Blades of Steel ( Jpn : Konami Ice Hockey) is an ice hockey video game released by Konami for the arcade in 1987 , and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988 . All teams are fictional but based out of real Canadian and American cities. The game is known for its fast paced hockey action and especially for the fighting .
It is a one or two player game. When playing against the computer, there are three difficulty levels to choose from: Junior, College, and Pro (with Pro being the most difficult and Junior being the easiest). Each team consists of three forwards , two defencemen , and a goaltender .
The NES version was re-released on Nintendo 's Virtual Console service on December 24 , 2007 . The arcade version was re-released on Microsoft 's Game Room service on November 24 , 2010 . [ 1 ].