Jeopardy!: Sports Edition (SNES) - Least interesting title ever made?

[gbpxl]

I vote this as being the most unappealing video game in existence on the basis of the following:

1) There has been a Jeopardy game on damn near every system since the NES, so the 16-bit version doesn't seem special.

2) There are 3 iterations of Jeopardy on the console

3) Sports games in general are the least popular genre so trivia about sports has to be pretty low on the popularity scale

4) There can't be a ton of cross-section between diehards obsessed with Jeopardy as well as sports fans. the two fans exist for sure. but not many are huge fans of both

5) Came out at a time when renting was still really popular so it's not like a ton of people would have had a physical copy lying around at home that they would be nostalgiac for.

Well Trebek dying (rest in peace) probably increased the interest somewhat but overall can you think of a single game you'd want to play less than this?

[YoshiM]

Sports genre least popular? Since when? I don't know how big sports games were in your neck of the woods back then, but I sold a solid amount of sports during my Wal-Mart days. Tecmo Sports also attracted armchair athletes by the droves. A local game store at the mall had waiting lists for Tecmo Super Bowl 2. Based on that and the sheer number of sports titles that were released, it's safe to say it was a pretty popular genre.

Now Jeopardy, sports edition or not, I have no idea how popular that was. Like you said, it was probably somethingthat got rented, presumably by dads who know their sports and wanted something new instead of poker night.

As for a game I want to play less than this? Easy-Cheetahmen, any of the Panesean games or any game on Action 52.

[peeingas]

Sports games are popular as long as they are the current year. How much is last year's madden worth? And Bubble Bath Babes is a pretty fun game. It even got a G rated release by AVE.

[gbpxl]

if you go to any gaming forum or gaming convention or any gaming store and ask whats your least favorite genre? there is going to be one answer and its not RPGs

[Gameguy]

if you go to any gaming forum or gaming convention or any gaming store and ask whats your least favorite genre? there is going to be one answer and its not RPGs
You mean "Walking Simulator".

For a boring title I would go with "Waiting in Line 3D". It's a real game.

http://www.rajeevbasu.com/projects/wil3d/

[gbpxl]

thats awesome

[YoshiM]

if you go to any gaming forum or gaming convention or any gaming store and ask whats your least favorite genre? there is going to be one answer and its not RPGs

Because that makes up the entire video gaming playing population and makes it the de facto truth that sports is the least favorite genre? Riiiiiggghhhht.

"Gamers" love to lament sports games and sometimes the people that play them. "Oh gee, look, another Madden-same game but new stats!". But the kicker is, they SELL. Companies make them, players pose for them and people buy them. Then the next year comes and it starts all over.

The biggest gripe of sports I know of are when collectors get excited to see games at a thriftvthen discover it's all sports.

[gbpxl]

Because that makes up the entire video gaming playing population and makes it the de facto truth that sports is the least favorite genre? Riiiiiggghhhht.

"Gamers" love to lament sports games and sometimes the people that play them. "Oh gee, look, another Madden-same game but new stats!". But the kicker is, they SELL. Companies make them, players pose for them and people buy them. Then the next year comes and it starts all over.

The biggest gripe of sports I know of are when collectors get excited to see games at a thriftvthen discover it's all sports.
Most of the so called gamers who buy the yearly sports games couldnt care less about 99% of the sports games in existence. Not unless the game is concurrent with whatever year it is at the time of purchase. and Id venture to say those "gamers" don't care about 99% of video games in existence, period.

a genre whose games sell really well immediately upon release but plummet after a year passes really says a lot about how beloved those games are. again every gamer I know absolutely loathes them. In fact I am probably the biggest sports game fan among them and I rarely play them.

so yeah, popular among the general population, sure, but unpopular among people who call themselves gamers

[gbpxl]

The biggest defense of sports games is that they bring in dollars to help fund other games that gamers actually want to play; dollars that otherwise wouldn't have been spent on a video game. sports games basically subsidize the riskier high dollar projects that EA, Take 2, etc are financing. but you already knew that.

I myself have a good size sports game collection but generally I have one game from each genre I tend to play. For basketball I dont play anything outside of Jam. For football, Im fine with any of the identical Madden games that came out between 2002 and 2006 or so. Baseball I usually go with Baseball Simulator 1.000

but yeah I mean theres only so many ways you can take on the football genre. Mutant and Street are as far away from the norm as theyve gotten but in the end its very much the same damn game.

[Gameguy]

It depends on the sports game, there are plenty of good sports games that I like. On the NES there's Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel, plus Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl. And on the Genesis there's the NBA Jam games. Most sports games don't hold much value because of how common they are, because they sold very well. Thinking back, the Genesis was advertised at one point as a sports heavy console, specifically because of it's faster processor that let it play sports games better than the SNES.

There's really various genres that aren't so popular, it's not just sports being the least desirable. Personally I'm not big on sports games much but I still play some on older consoles.

[gbpxl]

there's only so many ways you can show the game of basketball in a video game. the equivalent would be if they released Pong every single year since 1972 but changed the shape of the paddle slightly or added different ways to control the paddle. at some point you realize it's the exact same game youve been playing for almost 50 years.

[Gameguy]

there's only so many ways you can show the game of basketball in a video game.
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

https://www.talesofgames.com/related_game/barkley-shut-up-jam-gaiden/


the equivalent would be if they released Pong every single year since 1972 but changed the shape of the paddle slightly or added different ways to control the paddle. at some point you realize it's the exact same game youve been playing for almost 50 years.
Yes...that would be completely different from what's happened with every other game available on modern consoles as they're all completely unique.....

Unrelated, I will now look into playing the latest Call of Duty or Medal of Honor which is completely different from earlier entries or DOOM from 1993. I'll also look into the latest news on Final Fantasy XVI which is unlike any type of game that came before it, as well as news on the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Nioh, Nier, Fable, and SiN: Reloaded remakes that are coming out later this year. So many completely new types of games are coming out, what a time to be alive.

[gbpxl]

k

....

[YoshiM]

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

https://www.talesofgames.com/related_game/barkley-shut-up-jam-gaiden/


Yes...that would be completely different from what's happened with every other game available on modern consoles as they're all completely unique.....

Unrelated, I will now look into playing the latest Call of Duty or Medal of Honor which is completely different from earlier entries or DOOM from 1993. I'll also look into the latest news on Final Fantasy XVI which is unlike any type of game that came before it, as well as news on the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Nioh, Nier, Fable, and SiN: Reloaded remakes that are coming out later this year. So many completely new types of games are coming out, what a time to be alive.


For some reason reading that last paragraph, I heard the deadpan voice of Alan Rickman playing his Dr Lazarus role from "Galaxyquest" as he recited lines for the opening of a shopping center.

[Gameguy]

For some reason reading that last paragraph, I heard the deadpan voice of Alan Rickman playing his Dr Lazarus role from "Galaxyquest" as he recited lines for the opening of a shopping center.
Honestly it didn't occur to me just how little innovation there truly was with gaming until gbpxl mentioned Pong and it's upgrades. I first thought of Pong, Breakout, Warlords, Arkanoid, and Devilish. Then I thought about all platform games, including 3D ones, which brought me back to Pitfall, Joust, and arcade Mario Bros. Thinking about Heavy Rain, I thought of other adventure games going back to Zork, as they just have different interfaces but Heavy Rain is more poorly written. Adventure games are basically just stories mixed with puzzles.

Then thinking of completely modern games, it became worse. Final Fantasy XVI isn't just another RPG, it's the 16th main game within it's own franchise without including various spinoffs or direct sequels. Call of Duty games are FPS games still coming out, going back to the PS1 generations ago, so not just more FPS but unending near identical sequels.

And then thinking of Final Fantasy VII remake as well as the recent Resident Evils, they're not just new games in the same genre or in the same franchises, they're games that already existed. Hearing about this new Fable, the game came out on the Xbox and was already remade on the 360, and is now remade again. They're games that aren't just repetitive but literally already exist.

Thinking of the PS5 and recent generations, so little has changed with controls and the interfaces, basically going back to the PS2. I'm clearly seeing why I don't need to upgrade to the latest hardware generation as it's all the same to what I already own. I already had no interest but now I can see why I don't have an interest. It was surprising and a bit of a let down actually.

[YoshiM]

there's only so many ways you can show the game of basketball in a video game. the equivalent would be if they released Pong every single year since 1972 but changed the shape of the paddle slightly or added different ways to control the paddle. at some point you realize it's the exact same game youve been playing for almost 50 years.

I don't know if that's a great comparison between a sport and Pong to get your point across.

With Pong, there were many flavors from different companies through the '70s. How many Odysseys did Magnavox crank out? Or Atari?

Representations of sports (beyond Pong) "grew up". American football went beyond crude jumbles of dots or "X's" and "O's" (arcade) to sprites that looked more like people. Then you could actually make plays (choose passes or run games, etc.). Later on, technology would allow you to have the proper numberof men on the field (Madden would not put his name on earlier football titles due to the proposed game not being able to have the proper number of players on the field). Games looked better and computer opponents started mimicing existing teams to a degree, each with their own style of play (Joe Montana Football comes to mind).

As time marched on, Football video games became more complex and gave the player more control over the team they chose. Trades, draft picks, hiring players, season lasting injuries, actual players and teams with their stats (which did influence how the players played on screen)-all while we got graphical improvements.

By the 16 bit era, we started getting the annual update, a trend that has since continued. There were jumps in how the game played when we got to 3D, but not much really changed except the rosters and options (like player's "cribs", using the right stick for moves instead of buttons, online competitive play, etc.)

Where am I going with this? I hate typing on a phone. Anyway sports games have evolved but like many sequels, it's almost same crap, different shingle. It is easy to dump on sports games with their annual releases and overall "sameness" (like gbpxl's mention of so many ways you can show a game of basketball), but there must be something that keeps players coming back for more. Or perhaps is the idea of something new but comfortably familiar that helps fuel the $60 annual fee.

(Though I will say Madden 2021 didn't get great reviews, but that coukd be because no one else can make football games with the NFL and Player's licenses and thus no competition).

[nebrazca88]

I vote this as being the most unappealing video game in existence on the basis of the following:

1) There has been a Jeopardy game on damn near every system since the NES, so the 16-bit version doesn't seem special.

2) There are 3 iterations of Jeopardy on the console

3) Sports games in general are the least popular genre so trivia about sports has to be pretty low on the popularity scale

4) There can't be a ton of cross-section between diehards obsessed with Jeopardy as well as sports fans. the two fans exist for sure. but not many are huge fans of both

5) Came out at a time when renting was still really popular so it's not like a ton of people would have had a physical copy lying around at home that they would be nostalgiac for.

Well Trebek dying (rest in peace) probably increased the interest somewhat but overall can you think of a single game you'd want to play less than this?


1. It's not. If you want something like that, you buy it for whichever system you have if you only have one.

2. If you're really into sports, it's likely the edition you'll want.

3. Already said but during their time they were incredibly popular and even so in current generation.

4. It didn't sell well but a hell of a lot better than some great titles but of course that was for a variety of reasons.

5. True dat.

6. If you have the capacity to take the sports element out of it those are some of the best action strategy games ever made. Have you ever taken the time to learn even a few of the plays in a game like Madden? How would you think of the genre if you took all the numbered players out and replaced them with characters? Beat Madden '93 on Genesis and then tell me sports games are garbage.

[gbpxl]

1. It's not. If you want something like that, you buy it for whichever system you have if you only have one.

2. If you're really into sports, it's likely the edition you'll want.

3. Already said but during their time they were incredibly popular and even so in current generation.

4. It didn't sell well but a hell of a lot better than some great titles but of course that was for a variety of reasons.

5. True dat.

6. If you have the capacity to take the sports element out of it those are some of the best action strategy games ever made. Have you ever taken the time to learn even a few of the plays in a game like Madden? How would you think of the genre if you took all the numbered players out and replaced them with characters? Beat Madden '93 on Genesis and then tell me sports games are garbage.
why are you conflating acknowledgment of a genre's lack of popularity with my personal assessment of said genre?

[nebrazca88]

I'm not sure what you mean by conflating in this instance but your assessment includes not only your personal opinion but statements about the genre that were not true at the time.

(Addendum)

I personally like the Jeopardy! games and my only problem with the sports edition is that it's incredibly difficult. I have a laundry list of problems with the Jeopardy! games in general like the computer misspelling answers, the computer ringing in incessantly and giving XXX as an answer, questions so long they can't even be displayed on the normal screen etc. Even so, they and the sports edition are still fairly appealing to me.

If we're voting for unappealing games, I'd say lame kids games like Barney are much more unappealing.

[gbpxl]

I'm not sure what you mean by conflating in this instance but your assessment includes not only your personal opinion but statements about the genre that were not true at the time.

(Addendum)

I personally like the Jeopardy! games and my only problem with the sports edition is that it's incredibly difficult. I have a laundry list of problems with the Jeopardy! games in general like the computer misspelling answers, the computer ringing in incessantly and giving XXX as an answer, questions so long they can't even be displayed on the normal screen etc. Even so, they and the sports edition are still fairly appealing to me.

If we're voting for unappealing games, I'd say lame kids games like Barney are much more unappealing.
well that's your problem right there. maybe you missed this part of my post:


3) Sports games in general are the least popular genre

I guess maybe my definition of "are" differs from yours. take a poll of people who "are" playing retro games. "sports" will be very low on that list of genres when asked what their favorite genre is. I'm not sure how many different ways I can explain that.

[nebrazca88]

Fair enough but I would like to point out that unlike annual releases people just don't stop liking sports. So sports trivia may be eternal for some.

And I would appreciate if you addressed whether or not vapid kids games are more unappealing than Jeopardy!: Sports Edition.

[Gameguy]

I guess maybe my definition of "are" differs from yours. take a poll of people who "are" playing retro games. "sports" will be very low on that list of genres when asked what their favorite genre is. I'm not sure how many different ways I can explain that.
Your definition of "are" must be different as numerous people have told you that you're "wrong".

Your statement wasn't limited to retro games, you said that people won't like retro sports games because the genre as a whole(which includes modern games) is the least popular, which isn't true as sports games continue to be popular and sell well. Even if sports games aren't that popular overall, you said the genre is the least popular genre, which isn't true as several other genres are less popular than sports.

Also, why poll people about their most favourite genre? You should be asking about their most hated genre as you're trying to figure out what the least popular genre is. Even that's still wrong as the truly least popular genres won't come up as most people won't even think about them, there's so many genres that are barely known by most people unlike sports games. Less popular genres aren't necessarily the most hated of all genres, just least thought about. Least popular can also vary by region, dating sims aren't popular in North America but they're popular in Japan.

Maybe you're confusing "least popular" with "most disliked among retro gamers specifically"? Even then I'm not sure that's correct with sports games. Crappy edutainment games keep coming up when I think of what games I most disliked as a genre. Though I'm not the target market for them either as I'm not a toddler so that might be unfair as well.

[nebrazca88]

TBH I think to a certain extent we're all conflating quite a bit. A proper title may have been "What do you think is the most unappealing SNES title."

[gbpxl]

mmkay

[nebrazca88]

mmkay

It was a joke. Guess it didn't land.

[Gameguy]

It was a joke. Guess it didn't land.
I only responded the way I did in detail there because of how he responded to you, basically acting like you're an idiot who's too stupid to understand what he was saying. Your interpretation was completely correct, he argued his point poorly. Even quoting himself again in that insult to you which shows the problem with that specific argument, his wording of "in general" and "are" which both meant all sports games not limited to just classic games and meaning that those views are still current to the genre, which they aren't.

Basically his wording suggested that sports games as a genre even today aren't liked or popular, so by that reason classic sports games are also unpopular, as no sports games are liked regardless of age.

That specific point of his talked about the genre of sports games, not specifically towards the majority of all sports games produced throughout history. He later stated correctly that the majority of all sports games in existence aren't cared about by most people, collectors, and modern sports game fans, but that's different than the genre itself not being popular.

You were right in interpreting that the view of classic sports games has changed since those games were current, and collectors view those today differently than how modern current sports games are viewed by fans of current sports games. Modern current sports games are very popular and are very profitable, they sell well. Most fans of sports games want modern rosters which is why they prefer current games over classic ones, and why older releases quickly lose popularity and value. It's not because the entire genre "in general" is disliked or unpopular. If he meant that statement specifically towards classic sports games, that's not what he actually said.