Best (Original) Hockey Game Music

[srbossman79 | 25]

What hockey games have the best original music tracks?  No licensed music allowed here.  Ice hockey and Blades of Steel immediately come to mind.  Does anyone know any other tracks that are bangers? 

I run a hockey tournament that goes this weekend.  I was able to slip some Blades of Steel music in during warmups last year.  It was awesome seeing real people skating around to that tune.  I'm looking for some more tracks to splice in here and there.

Thanks All.

Capuano Classic 2024 - No info.pdf

[wongojack | 217]

I can still sing the intro/load music for SuperStar Ice Hockey on the C64, but I probably would stop short of both calling it great or playing it for anyone who didn't already know what it is.  Still, could be a fun little intro

 

 

[Sumez | 2,968]

Did anyone ever actually play a hockey game?

[srbossman79 | 25]

The commodore music is pretty cool.  Especially for an older computer game.  It's a little rough to be piping in over a loudspeaker though.  Was the commodore known for good music?  I was born too late for those and mostly only played games on console.  The NES was my first system.

[srbossman79 | 25]

39 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Did anyone ever actually play a hockey game?

Yes, actually.  I know it's fun to crap on sports titles, but hockey games are IMO the best sports games made.  Usually the more arcadish games age better because they don't have specific rosters and are more action oriented.  You're missing out if you don't give Ice Hockey (NES), Blades of SteeI (NES), NHLPA 93 (GEN), NHL 94 (GEN) or Hit the Ice (Arcade) a try.  I like to spray to all fields when playing games and sometimes that sports itch just needs to be scratched.

[CT | 95]

 

also NHL94 is one my favorite 2-player games of all time! Great stuff.

[Gloves | 11,794]

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

Did anyone ever actually play a hockey game?

I played a lot of NHL 95 with my brother as kids.

[wongojack | 217]

1 hour ago, srbossman79 said:

The commodore music is pretty cool.  Especially for an older computer game.  It's a little rough to be piping in over a loudspeaker though.  Was the commodore known for good music?  I was born too late for those and mostly only played games on console.  The NES was my first system.

The C64 had a dedicated audio chip that is very fondly remembered.  It is frequently pulled out of the C64 and used to make original synthesized music.  There are lots of examples of C64 music from the era and more modern compositions using the same or emulated hardware.  If you go down that hole, you might be there for a while.

There was a version of Blades of Steel for the C64, but I never played it.  It gets above-average reviews from Commodore fans.  You can hear at least some of the music here:  Blades of Steel - Commodore 64 - ALL endings (youtube.com), but usually when games were converted to C64 they didn't get great musical treatment.

The only other C64 hockey game that I actually played would have been Hat Trick, but it is another port, and I have no memory of the intro music at all.  Although it sounds pretty good:  Hat Trick (C64 Longplay) (youtube.com)

 

 

 

[Gloves | 11,794]

Speaking of, obviously this absolute banger wins it for me:

 

[wongojack | 217]

1 hour ago, srbossman79 said:

Yes, actually.  I know it's fun to crap on sports titles, but hockey games are IMO the best sports games made.  Usually the more arcadish games age better because they don't have specific rosters and are more action oriented.  You're missing out if you don't give Ice Hockey (NES), Blades of SteeI (NES), NHLPA 93 (GEN), NHL 94 (GEN) or Hit the Ice (Arcade) a try.  I like to spray to all fields when playing games and sometimes that sports itch just needs to be scratched.

I agree, I think Hockey and Soccer both really lend themselves naturally to video game conversion.  There are of course a lot of rules, but the basics are easy to simulate.  Object that travels mostly along ground must be put into a goal.  It is just a variation of pong and the formula was perfected for years even before the NES.  It is a good sub-genre to explore.

[PII | 1,886]

You mentioned NHL 94 on Genesis.  Check out the soundtrack for the same on Sega CD if you haven't already.

Sega CD games typically got their own unique soundtracks and so far I've never encountered a Sega CD game that didn't have Great Tunes.

There is also a Hockey game called ESPN National Hockey Night on Sega CD but I am less familiar with it...

 

 

[Sumez | 2,968]

10 hours ago, srbossman79 said:

Yes, actually.  I know it's fun to crap on sports titles, but hockey games are IMO the best sports games made. 

Not crapping on sports titles, I just don't think I've ever met anyone with an interest in any hockey games.

[RH | 4,922]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Not crapping on sports titles, I just don't think I've ever met anyone with an interest in any hockey games.

I grew up in the Southern US in a town where the nearest ice skating rink was at least 2 hours away.  We didn’t get much hockey on TV but Blades of Steel was still enjoyed by some kids and I distinctly recall hearing them talk about it.  Of course, Columbia, SC is a military town so that could be part of the reason since half my friends were in military families and had moved around from all over the US.

There’s also Wayne Gretzky hockey for the N64.  It’s not a classic but the fact that it’s a common, cheap game tells you people liked it.  I bought it when it hit the bargain bin and enjoyed it enough to get my monies worth out of it.

[JamesRobot | 5,806]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

Not crapping on sports titles, I just don't think I've ever met anyone with an interest in any hockey games.

The NHL series for Canadiens is pretty much like Madden for Americans or FIFA for the rest of the world.  Fairly big in the states too.  I played my fair share of the NES hockey games, 90s Genesis NHL titles, and remember being particularly impressed with the PS2 NHL 2001.  I pretty much stopped following hockey (and playing the games) after the 2004 season got canceled due to the lockout.

[Strange | 1,700]

I don’t have anything to contribute that hasn’t already been said, but down here in Nashville the organ dude at Preds games will play themes from hockey video games. And various other Nintendo titles too.

[Strange | 1,700]

8 hours ago, RH said:

I grew up in the Southern US in a town where the nearest ice skating rink was at least 2 hours away.  We didn’t get much hockey on TV but Blades of Steel was still enjoyed by some kids and I distinctly recall hearing them talk about it.  Of course, Columbia, SC is a military town so that could be part of the reason since half my friends were in military families and had moved around from all over the US.

There’s also Wayne Gretzky hockey for the N64.  It’s not a classic but the fact that it’s a common, cheap game tells you people liked it.  I bought it when it hit the bargain bin and enjoyed it enough to get my monies worth out of it.

Do the Canes bleed over into SC? Hockey in general is huge in Nashville and the surrounding areas in middle Tennessee. There are some Preds fans in Atlanta but I imagine that is leftover from the Thrashers leaving rather than wholly organic. Some of those fans just continued to follow Winnipeg though.

[RH | 4,922]

1 minute ago, Strange said:

Do the Canes bleed over into SC? Hockey in general is huge in Nashville and the surrounding areas in middle Tennessee. There are some Preds fans in Atlanta but I imagine that is leftover from the Thrashers leaving rather than wholly organic. Some of those fans just continued to follow Winnipeg though.

I'm not sure, but I doubt it.  I live now in NC, but west of Charlotte.  Many people don't pay attention to them around here.  I don't think the South has much interest in Hockey but not because it's a "yankee thing".  Simply put, we don't have as many ice skating rinks and you can't ice skate outside on any pond around here, ever, so we're just not experienced with the game.  People tend to like the sports that they can identify with.

That said, a lot of people for the past 20-30 years have started to move around more than they use to, which is why hockey teams can do alright in cities like Atlanta or Raleigh.

There is a farm team in Charlotte that plays in the Hornets Coliseum.  My wife and I have been to a few games when we use to live in Charlotte.  It's definitely been one of my favorite sporting events to attend too.

[wongojack | 217]

I grew up in VA, but now live in Dallas.  Hockey is much bigger in Dallas than you would think.  There are clubs and teams at the High School level.  Some colleges play at lower levels, and there are a bunch of skating centers around the DFW area (partially) sponsored by the Dallas Stars.  NHL Hockey has been here for 30 years now (wow!), and it has similar popularity to all the other pro sports that aren't the NFL.  It even seems to get more local coverage than FC Dallas despite this city's very large Mexican and Central/South American population.

I watched Hockey growing up even though I couldn't play it.  There is a reason it has been a success outside of the climates where it was created.  The sport is exciting.  The games feature plenty of offense and action on defense.  A fan of another sport can easily tell by watching who is talented, tough, or fast, AND it has the appeal of being kind of exotic for those of us who will never play a game of pond hockey.

Edited February 21 by wongojack

[fox | 1,668]

I don’t think hockey games really have original bangers if you don’t count the “jock jams” to get you hyped.  I could be missing something, but there isn’t a moon theme or dr wily stage 1 for shredding ice.

Most of the ost is generic fanfare and ambient sounds

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

I put in untold hours into the OG EA NHL. I still play it from time to time to bag me a Stanley. Wraparounds are indefensible, which is a definite knock against the game, but it's kinda fun treating it like a cheat code if you want to mess around and win by something crazy like 25-0. The title theme is very nostalgic with those synthesized genesis guitar riffs!

 

[Strange | 1,700]

6 hours ago, RH said:

I'm not sure, but I doubt it.  I live now in NC, but west of Charlotte.  Many people don't pay attention to them around here.  I don't think the South has much interest in Hockey but not because it's a "yankee thing".  Simply put, we don't have as many ice skating rinks and you can't ice skate outside on any pond around here, ever, so we're just not experienced with the game.  People tend to like the sports that they can identify with.

That said, a lot of people for the past 20-30 years have started to move around more than they use to, which is why hockey teams can do alright in cities like Atlanta or Raleigh.

There are a ton of hockey rinks in Tennessee! 

Disagree about the transplant part though. Nashville’s fanbase flourished before we got filled with transplants. I think Dallas’ was pretty organic too.

[RH | 4,922]

9 hours ago, Strange said:

There are a ton of hockey rinks in Tennessee! 

Disagree about the transplant part though. Nashville’s fanbase flourished before we got filled with transplants. I think Dallas’ was pretty organic too.

Well, I think it's two fold--you mentioned there's a ton of Hockey rinks in Tennessee.  This means the activity is accessible to people in the region.   At least where I was located, ice skating was something you might do on a winter vacation.  That's a key component to the sport.  As a general observation, I feel that people connect better with a sport when they feel they can have some form of physical, personal connection to it.  At a minimum, that's going to a local game and watching kids learn to grow into the sport.  Where I grew up, there was no hockey.  Sure, we knew of the sport. I never heard anyone dog on it.  But no one was interested in it.  I think in my entire childhood I might have seen one kid actually where a hockey jersey.  It was just off our radar.  The kids who did seem to care about it or talk about it were kids who's parents were in the military, or their parents had retired and stayed in our area.

So, it's not that it's not a Southern-thing.  It's that in the South, you have wide pockets of areas where people don't (or at least didn't in the 80s-90s) have any experience directly with the game.  It's kind of like flipping through the ESPN channels and seeing a Rugby or Cricket match in the US.  You might stop and watch it for 5-10 minutes because it's something different and interesting but you're probably not going to dedicate much of your time to it.  It's too foreign to your life experience.

[srbossman79 | 25]

I get that Geography differences correlate to interest level.  It would make sense that you wouldn't be much interested in hockey if you are never able to do it in a park, yard or on a pond.  I'm in the midwest.  Growing up, the public works would flood the park and make a big snow bank around it.  It was cold enough at that time that the sheet would last from early Dec to late Feb. 

I've been looking around and don't see a ton I can pipe in as far as the hockey themes beyond the big ones mentioned above.  I've shifted my focus to music I can play while the Zamboni is driving.  The shop theme from Earthbound is definitely going to get a play.  There is a version of it by Tom Brier on Youtube that is amazing. 

I'm thinking "game shop/store" themes might be a better fit for while the zamboni is going.  Any recommendations there?