EA signed up MBL Research to bring the classic 16-bit EA Sports hockey franchise to the N64. Yes, it is a port of the previous year's PlayStation NHL game, but when you give a starving man a cracker it's going to be the best cracker he's ever had. With all due respect to both Eddie Murphy and MBL Research, NHL '99 took advantage of the N64's capabilities well enough to provide a robust and full hockey game regardless of the other drivel that had appeared on the N64 to that point. You had the full license, you had all of the arenas, you had all of the rules and regulations of hockey, of course. More than all of that however, you had the nonstop hockey action that had been missing from the N64 library.