Developer: Sculptured Software Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment

Released: February 26, 1998 Rated: E 6/10

A year on from the N64’s North American release, it’s surprising to think that it was still missing several sports simulations, including any baseball games in spite of a number of them already being released in Japan. And while basketball and hockey had already received high-energy arcade ports in NBA Hangtime and Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey, respectively, the winter of 1997-98 is when these more grounded titles would start to file in. Funny how that would change almost immediately with the next generation of consoles touting sports games among some of their only launch titles.

Acclaim’s approach to sports titles being as serious and methodical as possible takes form here, and the strong contrast to the only other hockey title in Wayne Gretzky highlights this approach even in a high-speed sport with minimal break time. That being said, video game AI is still wanting for the sport at the time, and while it can be beneficial to switch between different strategies like Breakaway has on offer, the most enjoyable way to play the game is still that of all video game hockey up to this point: crash the net, don’t stop moving, pepper the goalie, and, of course, turn off the offsides rule.

NHL Breakaway 98 definitely has all the features and structure needed to provide what was a serviceable game for its console and time period, and it makes sense what’s on offer here with Acclaim striving for the most realistic approach. There’s a season mode with lots of stat tracking and some nice advancement options to keep developing your team, like prospects and staff management. Though there’s no fantasy draft option, there is the option to create players both in and out of an ongoing season. And while individual gameplay sliders are still a few years off from being standard, the amount of gameplay and rules options are still nice, including separate difficulty options for goalie skill, game speed, and referee leniency.

This all sets up pretty nicely for what is a perfectly playable game on the ice, but certainly not without its issues. Gameplay is still easy enough to pick up with your basic controls of passing, shooting, and speed burst/checking making up the majority of your inputs. There’s a real flaw, of course, that’s specific to a lot of older hockey, basketball, and soccer titles, wherein passing on offense and switching players on defense aren’t on the same button and can’t be changed to do so. Just something that’s definitely hard to go back to, as common as it is in older titles. The game speed is usually pretty good, obviously not being as fast as Gretzky 3D by default, but the options can make it too fast or too slow at the most extreme ends of the spectrum.

It’s hard to describe a game that is only quantifiably different from games that are better, specifically NHL 99, through its negative aspects, without making it seem completely unplayable, but it’s not anything so extreme. While being perfectly solid and playable, it has quirks that just make it not as consistently good as its eventual competition or similar games on other systems. Mostly, it’s a decent pace and sense of speed that has a tendency to rubber band itself a little too much – skaters with no momentum will proceed to wallow like they are ankle deep in molasses if their own acceleration or speed stats aren’t up to snuff, while faster skaters can cover the ice in only a few strides, highlighting once again that Breakaway 98 simply has too broad a set of upper and lower limits on its physics. The other complaint I would make is that goalie difficulty is a bit random, which is another issue that a lot of older hockey titles seem to deal with – not being sure how to decide on how goalies get to be beaten by a shot, or at least, not having the technical ability to portray shots as being worthy of finding the back of the net. Best to play with the default difficulty but less-talented goaltenders, so you can get a good number of quality shots past them, but defenses will play you a little stronger so that there are fewer actual worthy ones.

NHL Breakaway 98 has enough on offer for gameplay and options to be one of the more solid options for hockey on the N64 if the arcade style isn’t your thing. The other main thing that’s objectively noticeable during gameplay is the lack of sound design. No commentary and minimal additional sounds or music while you’re moving up the ice should definitely have been left in the previous generation, and comparing it directly to NHL 99, this is one of the main features that EA’s only hockey release objectively has on Breakaway 98. And I think if there was better commentary or sound design, I would even look at these games being more on par even with Breakaway’s peculiarities. With Breakaway 98 being the most common and affordable of the N64’s handful of hockey offerings, it’s definitely worth a try if you’re like me and want to try the many interpretations of the sport to be had, but it’s unlikely to become your standby even without being outright lacking in most areas.

Additional Information

Saves: Controller Pak

Compatible With: Rumble Pak

Players: 1-4

Print Guides: None

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 77.79%, based on 12 reviews

Other Releases: EU, February 26, 1998

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