Pros: Graphics, sound, excitement, bodychecks
Cons: gameplay, commentary
The bottom line: I recommend it to teenagers who will get a kick out of its many features.
I bought NHL 99, made by EA sports, the first month in came out. It cost around eighty bucks and looked promising in the commercials. Unfortunaetly I found a few minor problems with this game. Here's why:
Don't get me wrong, NHL 99 is still the best hockey game for the nintendo sixty four. But look at its sad competition. You have got Wayne Gretzky's 3d Hockey and Wayne Gretzky's 3d Hockey 98 which I would not have bought if it had not been endorsed by my idol. There is the Olympic game which is very much like Wayne Gretzky's. There is NHL Breakway and NHL Blades Of Steel. These games are decent and worth renting for an afternoon or two, but not worth shelling out eighty bucks a pop brand new. Now that i look back NHL 99 was not that BAD of an investment, but I wish it would have been a little bit better.
The big problems with this game is its gameplay and commentary. The graphics are very decent ( I rate them a nine out of ten). The graphics are very smooth and continously lifelike. The ice surface is awesome, and actually get noticably worse as time progresses (as in real hockey games). You can create players, make them seven feet tall, three hundred pounds, and colored (which is cool). You can control your goalie, a neat feature, and you can customize your defensive and offensive units. They can play triangle, big box, umbrella, man to man, you name it. Your probably wandering what the heck is so bad about it then. Well for starters the player control is not that great. The players you control are not very graceful. You can not get a true sense of control or precision with the analog stick. If you make your player speed up and you try make him turn sharp, he just makes a very wide circle. Another thing is that you can not take a slap shot and hit the net further than the oppositions blue line unless it is an open net. You can not lift your shot if your past the blue line, and I believe that you can not hit the crossbar. The commentary is very horrible. Bill Clement seems like he has only nine sayings, including the annoying FREIGHT TRAIN WOOOOOOO WOOOOO!, and SCORESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!. Obviously this can get very annoying after a while, which it does. However, it does have some cool features. They include, big checks, spin aramas, one timers, break the glass shots, disallowed goals, and aging ice. Although its obvious flaws are easily detected, so are its fine features.
This game is fun for the first little while. It is the best hockey game for the nintendo sixty four, and with the GameCube and Xbox soon arriving, its seems that sports games will become a necessity for the newer consoles only, and not for the historic N64. This is truly a shame, because I believe that it has tremendous potential, but if games aren't made for it, it will become history quick. But maybe things will change (doubtful). Anyway, NHL 99 in conclusion is good enough if you are an avid hockey fan, like me, but not if you are a perfectionalist.

Remember, keep your stick on the ice and keep your head up!