Old Time Hockey is like EA NHL’s beer-league cousin

For the first time in 25 years, my Detroit Red Wings are not in the NHL playoffs. It’s weird, and it’s making it difficult for me to enjoy the hockey league’s official video game from Electronic Arts. This is where Old Time Hockey steps in, providing an alternative take on the frosty sporting action I still crave.

Old Time Hockey from development studio V7 Entertainment tries to combine familiar mechanics sports games with the look and feel of the 1977’s Slap Shot, a flick about a squad of misfits on a minor league team. Like in that movie, Old Time Hockey is as much about fighting as it is about scoring goals. But unlike Slap Shot, the hockey and the fighting is not a ton of fun — at least that’s my impressions after spending around four hours with it. And I think that’s because it is stuck emulating EA’s NHL games instead of forging its own identity.