, it does help to know where the shot is going to be to seamlessly change

19:20 from being one of the defensemen to being the goalie because you can kind of say, like, your eyes just react quicker to that than, say, you would be able to if there was no indicator of where it was being shot. Yeah, and it is helpful that it's not just for your shot. It's also telling you where the opponent's shot will be, so at least it sort of levels the playing field there. Right, and maybe that's something they could have turned off for pro mode, but then it would have just been a huge disadvantage to the player with no way to shoot,

19:49 to know where you're going to shoot. From what I understand, though, with the shots that the opponent's team take is that your goalie can't just, like, sit on the puck and force a faceoff. He always just, like, if I didn't choose to pass it, he would just pass it after a certain amount of time ran out. Is that true? I think so, yeah. I remember just because, not to go a little off topic here, but it's really hard to get the puck out when the computer opponent will just stand in front of your goalie, and for some reason it's hard to change who you're going to pass to from the goalie, so I just kept passing it to the guy that was taking shots at me.

20:36 But, like, and if I waited too long to try and, like, find a clear zone, I would just do it anyway. So, you are correct that it will not, you can't freeze the puck in this game. I was going to say that I think, I didn't play the two-player mode. I don't know if any of you guys did, but... I did not. I'm wondering if the way that the kind of inconvenient... The inconvenient way that the goalie moves, where you're moving your character and the goalie at the same time, if that is kind of beneficial for two-player mode, because then, if you could control your goalie really well, it's probably not that hard to block a lot of shots,

21:19 whereas the two-player mode might kind of, like, make it easier to present more opportunities to score if it's, like, a little bit trickier. Yeah, there's definitely a balance there. I'll say, I'll agree with that. I just think it's the wrong way to balance it, because it's just kind of frustrating. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, I'll say, I played two-player mode,

21:39 I think when, last time I played it was when I was, like, eight years old, so I don't really remember, but I did used to play this game a lot, and two-player... Oh, you did? Yeah, actually, this is one of the few on the NES, that my brother's a big hockey guy, so this was, like, his game, and he used to always make me play it, and probably usually beat me, but I did used to play this as a kid a lot. It was, like, this and, like, Super Mario Bros. 3 were, like, my first, like, NES games I used to play all the time, which is weird, because I'm not a hockey guy myself, but, yeah, just bringing that up to tell you that I still can't answer your question.

22:11 Yeah, it left me wondering, you know, what playing two-player mode against, you know, like, I don't know what success you guys had against the computer players, but two-player mode is definitely a, you know, would be the preferred way to play any of these sports games, in my opinion,

22:29 because there's an extra element there that these NES games just aren't quite equipped to handle specifically sports games, like, things... the way that we think about these and play these games, where, like, two players can get inside of each other's heads, and, like, it's very easy for me to figure out, like, oh, okay, like, if I go around the net, the computers usually, like, fall for the same trick, and I can pass to this guy, and there's a good chance that he'll be open or whatever. But, like, a player would be able to adapt to that over time, you know, another person. So, not that I found any, like, amazing cheats against the computer. I just think, in general, the computer difficulty was lacking in the game.

23:15 But, you know, I think this is just another reason why these games are better with two players is because you have something that the computer just can't offer. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I think that where... That's it. Yeah, go ahead. I think that where the single player would kind of, like, once they start doing this, I think where it would start to kind of shine a little more is when they start adding, like, a season or, like, a career mode or something, where it's like, okay, now you have a reason to play single player because you're working to get to the Stanley Cup. And I guess you could do a, like, tournament in here, sort of, but it's not really the same.

23:47 So, like, in this, yeah, I think that the only draw to, like, maybe, like, an older crowd is playing against a friend because then you actually have real competition. Yeah, and they do. I mean, they do have the... They have the tournament and you play for the quote-unquote cup. But, no, there's nothing for... I think the fact that I really like sports games is because it has those season modes and these games don't really do it for me that much because of that, like, extra layer.

24:23 Because I can deal with a lot of these faults if you can sort of not just tell the story of a season, but just, like, have that upper-level play of managing a season. And that's a... We still haven't had that. Yeah. And, you know, the reason I keep talking about, like, computers and just, like, the way that you score in this game is because I found that a lot of times, you know, and definitely on the promo, too, the computer gets in on a lot, too, but these are very high-scoring games that are kind of, like, ridiculous, you know? But they're really long. And maybe we had... Sorry. Yeah, and they are... No, you're right, Sam. They are long in the sense of, like, if you're able to score that fast, right,

25:07 then you kind of have to make the game shorter so that the scores somewhat reflect that. Like, there's no way that in playtesting this, they said, like, oh, final score was 13 to 9. Like, ship it. They definitely tried. Like, the clock does start at 20 minutes and counts down, but it's very accelerated, so they end up being what I imagine are five-minute periods.

25:33 But I also don't think that at this point, they're not really going for simulation yet. Like, this isn't NHL 2K or NHL Live or NHL whatever. No, totally. And, you know, sorry, I'm jumping in on your thought here, but, like, I agree with that, like, that these games are supposed to be fun and arcadey, so I guess what I'm saying is, is just make them even shorter, though. Like, I'm not saying it should be hard to score goals.

26:02 Like, that's the fun part of playing hockey, right, is putting the puck in the net. So, like, if the games come out to 13 to 9, like I suggested, like, just make it so that the game lengths are shorter, and, like, I'm sure that that's not as easy as, like, you know, flipping a switch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, just shortening the games, I'm sure there would be some penalties from that, too.

26:23 But if I had a comfortable lead, like, when I played my first match, it was just, like, immediately. I was winning, like, 9-0, and I was like, what's the point at this point of scoring any more goals? I might as well just run the timer out, and I was just passing around and whatever. And then I noticed, like, this is, but I'm saying, like, that takes a while. Yeah. Just passing the puck around and, like, avoiding the other players is, like, you realize,

26:46 wow, this is a pretty lengthy clock for the situation. Yes, it is not 20 full minutes of each period, but it's long for the situation of what you're playing. I totally agree. I mean, I wish that there was some option to, like, say, hey, let's just do it two-minute periods or something like that. No, I agree. No, I agree. No, I agree. No, I agree. No, I agree.

28:24 So we're all in agreement there. We need to talk about how the presentation of the games, that's always something that we're interested in as well. I forget which game had, oh, it was soccer, had, like, a whole halftime show with cheerleaders and everything, and we really enjoyed that, and ever since then, we've been talking about the presentation of these games.

28:43 Obviously, this game, you know, isn't going for the way the game is loaded. It's not going for the way the game is loaded presents itself, where it actually, like, tries to, like, fake out, like, how the camera looks in an actual televised baseball game. But there is some nice flair here with the way that the players come out and with the half at the end of the periods where you go to the scoreboard. There's even a chance to play Gradius in this. That's something I came across. Like, it seems kind of random whether you get that or you get, like, the commercial. But that was a surprise.

29:22 But, no, I mean, obviously, you really can't top bases loaded right now yet. But I did appreciate that they showed the Jumbotron. You saw these goofy animations. The celebrations for goals are a little bit more believable now than they were in ice hockey because, you know, they're all kind of gathering around. And they even have, like, what I imagine is the equivalent of the pregame warmup of just, like, you know, they're all just skating around their zone.

29:57 And, hey, at least now there's, like, we didn't actually mention that it's five on five now. So that's also a bit more realistic. So, no, I did appreciate the presentation in this game. It's not the best in any sports game that we've played, but it's getting there.

30:15 I got to go back to the fact that you can play another game in this game because I feel like that's just, like, that's, like, a level of, like, care about the audience. They're just like, oh, well, you know, let's give them a little break and actually put a whole other tiny little game. And, of course, it's a shmup, which nobody wants, but it is Gradius, so that's a plus.

30:38 It's on our essential games list. Yeah, right, right. So, like, it was kind of cool that they didn't need to include that. It probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to them, but that's a nice little touch. Yeah. It should have had, like, a, you know, buy it now at the end of that. You know, like, it went so close to being a commercial that they might as well have just said, like, available at a store near you. Yeah. Because they also flash up, like, ads for Jackal.

31:05 And Contra. And Contra, yeah. So, like, why not, you know? I think they should have just been all these. But obviously those are all Konami games, so it makes sense. It should link you to the Nintendo store. You should be able to go right there, click on it, go right to the Nintendo store on your NES, and then you get the Wii Shop channel. Yeah, the Wii eShop.

31:24 Everyone loves shopping on it every Wednesday. Because it's Wednesday. And then, Sean, you know, the tying system here, I'm a little confused because this seems kind of similar to how we handle ties in hockey now, but I don't think this was the case in, like, 1988, right? Did they do shootouts? So, I don't know the exact context of where this was used, but in some level of high-level hockey, it may have even been international hockey, they didn't just go to overtime. I think there were situations where it went to shootouts before the NHL decided to do that in, like, I think 2006, 2007.

32:14 But, no, this has precedent. Like, there was some level of hockey that did go to shootout after a tie. It is weird that there's no overtime beforehand, but, no, it's not completely goofball. Yeah, and I like that it actually forces you to decide a win or two. It's not just, like, after the five shots. Yeah, like, oh, tie it after that. Like, whatever. It's like, no, somebody must win, and we will be here all night. Yeah. So, we have Double Dribble, Track and Field, now Blades of Steel. These are the Konami sports games that we've played so far. How do we feel about Konami? I mean, we love that developer, but how do we feel about their sports games output? If I remember correctly, I think we all... We loved that developer.

33:00 Yeah. Go ahead. I think we all were pretty high on Double Dribble, right? Yeah, I like Double Dribble a lot. I'm high on all three of these games. No, I do think that these are very competent sports titles for the time. I think that Blades of Steel, I'm high on that, too. But comparing it to ice hockey, where it has some things that it does better, and it is nice that it's five on five, it does a few things that it does better. I think, like, now looking at them both so close together, I think I'd probably go ice hockey still. I still think that's maybe my favorite ice hockey game on the NES so far, just because there's a little more of choice here. Chill, Joe. Chill. Okay? I know that wasn't the question.

33:40 Yeah, yeah. We're just talking about the Konami sports games. We're not in the EGL yet. Right. But I'm just... That's why this... As far as the Konami sports games, I go Double Dribble the highest because now when I'm playing Blades of Steel, I'm thinking, well, there's another hockey game out that it's not made by Konami that I can do. The question, of course, is, though, is which sports game should Konami make next?

34:00 Like, would you want them to refine Double Dribble or Blades of Steel and try to make another one of those games? Or would you say, like, no, those games are good enough. Like, you did what you could. Now I want to see baseball. Now I want to see soccer. Like, just keep doing every sport. I mean, their track record up to this point, and, I mean, I'm kind of in the same situation as somebody in 88 would be because I don't know any more Konami sports games.

34:26 I'd like to see them take a crack at football. I'd like to see them take a crack at soccer. But I also would like to see what they can come up with with the sports that they've already touched upon because they have proven that they're at least making fun games. They may not be the most to the letter of the rule book,

34:46 but they are fun. I'd like to see them do some kind of downhill skiing, snowboarding kind of game. I think they would do that well. Their take on slalom. Yeah, their take on slalom, I bet, would be really good. Probably be essential. Probably.

35:01 Yeah. The next Konami sports game is Skate or Die. So it may be controversial that I'm listing an extreme sport as a sports game. Sports in the word, though. You're good. Yeah, sports in the word. I always thought that skateboarding was always just a real sport, too. And maybe it's because I grew up around Tony Hawk's pro skater time where it just became normalized. But, like, anything that involves physically scoring points with your body to me sounds like a sport. It does. Yeah. So if we have nothing else to talk about Blades of Steel, I think it's time that we, you know, we make a decision on Blades of Steel. Sean, is that okay with you? Uh, I can, I can abide. Okay. Sean can abide. So you, the listener, will abide us in the Essential Games list.

35:57 Sam? Hey. I don't know what I'm going to say next. And that makes me very dangerous. So I need you to vote first. Okay. Uh, this is, this is a fun sports game. I enjoyed it. I think that it's, for what it is, it has a goal and it accomplishes it very well. And I feel like, especially if I had a friend to play it with, I think I'd have a really good time. But, I don't know. I feel like if you're going to play a sports game these days, it's not this one. This ain't it. So, not Essential. Still a good, solid game, but not Essential. Well said.

36:39 Joe? Well, since, I mean, you pulled us aside before the show and mentioned that Konami didn't pay us to make this Essential. So I'm going to say no, not Essential. No, but in all seriousness, I'll say that I think that it's similar. I mean, it's a perfectly fine hockey game.

36:57 But there's just, I hate to fall into that same thing we say about all the sports games. But there's just too many other versions of hockey you can play that are better. Even one that I think maybe we already played. So I'm going to have to say not Essential. All right. And I will go next. Sorry, Sean. And I will just say that something Sam said during his Essential games list where he like, you know, he had fun.

37:21 It does what it sets out to do. I agree. 100%. I could see myself playing this game again. That doesn't mean it's on the Essential games list. And I don't know what it will take for one of these traditional sports games. Like, say, a hockey, a basketball, a football, a baseball game. I don't know what it will take to get one of them on the Essential games list. Because this one was a lot of fun. And yet it's still not there. And I don't know why that is. But I think that's because gamers, right, don't need the recommendation from us on whether they should play these kinds of games when the possibility of playing hockey has been simulated across many different systems and many different years in many different ways.

38:12 I'm not sure that I would put my foot down and say, if you've got to play one hockey game, then I know which one it is. I mean, some people would tell you NHL 94. But I might say Wayne Gretzky's 3D hockey. And somebody might play it. No, it's actually just the latest NHL 2K blah blah. You know? Like, it's always everybody's going to have a different opinion on these kinds of sports games. And there's just so many of them that I think the breadth of possibilities is too large. So that's why I keep having this internal issue about what to do with these sports games. They're fun, and I'm enjoying them. I just don't quite get to that upper echelon of video games. Sean? Well, yeah. I mean, I agree with that sentiment.

38:51 I'm not putting this on the Essential Games list. I'll get that out of the way. But I, as a sports game, I guess, fetishist, will just bring up that I kind of have my own little essential sports game list in the NES era. And I'm actually going to put this at the top of that. Like, this, if so, I mean, it's definitely not the most perfectly executed sports game. I'm not saying that this is better than any of them in that right, though it is better than most of them. But just by the implication of what they've done to the rules with the fights and how they enforce that and, like, the little changes in their presentation and just the fact that I am, by and large, a hockey fan. And I do really enjoy this game.

39:45 And, again, if you just, and I say this after every one of them, if you have any curiosity as to how sports games were sort of interpreted in this period, play this game. It's fun and it's weird and it's mostly because it's weird. But, yeah, play this game. Not essential to play it. Sean, you'll have to sometime soon publish your list of these sports games. Maybe I will. I would like to see someone on the Internet. It doesn't have to be you, Sean, but why not? Just somebody rank all the hockey games that ever came out. Oh, man, that was a lot that I haven't played, especially Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. You've never played Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey? I have not. Wow. Robin Hood and his merry men are at it again.

40:33 Anyway, just something. You remember how we were saying about, like, well, you know, the pass thing? Shoot the pass or whatever, get the pass. Yes, but it's a pass. Okay. That's what they say over and over again. That's what the announcer says over and over again in Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. He just keeps saying, Robin Hood and his merry men are at it again. And it's like, what does that mean to anybody? My favorite one of those is, I think it was NFL 2K5 or before that. But it was said after, like, a quarterback was sacked. And announcer A would say to announcer B, he'd say, man, he was groceries right there. Get it? Sacked.

41:20 And it was my favorite thing. And they said it five times a game. It was, okay. Anyway, I'm sorry. Sean, NFL 2K5, that's the one where you can, like, have your own crib, right? That's the crib game, yeah. I love that game. It's a great game. Yeah. MVP Baseball 2005 also. Those are two great sports games that I would consider over modern games. Even the show? No, no, no, no. The show is great. But in the show, I don't know the most recent version of the show. But in MVP Baseball, you could actually decide what day was bobblehead games at the stadium.

42:01 You can do that in the most recent NHL games. But I get that, yeah. You know, like, that was just cool. And I was like, and I'm going to charge $20 for those bobbles. That's perfect. I love it. I'd throw in the Backyard Sports series also. That's sacrilege. They had a hockey game. It was good. No, I'm kidding. That's fun. I like those games. Was, like, was Sidney Crosby in that? Like, who would have been the star? Sidney Crosby. No, what was the kid that was good at everything? Isn't there, like, one kid who had, like, highest stats? Yes, that's right. Pablo Sanchez.

42:33 Well, I'll tell you what. Pablo Sanchez was not needed in Blades of Steel because you can just easily score on your opponent. Everybody's Pablo Sanchez. Yeah, you needed him on the other team. Yeah. All right. Well, next week, it's not quite a sports game, but involves driving a car. And I guess you could make the argument that I'm about to introduce, like, a NASCAR game. But I'm not going to do that. Instead, it's Bump and Jump is the game of the week next week. It's an arcade-like title made by Vik Takai himself, the master creator. Vik Takai. We haven't heard from him in a while. What was the last game he put out? Goal Go 13, right? Yeah. Classic. He's an auteur.

43:16 Yeah. So, with that in mind, everybody go and play Bump and Jump all this week. Abandon all other commitments. Don't drive a real car because you're going to need all the driving abilities you have to be focused on Bump and Jump. And if Bump and Jump's not exciting to you, still listen to that episode. But in just two weeks' time, we will be doing Castlevania II, Simon's Quest. Oh, boy. Yep. The long-awaited sequel to Castlevania, of which none of us have played. So, don't spoil it for us. I need to know if Dracula dies at the end or not. I'm sure I'll find it out. He's already dead.

43:58 Oh, no. He's always been dead. Yeah. And that's it for this episode. We're coming really close to the end of 88. But we're not coming close to the end of this podcast because we're going to continue forever, guys. As long as you continue to listen, we're going to keep making episodes. So, keep it here. And if you want to let us know about how things are going, go to at NostalgiaCast on Twitter.

44:19 And just direct all comments to Sean. Start with Sean- and then say your comments. That's why Sean knows it's for him. Yeah, I'll know. Even if it's not for him. I'll relay them. Please. Yeah, even if it's not for him. Do like Sean- Joe. I think he made a mistake. Right, yeah. Right. But if it's about making a mistake, it probably would probably just leave me out of it. Also, if it's about making a mistake, it probably wasn't Joe. Right, yeah. No mistakes. Ever. That's why we call him Super Joe. This has been...

44:49 Wow. That's going full circle. So, this has been NostalgiaCast. Join us next week, as I said, for Bump and Jump. I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at Esposito Film on Twitter. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Thank you.