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''Olympic Hockey '98'' is an
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
game for the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
that was released in 1998. It is a re-release of '' Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98'', but this time not endorsed by
Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
and featuring the license for the
1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...
that were celebrated in Nagano,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. It was the video game developer debut of
Treyarch Treyarch Corporation ( ; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer based in Los Angeles with Additional studio locations in Vancouver, Canada; and Austin, Texas. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it ...
. Besides the box art, in-game titles, and some minor graphic changes (such as team logos and colors), every single aspect of the game is practically identical to ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98''. Due to this fact, it received highly negative reviews, with ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' rating ''Olympic Hockey Nagano '98'' a zero.


Gameplay

''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 to ''Wayne 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.


Release

In Japan, the game was localized and published by
Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...
under the name on July 16, 1998.


Reception

''Olympic Hockey '98'' was panned by critics for being essentially a rebranding of '' Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98'', which had itself been widely criticized for offering too little improvement over the original '' Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey''. All four members of the ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...
'' 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 buy ''Wayne 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." ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' gave it a very rare 0 score, stating in its concise review: "We'll post a new review when Midway releases a new game." '' Next Generation'' ran a similarly concise review, remarking, "Imagine Midway took the tired ''Gretzky'' 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." ''
GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...
'' took a more positive angle on the game. While agreeing that it was virtually identical to ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98'', they argued that it was reasonably distinct from the original ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey''. Since the '98 game was recent enough that many interested players would not yet have bought it, they reasoned that ''Olympic Hockey '98'' was a worthwhile alternative for those who preferred Olympic hockey to the NHL rosters. ''
Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninte ...
'' 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." In his review for ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'', Kraig Kujawa acknowledged that if one ignored the two Gretzky games and judged ''Olympic 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 making ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98'' and ''Olympic Hockey '98'' a single release. The game held a 44% on the review aggregation website
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
based on six reviews.


References


External links

* {{Treyarch 1998 video games 1998 Winter Olympics GT Interactive games Ice hockey video games Konami games Midway video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo 64 games Nintendo 64-only games Sports video games set in Japan Treyarch games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in 1998 Video games set in Nagano (city) Winter Olympic video games