Reviewer: Greg Sewart Iguana Entertainment Acclaim Now Cartridge n the N64’s seemingly never-ending search for a decent hockey game, Acclaim’s Breakaway 98 seems to be the best hope in a long time. I mean, when you consider the competition, which is essentially three versions of Wayne Gretzky’s Hockey, the benchmark hasn’t exactly been set that high. I’d heard nothing but good things from various people about this game, so my expectations may have been somewhat too high the first time I turned it on. I was greeted with some very disappointing organ music upon startup, but didn’t let that phase me. After sifting through the generous amount of options, like full season mode, playoffs, create player and all the obligatory rule changes you can apply, I finally started my game. At this point the sound was getting no better. The announcer was completely broken and sounded far from natural. The graphics looked fine, if not spectacular. As my players lined up at the blue line for the Star Spangled Banner, I noticed that the game actually plays the entire song, not just the first few bars, as is usually the norm in sports titles. Decent graphics can't help the bad gameplay. Then it was time for the face-off, I lost. The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that the puck had all the glowing, streak effects made famous by Fox’ NHL Broadcasts. Having been raised on CBC’s superior Hockey Night in Canada telecasts, I promptly turned them off. However, one thing I couldn’t fix was the amazingly useless playing cameras. While there’s a large selection, not one of them offer the view of the ice required to do any real play-making. I finally settled on the one view that was closest to playable, and forged on. The next problem arose during the game, as I tried to move down the ice. First of all, I’ve always wanted the referee to be present on the ice, ever since EA’s first NHL Hockey game for the Genesis. Breakaway provides this small but important feature, the problem is that the ref is constantly in the way. Although that’s somewhat forgivable, and even a tad realistic, what can’t be forgiven is the fact that your own computer controlled teammates seem to go out of their way to foil any attempt at moving to the attack. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve actually been tied up by someone wearing the same jersey, and I needn’t tell you how completely irritating that is. The fuzzy trademark lives on. I gritted my teeth and continued on. Hell, this was only the first period! To Iguana’s credit, the opposing team was putting up a great fight, and creating any plays was tough to do. Finally I ended up on a 2 on 1 rush to the other net. Just as I closed in, I tried to pass to my open man. Unfortunately, the computer decided that that was the most opportune time for a line change. My pass bounced off the back of the other player’s skates as he approached the bench, and I saw red. I know that a few of the problems I’ve talked about can be fixed simply by changing a few options here and there, and playing multiplayer games. But the fact of the matter is that these things simply shouldn’t happen at all. Even though the competition on this particular system isn’t that great, it’s no excuse to create a hockey game with so many obvious flaws. The only saving grace for this game has to be the four player mode, which does offer a good time. Even then, though, the control is pretty sluggish. When you consider the other hockey games available for the N64, Breakaway 98 is easily the best one. However, that’s a somewhat dubious honour... -- Greg Sewart Gaming Age Online is Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.