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| Olympic Hockey '98 | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer | Treyarch Invention |
| Publishers | |
| Platform | Nintendo 64 |
| Release | |
| Genre | Sports |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Olympic Hockey '98 is anice hockey game for theNintendo 64 that was released in 1998. It is a re-skin ofWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98, but this time not endorsed byWayne Gretzky and featuring the license for the1998 Winter Olympics that were celebrated inNagano,Japan. It was the video game developer debut ofTreyarch.[1] Besides thebox art, in-game titles, and some minor graphic changes (such as team logos and colors), every single aspect of the game is practically identical toWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98. Due to this fact, it received highly negative reviews, withIGN ratingOlympic Hockey Nagano '98 a zero.[2]
Olympic Hockey '98 features 20 playable national teams from the 1998 Winter Olympics: Austria, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
While the gameplay is very similar toWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, there are minor differences. The rink is bigger than the rink in the previous game (since it is Olympic sized). The game also lists the names of the players below the players.[3]
In Japan, the game was localized and published byKonami under the nameOlympic Hockey Nagano '98 (オリンピック ホッキーNAGANO98,Orinpikku Hakkī Nagano 98) on July 16, 1998.[4]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 44%[5] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame |   [6] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 4.625/10[7] |
| Famitsu | 24/40[4] |
| Game Informer | 4/10[8] |
| GameSpot | 5/10[9] |
| IGN | 0/10[10] |
| N64 Magazine | 60%[11] |
| Next Generation | [12] |
| Nintendo Power | 6.5/10[13] |
Olympic Hockey '98 was panned by critics for being essentially a rebranding ofWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98, which had itself been widely criticized for offering too little improvement over the originalWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. All four members of theElectronic Gaming Monthly review team decried its lack of change from the two Gretzky games, with John Ricciardi being particularly vehement: "This kind of shameless rehashing of the same game over and over makes me sick. Did you buyWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey or its incredibly unoriginal sequel with the '98 slapped on the box? If so, stay away from this baby, 'cause it's (once again) the same game."[7]IGN gave it a very rare 0 score, stating in its concise review: "We'll post a new review whenMidway releases a new game."[10]Next Generation ran a similarly concise review, remarking, "Imagine Midway took the tiredGretzky engine, added Olympic uniforms, replaced trading with 'defections,' and released it without tweaking anything but the default ring size. Well, you don't have to imagine because Midway did it."[12]
GamePro took a more positive angle on the game. While agreeing that it was virtually identical toWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98, they argued that it was reasonably distinct from the originalWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. Since the '98 game was recent enough that many interested players would not yet have bought it, they reasoned thatOlympic Hockey '98 was a worthwhile alternative for those who preferred Olympic hockey to the NHL rosters.[14]Nintendo Power was also relatively positive, praising the simulation feel of the Olympic mode, but also commented that "Olympic Hockey is so similar in most respects to the Gretzky games that Gretzky owners should think twice before making the investment."[13] In his review forGameSpot, Kraig Kujawa acknowledged that if one ignored the two Gretzky games and judgedOlympic Hockey '98 on its own terms, it was a decent game, but argued that any rating for the game had to also take into account its lack of change from those games, especially since Midway could easily have put both NHL and Olympic teams into one game, effectively makingWayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98 andOlympic Hockey '98 a single release.[9] The game held a 44% on thereview aggregation websiteGameRankings based on six reviews.[5]
