Blades of Steel

NES cover artwork.

***Blades of Steel***, also known as ***Blades of Steel: The Supreme Hockey Challenge***, later released in Japan as ***Konamic Ice Hockey*** (コナミック アイスホッケー, *Konamikku Aisu Hokkē*?), is an ice hockey video game released by Konami for North American arcades in 1987, and ported to the Family Computer Disk System and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. All teams are fictional but based out of real Canadian and American cities. The game is known for its fast-paced hockey action and especially for its iconic fighting sequences. It is a one or two player game.

Two sequels were released: *NHL Blades of Steel* and *NHL Blades of Steel 2000*. The NES version was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service on December 24, 2007. The arcade version was re-released on Microsoft's Game Room service on November 24, 2010.

## Gameplay

*Blades of Steel* differs from the professional game in the NHL in the late 1980s in that it has no offside rule, and its interpretation of penalties is somewhat unusual. The game's officials only call two penalties. Players who lose a fistfight are penalized for two minutes, an abstract reworking of the five minute offsetting majors normally assigned in the event of a fight. Should a fight break out in front of one team's net, then the player on offense gets a penalty shot. The penalty shot is administered in the style of a soccer penalty shot, in that the shooting player must stand on the blue line instead of moving toward the goaltender. The game also recognizes icing infractions, with an appropriate game reset and faceoff in the liable team's zone.

Each team consists of three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender. At the beginning of the game, the player is given the option to add more coins for extended playtime, with each coin adding one minute to the period clock, and is prompted to name their team by inputting three initials.

Fighting in the game is initiated whenever two players bump into each other three times in a row without hitting another player. The two players will stop skating and engage in pre-fight confrontation where they are able to exchange punches if they choose. If a player rapidly punches their opponent during the pre-fight, there is a chance they will knock their opponent down and neither player will suffer a penalty. If mutual punches are thrown during the pre-fight sequence, then an offscreen voice will yell "Fight!" and then the fight screen will appear, where the players take control of large depictions of their characters in a close-up match. During the fight, a player can punch high, punch low, block high, or block low, and is given a health bar of five hits. The first person to get hit five times loses the fight; he is given a penalty and sent to the penalty box while the winner is not punished, creating a power play opportunity of 5-on-4 skaters. Up to four players can be penalized, for a maximum of a 5-on-1 advantage. If a fight occurs close to one of the nets, the referee may break up the fight and call a penalty shot.

After each period, an intermission time is entered where players get to play a shootout minigame. This can be displayed either by the perspective of the shooter, with him in the first plane and the goalie in the distance; or from the perspective of the goalie, with him in the first plane and the shooter in the distance. The shooter starts shooting unlimited pocks in quick succession, trying to score as many as points possible during a brief period of time, while the goalie tries to stop as many pocks as they can from entering their goal.

## Ports

### Nintendo Entertainment System

At the beginning of the game in the NES version, players can select either "Exhibition" or "Tournament" matches. An Exhibition match is just one game played against either the computer or another player. Tournament matches are similar to the NHL playoffs. It starts out as one team of the player's choice going against other teams in a playoff style tournament. The team that is successful in beating all of the opposing teams is awarded the Cup.

Next, the player gets to select between three difficulty levels: Junior, College and Pro, with Pro being the most difficult and Junior being the easiest.

There are a total of eight teams (four from Canada and four from the United States), each one representing a city that housed a NHL team at the time of development. The four Canadian cities are Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton. The four American teams are from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minnesota. Teams are depicted with jerseys that vary in color.

During the second intermission, either an advertisement with a bear shooting the puck into a net and mouthing the words "Nice Shot!" or a playable minigame for Player One to play will appear on the scoreboard. The minigame is actually the Vic Viper space fighter from *Gradius* attempting to destroy a Big Core, followed by advertisements for *Contra* and *Jackal*, two popular Konami games from the era.

If the score is tied at the end of the game, a shootout (similar to a penalty shot) is used to determine the winner. Each team gets five shots. The team with the most goals after five shots is the winner. If, after that, the game is still tied, each team keeps getting one more shot until a winner is determined.

This game also features distinct voice samples, which were rare at the time in NES games. The voice says "Blades of Steel!" on the title screen, "Faceoff" before each faceoff, "Fight!" when a fight breaks out, "It's a pass" after a successful pass is made, "Penalty shot", and an "Aaahhh!" made by the losing player after a fight or when a player skates into a goalie. The NES passing sound bite is garbled and has been interpreted as "With the pass", "It's a pass", etc., but the arcade passing sound bite is clearly audible and confirms the phrase as "Get the pass". The arcade version has a greater variety of sound bites and commentary owing to the hardware's better speech faculties and extra memory.

### LCD handheld

*Main article: Blades of Steel (LCD game)*
Like many other popular Konami games from the era (like *Contra* and *Gradius*), *Blades of Steel* also received a dedicated LCD handheld release with simplified gameplay.

## Gallery

### Packaging artwork

Arcade cabinetMarqueeControl panelNES cover artwork
### Screenshots

Title screen
(arcade)Gameplay
(arcade)
### Promotional artwork

North American flyer
(front)North American flyer
(back)German flyerNES magazine advertisement for *Blades of Steel* and *Castlevania*.
## Trivia

* The NES version features a couple of Konami cameos during the intermissions, such as advertisements for *Contra* and *Gradius*.

## External links

* *Blades of Steel* (LCD handheld) - Preserved at Internet Archive
* GameFAQs
* MobyGames