Those who pre-order NHL 21 will receive a neat bonus, by way of NHL ’94 Rewind. That’s what Electronic Arts is calling the second hockey game it plans to release this month. One that just so happens to be different from what we’re used to playing these days, and more akin to what some of us grew up with.
NHL ’94 Rewind is a new take on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game of the same name. However, instead of using classic teams from the 1993-1994 National Hockey League season, we’ll get to use modern day teams and rosters. As such, Alex Ovechkin will once again grace the cover, in pixel form.
NHL 21 will also introduce a revamped Be a Pro mode, which provides much more player choice than ever before. In a way, it’ll be like the Live the Life mode from at least one of the last-gen titles, as it’ll allow you to make decisions and converse with others, including teammates, management and the media. However, it’ll be more advanced than that ever was, because every choice you make will count towards events later in your career. Dialogue choices will also come with pros and cons, meaning that saying one thing may improve your teammates’ respect towards you, while pissing management off at the same time. This will be reflected in scores that will go up and down over time.
EA Sports also dropped a new gameplay trailer, which shows a nice amount of in-game action. This includes new moves and abilities, which have been borrowed from certain superstars’ special repertoires. For instance, there’s Sidney Crosby’s bank pass to himself, which involves banking the puck off of the back of the net. Hell, there’s even Andrei Svechnikov’s lacrosse goal, which took the League by storm not so long ago.
NHL 21 will be released on the sixteenth of October, whereas NHL ’94 Rewind is expected to drop a nostalgia bomb upon us on the 30th of this month.