Face Off (1988). Play online

Summary

Face Off is Namco's 1988 ice‑hockey arcade entry built on the System 1 board. Though released only in Japan, its vibrant arcade cabinets still attract curious retro fans.

Players can pick from eight national squads – Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland, France and the host nation Japan. At the start you choose whether your team fields three or five skaters, then fight for the most goals before the clock runs out.

The game offers a Tournament mode where one or two human players tackle four CPU teams in succession, and a Versus mode that lets up to four people link separate cabinets for four‑on‑four action. Linking works much like Namco’s later Final Lap titles.

Each period ends with a ten‑second continue window that requires another coin; oddly, the losing team’s voice calls out the Greek letters “ODCH” on the countdown – the first time Namco used Greek script.

A 2009 Wii Virtual Console release revived Face Off in Japan, and contemporary arcade magazines praised its cute character designs and called it one of Namco's standout late‑80s titles.