Gameplay itself is actually pretty fun, if a little lacking in depth, but there's just very little to do here. The modes and features that make these games work for me just aren't here yet. Cool that they actually got the team licenses for the first time (though the rom I played was a European version that only had international teams), definitely a marker of things to come, but it isn't really there yet.

update: managed to find the US version. the playoff mode is a bit more in depth than I thought, and I just had a quadruple overtime game against the Nordiques so I'm bumping it up a star.