Best sports games of all time?

[houstonlibrarian]

I put a list out there on my blog. Most of them are classic games, with only the Wii Sports making a brief appearance. Let me know if you agree or disagree with the choices?

Classic Sports Games (http://librarianchat.com/?p=23)

[FxMercenary]

Mutant league Football.

NBA Jam (Tournament Edition, lol bill clinton )

edit: Pebble beach golf links ( sega saturn ) god its so cheesy with the recorded video commentaries its epic!

[j1e]

MVP Baseball 2005.

[Streetball 21]

Baseball Stars (NES)

[Lostdwarf]

NHLPA 93 (either genesis or snes)

remember this

:go behind the goalie on the bottom of the screen skate left right left right the goalie froze, andyou scored::

[Xtincthed]

Fifa Road to the worldcup 98
haven't played a sportsgame since (not counting mario sports games)

playing indoors kicked ASS!

[darkhades]

Nhl 94

[gepeto]

World Series Baseball for the Saturn

[tom]

Pong.

Super Mario Kart number 1? then you haven't played Checkered Flag, 2-people lynxed up,1000 times better. Now there's an excellent sports racer. (Looking through the list you mostly played Nintendo sports games only, try some excellent Genesis, PSX or Amiga sports titles, way better than the Nintendo stuff)

[Cauterize]

You missed the best one of all time out, Sensible Soccer (Amiga).

[Ro-J]

Mike Tyson's Punch Out

Pro Wrestling (NES)

NHL '94

And if Mario Kart can count as a sports game, then I would like to throw in Street Fighter II as a MMA entry.

[TurboGenesis]

My favorite sports games are all found on the Neo Geo.

Baseball Stars 2
League Bowling
Neo Turf Masters

and one on Dreamcast…

Tennis 2k2 or Virtua Tennis

These mentioned sports games are timeless, enjoyable, competitive, and great while playing with a friend…

[crom]

Mike Tyson's Punch Out

Pro Wrestling (NES)

NHL '94

And if Mario Kart can count as a sports game, then I would like to throw in Street Fighter II as a MMA entry.

lol haahaha... true said...

yes put punchout on that... and nhl 94 (although i liked 93 and 95 more)

id also like to add world series baseball for genesis... that game is probably the greatest baseball game of all time...

[Kevincal]

Hmm, I dunno about counting racing games as sports games in the videogame world. It's ok in the real world, but there are just too many sports and racing games to combine them in one genre imo.

[Therealqtip]

Blitz for the N64

[sebastiankirchoff]

Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!!
Tony Hawks Pro Skater (not sure if that counts)
Wii Sports
And if racing games count, Mario Kart Double Dash.

[Ruudos]

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (SNES)

[cyberfluxor]

I'm not much of a sports gamer, but below are some of my favorites:
Tennis for the Nintendo Game Boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7jyWR3HDBU)
Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghznH7Jtbw)
Capcom Bowling in the Arcade (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPLc9eFDbEU)
Blades of Steal release on Nintendo Entertainment System (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuFHWToil8s)
Konami's Track & Field at the Arcade (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLeNExXflkc)
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleased for PC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqAxGpSr8Q)
NBA Jam T.E. for Arcade (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuRo63ZW5Z0)

[Atarileaf]

Ice Hockey on the 2600

BTW, whats the difference between regular Punch-Out and Mike Tyson Punch Out? (Besides the ear biter being in one?) Aren't they basically the same game? I just picked up a regular Punch-out yesterday.

[Nebagram]

Discounting motorsport? I assume? :p In which case, SWOS beats just about everything there ever was into a cocked hat, shits in said hat and buries it under twenty feet of soil. Sheer perfection.

[sniperCCJVQ]

Ice Hockey on the 2600

BTW, whats the difference between regular Punch-Out and Mike Tyson Punch Out? (Besides the ear biter being in one?) Aren't they basically the same game? I just picked up a regular Punch-out yesterday.

Same thing except for Tyson, replaced by Mr Dream

[sebastiankirchoff]

BTW, whats the difference between regular Punch-Out and Mike Tyson Punch Out? (Besides the ear biter being in one?) Aren't they basically the same game? I just picked up a regular Punch-out yesterday.

I do not believe there are other differences, besides different cartridge art and Mr. Dream replacing Mike.

[ryborg]

List is worthless: no Capcom's Soccer Shootout.

(Actually it's a pretty good list. I also liked your most recent post about Snafu.... my first-ever favorite game.)

[houstonlibrarian]

Yeah, I was hesitant about putting that Super Mario Kart in there. A true racing game, I would have been more sure of, but a cartoonish game like that...
I still loved this game so much though, that I had to give it a little bit of play in the list.

Thanks for the SNAFU mention too.
I played endless hours with my dad. Takes me back to my youth. So simple, yet so fun.

[Xtincthed]

btw does shaq-fu count? ;)

[madman77]

To me, a great game has to still hold up today. Those Intellivision (or Intellicion as stated in the article) games do not hold up at all. Others on the system do, but those sports games do not.

Others on the list do as well as some mentioned here. NBA Jam TE will still be fun 10 years from now.

[Nirvana]

I feel as if we've had this thread a ton of times...

Ah well.

ESPN NFL 2k5 - This game was released at $20 and it blew Madden out of the water. Hell, Madden never even had gang tackling until either last year or the year before, while NFL 2k5 had it. 2k5 was a true simulation football game, as it didn't have the arcadey feel Madden did. There are a ton of hardcore 2k5 fans including myself who continue to update the roster every year.

NHL Hitz 2002 - Classic hockey game. Although it was only 3 on 3, it still provided an incredible and hilarious hockey experience at the same time. Huge hits and added turbo to the gameplay created a fast game that everyone, even non hockey fans can enjoy. Hell, I don't even watch hockey and this is still an insanely fun game.

NBA Jam - Tournament Edition - A bunch of people have already mentioned this incredible basketball game, but I'll throw it in here as well. This was the ultimate party game as a kid if you had a multitap and 3 other people to play with. Gotta love doing those alleyoops.

I better not see a Madden game mentioned. As someone said before, the topic title says "Best sports games of all time. Sure, Madden was ahead of Tecmo Bowl in terms of detail and all that other junk when it came out, but there is definitely not one Madden game that is completely different than the rest in the series that one can play years from now. The games I mentioned are always gonna be incredible games.

[houstonlibrarian]

How can you not include Madden. It'd be like a best classic arcade games thread without Pacman.

Madden is the king of sports games for a reason. You can't pick one out of the bunch probably, you're right about that. But, the series as a whole is spectacular.

[robotriot]

If fantasy sports count, I'd like to mention Speedball 2 and M.U.D.S.

[pfp]

I'm not a sports game fan at all, but NBA Jam (http://cgi.ebay.com/NBA-Jam-Super-Nintendo-SNES-basketball-FreeShip_W0QQitemZ390045027871QQcmdZViewItemQQptZV ideo_Games_Games?hash=item5ad07ece1f&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262?refid=store) was able to capture my interest.

Also, surprised NFL BLITZ didn't make it on here - always saw it of the NBA Jam for football!

[TheRedEye]

No Kunio games in this entire thread? I'm disappointed!

Super Dodgeball
Ike! Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu
Kunio-Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League

The latter two were planned but unreleased in the US as Crash 'N the Boys Ice Challenge and Crash 'N the Boys Soccer Challenge, I think they would have been cult hits if they'd made it out.

[houstonlibrarian]

Never played any of those redeye. Maybe I should give them a look. I did play Kings of the Beach and Super Spike VBall. those were both pretty fun to play.

[nebrazca78]

World Series Baseball for the Saturn

I though WSB for Genesis was so much better than any of the Saturn versions.


Blitz for the N64

Here I thought the original Blitz for PS1 was way better than the N64 version.

[The 1 2 P]

Blades of Steel(Nes) and NBA Jam(Genesis) should always be on any classic list.

[Nirvana]

How can you not include Madden. It'd be like a best classic arcade games thread without Pacman.

Madden is the king of sports games for a reason. You can't pick one out of the bunch probably, you're right about that. But, the series as a whole is spectacular.

Because the series as a whole =/= one game. Although the original post's link includes Madden, I'm viewing the topic as if it was asking what are the best sports games of all time, individually. Which games are able to stand the test of time, which not many are able to do since everyone loves having recent updates to their teams.

We're all entitled to our own opinions; of course Madden can be described as spectacular due to the fact that it sells over a million units every year. But look at the facts. It's the only football game that is able to used the licensed NFL players and coaches names. Of course it's going to sell a ton of units, since there's no other football game to buy. Not to mention, a lot of people grew up playing Madden and unfortunately refused to even touch the 2k series, despite it being light years ahead of Madden at the time in terms of gameplay and graphics. For all of us football fans who were sick of Madden's same ol same ol arcadey gameplay every year, we were able to have our lovely football simulation game in NFL 2k5. Until 2005, that is. Such a shame.

[MASTERWEEDO]

Mutant League Hockey
NBA Jam
Greatest Heavyweights
Boxing Legends of The Ring
Bass Master's Classic: Pro Edition

[Baloo]

NBA Jam T.E. (Preferably Arcade and Saturn)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
NBA Jam (Genesis and Arcade)

Every other sports game can go drop off the face of the Earth. These three will be played for YEARS and YEARS to come.

[houstonlibrarian]

I guess I see your point.
I didn't like the 2k series at all. The movement of the players were too boxy and they always m,oved at 90 degree angles.

[p_b]

Decatlon (IBM XT)

[tom]

Also not to forget the excellent C64 Games series: Summer Games, Summer Games 2, Winter Games, World Games, California Games, these are lots of great multi player games and...playable with a REAL joystick

[Malon_Forever]

Hangtime, Madden 03

[houstonlibrarian]

I actually have Summer Games 2 for Commodore 64 on my best games to play with a friend on the blog.