is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

arcade game developed and released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

for Japan only in 1988. Up to four players control players from one of eight hockey teams against each other, the objective being to score the most points before the timer ends. Similar to Namco's own ''

Final Lap is a 1987 racing simulation video game developed and published by Namco. Atari Games published the game in the United States in 1988. It was the first game to run on Namco's then-new System 2 hardware and is a direct successor to Namco's ''Pol ...

'', multiple cabinets can be linked together to enable multiplayer play. It runs on the

Namco System 1 Namco was a video game developer and publisher, originally from Japan. Bandai Namco Entertainment is the successor to Namco and continues manufacturing and distributing video games worldwide. For Namco games released following the 2006 merger wit ...

arcade board. ''Face Off'' received a favorable critical reception for its visuals and gameplay. A digital re-release for the

Wii Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

was released in Japan in 2009.

Gameplay

''Face Off'' is an ice-hockey arcade game. Players select one of eight hockey teams (

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, the

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Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, Japan, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Sweden,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

) in two gameplay modes. Tournament Mode has one to two players face four CPU-controlled teams. Versus Mode enables up to four players competing against each other. Players can select how many players their team has.

Release

''Face Off'' was released in Japan in December 1988. It runs on the

arcade system. Much like Namco's own ''

'' series, ''Face Off'' allows cabinets to be linked for four-player multiplayer.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Face Off'' on their February 1, 1989 issue as being the eighteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. The July 1991 issue of ''Gamest'' magazine was highly positive of the game, calling its character designs "cute" and labeling it one of Namco's more impressive titles in their late 1980s game output.

References

External links

Face Off at the Killer List of VideogamesFace Off on the Wii Virtual Console at IGN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Face Off (Arcade Game) 1988 video games Arcade video games Ice hockey video games Namco arcade games Japan-exclusive video games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games