To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the seminal NHL 94, this year’s hockey title is including a unique mode honoring that game. Blue ice and rough-and-tough hockey included.

The NHL 94 Anniversary mode within NHL 14 permits you to play with current players in a setting that hearkens back to a time when gameplay was simpler and hockey was tougher. The mode uses a simplified, classic control scheme, retro presentation (including the blue ice, star icons, throwback unis, and organ music), and no penalties.

NHL 14 comes out September 10 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Our Take
NHL 94 was a game that made non-hockey fans fall in love with the game, or at the least the online game sport. Will probably be interesting to look what percentage fans just like the proven fact that the mode uses current NHL 14 gameplay rather than offering up the classic game fully intact. Perhaps there have been player licensing issues that prevented this.