Times where so much easier “back in the day” when sport games didn’t have all the mess like it does today, where you could just pick up and play without having to sort out man marking, remembering how to perform the latest special tricks to get past certain positions, etc etc, sheesh I miss the good old days of sports games like Sensible Soccer, Mutant League series, Speedball 2 and dozens more that are classed as classics, even to this very day; and if you missed the good classics like myself, then this is where I want to invite you to try out this fast paced, silky smooth, pixel styled, violent, SBH (Super Blood Hockey) and yes it is an ice hockey game.
Even at this very early stage of it’s life where you can only play an exhibition game, it’s still showing great promise with how bug free, (no crashes or in-game reboots) the AI is smart to have a quick up and play, (I’ve played 5 games so far, all lost 6-3, 7-2, 5-4 and I forgot the first 2 scores, but you can tell from an aged 30+ gamer, goals do come) The period length can be set to 1 minute, up to 10 minutes, so if you’re waiting on an update to finish, or have a few minutes spare time, this is a great free beta to try at http://superbloodhockey.com/.
Graphically it’s exactly how you remembered 8 Bit games, pixelated; but not to the extreme where you can’t decipher if you got the puck or the referee at the end of your stick, which reminds me, the referee is about on the ice at all times, and its great fun punching him down flat on the ice, but be warned though he can get in your way and deflect your shots and passes just like the other players on the rink.
Violence isn’t too much in SBH you only see pixel blood splatters when an player hits another, there’s no sin bin time or any kind of fouling system in place so you can be as lethal as want it to be.
At the moment there is only local multiplayer with you and up to 4 of your buddies where you get to choose from mouse n’ keyboard for 1 person and the rest are X-input compatible, e.g. Xbox 360 controllers but later on in SBH life there will be an online multiplayer which will be damn fun and i can just imagine playing with a group of mates on a voice chat program like Discord and the many variances.
The music is very old skool chiptune with a variety of “beeps, and bops” and makes you feel that you really are playing something of the 8 bit era, and it suits the game really well,
Controls are as easy to manage for keyboard users as it’s WASD to move the controlled player, and pressing E switches to another closer player to the puck and using left click on the mouse to pass it, or low weak shot, or even hold the aforementioned button to do a fast powerful shot that you charge up, along with a charge up bar under the player; but be warned it’s less accurate as a weaker shot.
Sadly you can’t configure your own keybindings, but the developer, Loren Lemcke has said that the game plays best with a gamepad, but personally I found it easy enough to control with mouse ‘n keyboard.
Screenshots used are made by the developer Loren Lemcke
This looks cool, I like the idea of being a classic inspired sports game. I can’t wait for multiplayer!