Blades of Steel

Blades of Steel is an ice hockey video game developed and published by Konami. It debuted in arcades in 1987 and was ported to the NES in 1988, where it was released in North America under Konami's Ultra Games label. Versions also reached home computers and the Game Boy.

The game presents a fast, arcade-style take on hockey rather than a simulation. Matches are quick, checking is aggressive, and a button press triggers fistfights when play gets too rough, with the loser sent to the penalty box. Between periods, a shooting-gallery bonus round breaks up the action. Blades of Steel is also remembered as an early example of digitized speech on the NES; the cartridge announces its own title and calls plays aloud, which was a notable technical touch for the hardware at the time.

The NES release was not licensed by the NHL, so teams are identified by city rather than by official names or rosters. Despite that, its responsive controls and the novelty of the on-ice fights made it one of the more popular sports titles on the system and a frequent point of nostalgia for players of the era.

Konami has returned to the property occasionally, including a Nintendo DS follow-up, but the 1988 NES game remains the version most associated with the name. Original NES cartridges are common and inexpensive on the secondhand market, and the game runs cleanly under emulation.