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NHL Breakaway 98 Package Art
 GENRE
  Sports
 DEVELOPER
  Iguana
 PUBLISHER
  Acclaim
 NUMBER OF PLAYERS
  1-4
 CONTROLLER PAK
  yes
 RUMBLE PAK
  yes
 RAM PAK
  no
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NHL Breakaway 98

NHL Breakaway 98 from Acclaim is a great game to add to your collection, for some. Others may want to buy one of the Midway Hockey games. I bought Breakaway 98 knowing it was made by Acclaim Sports -- knowing it would be all around simulation and realism, and not some arcade hockey, unrealistic crap. When you lay hands on NHL Breakaway that's exactly what you get, a great game and 100% realism - straight from Acclaim.

gameplay
The medium resolution in Breakaway '98 makes the game look incredible. Maybe nowhere near as good as Quarterback Club, but one of the best games in the graphical department. The audience is the same as the one seen in Quarterback Club but with more warping to it. You'll notice the extreme warping as you go from one end of the ice to the other or even when the national anthem is playing at the beginning of the game. The players look nice but they seem to be very lacking in detail, especially in facial detail. Literally, every single player on one team looks exactly the same. It's not noticeable while the game is in motion since the helmets cover it up, but hit that instant replay button and you'll notice it. Speaking of the instant replay, it's one of the few things I completely dislike about the game. There's not even an instant replay button. You have to barely press the analog stick to get the instant replay. When I've just hit the puck so hard into a guy that it knocks him on his butt, I want to see it slowly, over and over again, otherwise, what's the fun? I always liked the Quarterback Club instant replay with the simple, easy to use functions, so why change it to this crap? Acclaim really should have left the instant replay the same -- not the audience. As for the camera angles, I have no gripes with them -- not in one player mode anyway. But, that's because the camera is mostly focused on you, not anyone else. If you get into playing the four-player mode with friends, you're bound to get lost. A zoomed out Quarterback Club-like camera would have been nice, so I could see the whole arena. Sure, the high 45 is nice looking, but it's at an angle, which gets on my nerves. Nice graphics, bad camera angles.

gameplay
The sound in Breakaway is very much improved from what was seen in Quarterback Club, but could have used more work overall. The game starts out with a decent, pretty much well done national anthem. After it's over, the crowd cheers, but not that loud at all. As a matter of fact, the crowd doesn't really get loud unless a lot of action is going on. But, they do make sounds a heck of a lot louder than QBC. The announcer, not like Marv Albert, but a stadium announcer will make brief comments from time to time. And he'll also make two, and only two service announcements, which is a shame since the rest of the speech was quite well done.

gameplay
Ok, who took the challenge out of my NHL Breakaway cartridge and what have they done with it? Seriously, after playing the game for at least a month now, the challenge seems to be worn off -- but not so much in exhibition mode, but season. Since the difficulty in season is established by how good a team is and not what difficulty you have it set on, it's become way too easy for me. I'm playing season games one after another winning 14-0. But keep in mind that I am using one of the greatest hockey teams in the league, Colorado Avalanche. So far, my seasons record is 23-2-0, which is way too high and the only times I have lost are the two times I went into overtime. I have deleted all of the data off of my memory pak for season since it's just a waist of space and I've pretty much given up on it. It's just too easy for me. Exhibition mode on the other hand is quite fun and challenging and the best part -- I've lost more than twice! If you boost the difficulty all the way up, you should have no complaints with the challenge. Another alternative in boosting up the difficulty, which not everyone in this world has, are friends. That's right, if you find the exhibition and season mode too challenging, give the 4-player mode a shot. It's probably the best part about the game and can be arranged in a variety of different ways. For the most experienced or those who refuse to cooperate with others by being a puck hog, you may want to try 1 Vs 3. Of Course, Breakaway suffers the same multiplayer problems as ISS64 and FIFA Soccer does. You've got your ball (puck) hogs and the violent people that run around beating the crap out of the opponents giving your team penalties. Then once they get as many people kicked out as possible and there are only 3 defenders and a goalie left on the ice, guess who always turns out to be the goalie? The one who moves around too much, yeah you know who I'm talking about. He's the one who can't sit still and has to leave the goal box just to try and get the puck and score a goal himself -- or goes so far away from the goal that the computer steals the puck and scores. As most Acclaim games are, NHL Breakaway is jam packed with options. The amount of things to do are guaranteed to keep you busy for a long time. In season (if you actually want to take the time and actually play season…), you have the option of creating your player (which doesn't take up space on the memory pak, I don't think…). Wins and losses will earn you a different amount of points determined by how good you do and basically whether you win or lose. With those points, you can do a variety of different things such as going through your "Coach drafting book" and search for a coach. You will read a variety of different resumes and determine which coach best suites your team. Generally, the more you pay, the better the coach and you can hold up to four different coaches and can fire them later on if you want to. And, how complete would a hockey game be without a fighting engine in it? Acclaim has made a fighting engine specifically for fighting. Though, the fights can sometimes be hard to control and the camera can be a pain in the butt, it's a great part of the game. My only gripe is that they don't happen too much and there is no "practice fighting" option. Breakaway also features the shootout option for players to go head to head with friends or Vs the computer. This is also a good mode to practice your shooting. But a better way to practice is the practice mode. With this option, you can set the difficulty as well as the number of players you want on your team and your opponents team. With all of the options Acclaim has thrown into Breakaway 98 as well as realism and speed, you can't go wrong. Other than the slight problem in difficulty with the season mode, Breakaway 98 has extremely realistically solid gameplay.

multiplayer
See Gameplay above.

overall
NHL Breakaway is another Acclaim gem, even though it is somewhat on the easy side. But, I think a lot of people will enjoy it and have a great time with it. Especially in the multiplayer area, which is easily one of the greatest multiplayer games ever made. Acclaim has done an exceptional job with this title in packing it full of options and modes and missing only a few, minor things such as a decent instant replay as well as a challenging season mode. This game is great fun and is for all hockey fans, and even for non-hockey fans and beats Midway's Wayne Gretzky 98 in every area. Buy it.

final score 8.1/10




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