Crazy Sports Games

[celerystalker]

I like over the top, entirely unrealistic sports games. Super Baseball 2020, Brutal Sports Football, Super Dodgeball, Mutant League games... what are some of your favorite bizarre, unrealistic sports games? I'd love to find some I haven't heard of.

[Pr3tty F1y]

You've probably heard of the NFL Blitz/NBA Jam series, but those would be highly recommended.

Perhaps Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoopy%27s_Silly_Sports_Spectacular) on the NES (which, even more oddly, was a Donald Duck game in Japan because of licensing differences). Then there's Technos series of dodge ball games with super deformed characters that I believe are out of the River City Ransom universe.

Does the Punch Out series for boxing count? I'll see what else I can think of.

[celerystalker]

Yes, I've heard of all of those, but they are great fun. The Technos gsmes you're thinking of are the Downtown Nekketsu/Kunio-kun games. They include stuff like Super Dodgeball, Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge, World Cup Soccer, Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai, and more. They absolutely rule.

[Pr3tty F1y]

Hmm... you're asking a difficult question then.

Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball? - Doesn't look too good to me, but it is a robo-extremier version of basketball (I guess)
Base Wars for the NES? - A precursor to 2020 Super Baseball mayhaps?
Speedball series for NES/Genesis and many others?

[Tanooki]

Historically speaking for me pre-emulators it would have been the likes of Super Dodgeball, Crash and the Boys, and I think it's fair to say Mike Tyson's Punch Out as there's all kinds of silly going on there. Also on the SNES there was at least NBA Jam, played the hell out of that one.

If you get into post-emulation era there were the various other Kunio titles, some of those goofy Hot Shots Golf titles including Mario Golf too on GBC. I suppose Baseball Stars would fit, not really the NES one but the leg and bat busting arcade game too. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but I tend to avoid sports games because they get fairly repetitive and predictable, especially the pre-3D stuff but when I do find an unlicensed goofed out one I tend to enjoy it. I also worked on NHL Hitz 2002 at Midway in my day and that one is a blast with the lack of rules.

[Steve W]

I've always liked Ninja Golf on the Atari 7800 and Basketbrawl on the 7800 and Lynx.

[adolescent]

Brutal Sports Football is great. I used to play it on my Amiga 500. Is there a version that has a better frame rate? That is the only bad part of this game.

[Steve W]

It was also out on the Atari Jaguar, but I don't know about the framerate in comparison since I've never seen the Amiga version. I found the Jag version to be a bit slow to play.

[celerystalker]

Heheh, yes, I've likely played most, but you never know. I have played and have all of those. Bill Laimbeer does suck. It's damn near impossible to score.

Some of my favorites:

NES:
Super Spike V'ball
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai
Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge
World Cup Soccer
Base Wars
Baseball Simulator 1.000
Super Dodgeball
Mike Tyson's Punchout

Genesis:
Mutant League Football
Mutant League Hockey

SNES:
Super Baseball 2020
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
NBA Jam
Battle Dodgeball
Super Robot Battle Soccer
Mega Man Soccer

Neo Geo:
Super Baseball 2020
Soccer Brawl
Power Spikes II
Windjammers
Super Dodgeball

Jaguar:
Brutal Sports Football
NBA Jam TE

PC Engine/Turbografx:
Kickball
Super Dodgeball
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai

PS2:
World Championship Dodgeballer
Love Ping Pong
Ribbit King
Prince of Tennis: Smash Court 2

PS1:
Blast Lacrosse
Speedbal 2100
NFL Xtreme

Dreamcast:
Ready 2 Rumble
Cosmic Smash

Virtual Boy:
Mario's Tennis
Teleroboxer

N64:
Mario Golf

Gamecube:
Super Mario Strikers

There are more, but those are some favorites.

[adolescent]

I forgot about Ribbit King. Wow that was a weird one. Possibly the best frolf game on the PS2.

[PreZZ]

Sega soccer slam and the nhl hitz series are some of the most fun multiplayer games when playing with friends on the couch. Deathrow wasnt very good but you may have never heard about it.

[drunk3nj3sus]

I'm a big fan of the genre in general. World Cup Soccer(hate soccer but love this game), Dodgeball, Crash n the Boys, Basewars, Super Baseball 2020, NBA Jam TE, and NFL Blitz are all really great games. For some reason almost all the basketball ones except for NBA Jam are pretty terrible besides that one Kunio game that's decent. It always pissed me off Techno's never brought over their Kunio Hockey game because I looked for it forever after I saw it advertised in Crash n the Boys, did it ever get a decent translation? Last one I tried to play was only about halfway done.

[Tanooki]

Include me with fury, they teased Crash and the Boys Ice Challenge or whatever it was in NP magazine and then it vanished like many things. Only online much too late later we find these things surface and get released one way or the other. Earthbound, Sunman, etc.

[The 1 2 P]

what are some of your favorite bizarre, unrealistic sports games? I'd love to find some I haven't heard of.

Grifball in Halo 3, Halo: Reach and Halo 4. And then there's the Ricochet variant in Halo 4 where you can actually throw the ball instead of just running it like in Grifball.

[chuckydj]

Dont forget Jerry Glanvilles Pigskin on Genesis and Arch Rivals basketball games.

[Yorkie]

Looney Tunes B Ball was fun.

[drunk3nj3sus]

Include me with fury, they teased Crash and the Boys Ice Challenge or whatever it was in NP magazine and then it vanished like many things. Only online much too late later we find these things surface and get released one way or the other. Earthbound, Sunman, etc.

A magazine ad is one thing but this was pretty much the only game I've seen that was advertised as coming soon in another game's ending then never came out. I'm guessing Crash didn't sell as well as they hoped in the US so they scrapped the idea because the hockey game actually came out before Crash in Japan. It's a really fun game about on par with World Cup Soccer.

[davidbrit2]

Activision's Ice Hockey for 2600. Two-on-two, no rules, and you can beat the piss out of the other guys. Sweet.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Ninja Baseball Bat Man. It's not really a true sports game, but it's CRAZY.

[Steven]

Looney Tunes B Ball was fun.

So glad someone brought this up! Love that game.

Celery, you probably already heard me singing its praises, but I absolutely love *LOVE* "BS Out of Bounds Golf" for the Super Famicom (a sadly unreleased gem). Freaking love it. It's 1-4 player mini golf essentially with some devious chops... you can knock opponents' balls out of the playing field and really screw them up. It's a blast playing it multiplayer.

EDIT: Oh how could I forget... SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS! Capcom's wild cartoonish/comic book-like take on the wrestling world. Fun in spurts for sure.

[Tanooki]

I've been interested in that BS Golf game, but I never can remember the name, and usually when I've seen it in the past, it was hacked improperly or was a pre-hack period so nothing would run it. It looked like it was the ultimate in golf on the system which is a shame. Also sad was that 3D Wicked Golf because that looked fun but as I understand it, it chugs badly to load each time and can be sketchy at points.

[celerystalker]

So glad someone brought this up! Love that game.

Celery, you probably already heard me singing its praises, but I absolutely love *LOVE* "BS Out of Bounds Golf" for the Super Famicom (a sadly unreleased gem). Freaking love it. It's 1-4 player mini golf essentially with some devious chops... you can knock opponents' balls out of the playing field and really screw them up. It's a blast playing it multiplayer.

EDIT: Oh how could I forget... SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS! Capcom's wild cartoonish/comic book-like take on the wrestling world. Fun in spurts for sure.

Yes, I've read the wonderful review on your site, where I've been inspired to try out several interesting imports from your Obscure SFC Hub. :D I need to pick up a Power Pak or something to give that one a whirl.

Slam Masters is awesome. I also like Fire Suplex on Neo Geo and recently ordered a Wrestlefest PCB to put in my 4 player Sunset Riders cabinet when I'm in the mood to slap the taste out of the Ultimate Warrior's mouth with the mighty Earthquake.

[Tanooki]

I might as well throw these in there for the fun of it, no one is paying little old Gameboy any attention.

GB had...
Kunio games Nintendo World Cup and Dodgeball (like on NES but not)...japan also had crash and the boys
Super RC Pro Am
HAL Wrestling (made by the guys who created Fire Pro)
NBA Jam
NBA Jam TE
Itchy and Scratchy Mini Golf Madness


GBC had...
Mario Golf
Mario Tennis
CyberTiger(sucks if I remember right badly)
NFL Blitz and Blitz 2000
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing (also R2R Boxing is a rumble game, and R2R Round 2 hit GBA)
Skate or Die (not the NES game)
Extreme Sports with the Berenstein Bears (sure this sold big!)
Sesame Street Sports (big seller as well easily)
NBA Jam 2001

[FieryReign]

Rap Jam. Because who doesn't wish to play out a streetball game between Queen Latifah and YoYo?

[celerystalker]

Just to clear up the Kunio sports games, there's:

NES/Famicom
World Cup Soccer
Downtown Nekketsu Soccer League (the sequel)
Ike! Ike! Nekketsu Ice Hockey-bu
Super Dodgeball
Kunio-kun Nekketsu Ganbare Dunk Heroes
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai
Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge (the sequel to the previous game)
Downtown Nekketsu: Kakuto Densetsu (a 4 player vs brawler)

PC Engine
Super Dodgeball
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai
Downtown Nekketsu Dodgeball-bu Soccer-hen (World Cup Soccer, on HuCard and CD)

Mega Drive
Downtown Nekketsu Dodgeball-bu Soccer-hen

Super Famicom
Super Dodgeball
Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari

Game Boy
World Cup Soccer
Super Dodgeball
Downtown Nekketsu Volleyball
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Dokodemo Daiundoukai
Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku (Crash 'n the Boys)

Neo Geo
Super Dodgeball

GBA
Compilations of most of the NES games

DS
Super Dodgeball Brawlers
River City Soccer Hooligans
River City Sports Challenge

PS3
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai All-Star Battle

Some of those names are modestly butchered/abbreviated, but if you search them they'll pop up.

[Steven]

Yes, I've read the wonderful review on your site, where I've been inspired to try out several interesting imports from your Obscure SFC Hub. :D I need to pick up a Power Pak or something to give that one a whirl.

Slam Masters is awesome. I also like Fire Suplex on Neo Geo and recently ordered a Wrestlefest PCB to put in my 4 player Sunset Riders cabinet when I'm in the mood to slap the taste out of the Ultimate Warrior's mouth with the mighty Earthquake.

Haha nice. Sad to think that Warrior and Earthquake are both gone though :(
At any rate, Wrestlefest. One of my favorite arcade games. Still sad that it never got a home translation.

Tanooki, there are links out there available for a working version of BS Golf. There was a thread here on DP that includes the working link (major thanks to Kiddo for providing it). Just google "DigitPress BS Out of Bounds Golf" and you're bound to find it.