Hit the Ice

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Hit the Ice
Arcade flyer showing character Phil Bunger
Developer(s)	Taito, Williams, Midway
Publisher(s)	JP: Taito NA: Williams/Midway
Composer(s)	Hiroshige Tonomura
Platform(s)	Arcade, SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Boy, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16
Release	December 1990
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	1-4 players
Arcade system	Taito B System

Hit the Ice is an ice hockey sports video game originally released by Taito, Williams and Midway for arcades in 1990. The game is a cartoonish representation of the sport with three players on each team: forward, defense, and goalie. There are few rules, as players are encouraged to trip, elbow and kick opponents.

Taito released ports of Hit the Ice for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Boy and Super NES. An NES version was developed but not released.^[1]

Hit the Ice is based on the game of ice hockey, the aim of the game being to outscore one's opponent by shooting the puck into the opponent's net more often than the opponent over three periods of play.^[2]

The game is unique because instead of having six players per team, the game only has three (forward, defense, and goalie). In the arcade version there are only two teams (Red and Blue) and players can be chosen for each position.^[2]

During games, there are very few rules. Players have special moves, most of which are illegal moves in actual ice hockey (such as slashing, tripping, elbowing, or kicking opponents in the groin). Fights are common, though a player losing a fight is not penalized. Instead, he becomes sluggish for a short period. If the player loses several fights in one period, he leaves the game with an injury.^[2]

Every player is capable of a "super shot", which must be charged beforehand. If allowed to charge and shoot, the shot will hit the goaltender with such force that he is knocked back into the net along with the puck, counting as a goal. If a team is far enough behind, his team may receive a power-up in the form of a "super drink", making the stick of the player who consumes it flash with energy and turning every shot into a super shot for a short time.^[2]

• Iven Yakashev, spoof of a Soviet player from 1972
• Phil Bunger, spoof of Phil Esposito
• "Dicky" Fontaine, spoof of Dickie Moore
• Al Gigliano
• Johnny Novak
• "Happy" Golecki ("happy-go-lucky")
• Pierre Bourdoir
• Ben Dover
• "Gunner" Hall, spoof of Glenn Hall
• "Battleship" Boyd
• Reggie Marsh
• "Bo" Cleveland

The arcade game was a hit in the United States, where weekly coin drop earnings averaged $192.25 per arcade unit during November and December 1990.^[3]

In the United Kingdom, Hit the Ice was the top-selling PC Engine game in October 1991.^[4]

• 2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge

• Hit the Ice at the Killer List of Videogames
• "Hit the Ice" at the PC Engine Software Bible
• Information about the unreleased NES version
• Hit the Ice can be played for free in the browser on the Internet Archive
• Hit the Ice at MobyGames