While sports games have been part of the industry since the very start,. Nintendo’s early sports games on the NES tended to be rather terrible. Most of these games would have slow pacing and sluggish controls and generally didn’t leave any desire for replay. They may have their fans, bit this is more due to a nostalgia filter than anything else. The fact is that most of the games had serious issues as seen in games like Golf, and the trend of bad sports games continued until Nintendo changed things up with the release of Ice Hockey.
One might think Ice Hockey is just another generic early sports game due to the name, but it was much more and Ice Hockey actually marked a turning point for Nintendo and their sports games. Now the sluggish controls and slow pace were gone and replaced with responsive controls and a game that felt natural to play, and you could even increase the speed for more of a challenge or fun. The resulting game was an NES sports game that still is fun to play today, and had a lot of new innovation even as it took time to cut the bloat that was in Nintendo’s earlier sports titles. You could do neat things in this game like adjust the look and size of the players, and even get sent to the penalty box. It had simple and easy to learn yet contained deep gameplay. The game even incorporated brawls and getting sent to the penalty box, and had decent animation while doing so.
Ice Hockey has a deeper legacy than we realize, as it was not just the first good Nintendo sports game, it was the game that laid the foundation for all later Nintendo sports titles, including Mario Kart, Mario tennis and Super Mario Strikers. It was the turning point where Nintendo made their sports games more cartoonish instead of going for a more realistic idea. This in turn created the Nintendo formula for sports titles that the company still uses to this day. This is why I feel Nintendo should look into reviving the game for the modern day on the Switch. Nintendo would not need to go for an NHL license either, as they could create new bespoke teams, or simply go for the route of having country based teams again.
A new game should not only feature multiple online and local multiplayer modes, but enough content for a single player mode as well. There are enough fans who just want an alternative hockey game, and Nintendo could provide that. Perhaps taking a cue from Sega Soccer Slam and make everything over the top cartoonish. The classic game has aged well and should be a basis to build on and expand with new ideas as well.
Nintendo does not have too many sports games besides the Mario sports titles, and Nintendo fans would love a new hockey game on Nintendo systems. This could be a golden opportunity for Nintendo to revive and IP and try something new at the same time.