Major League Hockey is an ice hockey game. The concessions in comparison with the real game are only four (instead of five) field players and the lack of referee interventions with the exception of the offside rule. Two teams face against each other in a friendly. When the player has the puck, the available actions are to shoot towards the goal or pass to another player. Otherwise is is possible to either check the active enemy athlete or change the controlled athlete, either by automatically going to the one nearest to the puck or making an exact selection. The available options are the length of the thirds (two, five or twenty minutes) and the strength of the computer AI in three steps. The up to four (two on Atari 1200XL) players can be freely divided between the two teams.