Sports games: realism vs. arcadey.

[Captain Wrong]

i hate sport (except for racing) but I have a strange love for Neo Geo Sports games and NBA Jam type games. I don't know why, I just do.

Anyhoo, you do you like your sports games? Not talking racing here, but sports like basketball, baseball, football, hockey, soccer, etc.

[digitalpress]

Definitely a little of both. I still enjoy NBA Jam, Hat Trick and Mutant League Hockey, for example, but there is a certain manley appeal to a sports game that plays like you're watching it on TV, with real players and hopefully realistic results.

[bargora]

I only play Atari 2600 sports games. Do I need help?

[Kid Fenris]

I choose "Arcadey" in this case. My favorite sports title of all time is 2020 Super Baseball, if that says anything.

[scooterb23]

I like sports games...I usually buy one of each sport games for each system I buy. I'm going with a little bit of both columns, because my answer depends on the sport I'm playing...

Baseball - My favorite real-life sport, but modern games are too slow paced for my taste. If they could give me the statistical depth of a World Series Baseball Franchise mode, but the pacing of a NES Baseball Stars...it would be the last video game I'd ever buy.

Football - I'm not much into football, but I dig the Madden games, I like the speed of the game and the difficulty is just where I like it.

Basketball - NBA Inside Drive 2002 for the XBox...it's my favorite by a long shot...I'll probably buy the newer version if it has a multi-season Franchise mode...great speed, and easy controls...high fun factor!! (Plus having Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Scottie Pippen on my Pacers is such a kick!!)

If I could get that game engine in a quality college game though, I'd be a happy man

I think that covers it...

Oh yeah, I'd love to see an nice EA Sports Australian Rules Football game here in the States...

[buttasuperb]

Both

I've always been a big fan of the madden games, play a few season of a franchise each year. But I also like playing NFL Blitz once in a while, especially with the hilarious commentary while you're kicking the shit outta people after the play is over.

For basketball the Live series has kinda taken a turn for the worse recently, but the 2K series is pretty good, and would be great if the programmers would smarten up. Too many dumb glitches and such, including time starting as soon as you inbound instead of not starting until the pass is caught, which is how it should be. Kinda sucks when you're going for the last shot with 1.7 seconds left and time runs out before you even catch the pass. I mean what the fuck were they thinking on that one. For the arcadey side, NBA Jam is and always has been a lot of fun. BOOMSHAKALAKA!

As for hockey, I didn't really care for NHL Hitz too much, so it's all EA's NHL series for me. Too bad, the best one is still '98, although I havent tried '03 yet.

Baseball hasn't had a good game since the NES days with Baseball Stars and Tecmo Baseball leading the pack. I played the hell outta those games back in the day.

[dreamcaster]

Arcadey sporters definitely.

As an avid disliker of sport, my sports video games have to be filled with wild jumps and outrageous manuevers to keep it interesting. NBA Jam anyone?

Besides, why do you want a sports simulation? Go play the real thing!

[buttasuperb]

Besides, why do you want a sports simulation? Go play the real thing!

That's ridiculous.

With that logic what's the point of playing racing games? Just go to the local track and enter a race.

Why play Socom? Just join the army instead.

Plus it's kinda tough to find 21 other people to play a real game of football, or sometimes even just 3 other people to play 2 on 2 basketball.

[chadtower]

For multiplayers, arcadey. Gives you more fun.

For playing alone, simulation. More like the real thing.

[Arcade Antics]

I'm definitely on the "arcadey" side of this battle. The only exceptions that immediately come to mind are the Virtua Tennis series and Beach Spikers. But I guess purists might call those games more "arcadey" than realistic.

[josekortez]

Arcadey all the way! NBA Showtime was the reason I traded in my first N64 and bought a Dreamcast. That, Hoopz, and the GC version of NBA Street are the only b-ball games I play. I don't really follow the sports, so I don't care about rosters. Just put Jordan in...

I like Virtua Tennis but I hate Beach Spikers, but I like the models/players in Beach Spikers. However, the control in that game is as stiff as...well never mind.

[Dobie]

A little of both. I prefer baseball games, and I agree with a post above... the modern games have a SLOW pace. I'd also have to add that the batting mechanics on modern games makes it damn near impossible to hit the ball too. Baseball is a case where I want the stats and feel of real baseball, but not the pace. I much prefer NES & 16 bit Baseball titles because of this--Little League Baseball, Baseball Stars, Bad News Baseball, Ken Griffey Jr Presents... they're ALL good!!!

When it comes to football and basketball, give me a good College sim-type game (NCAA Football 2003, NCAA Basketball 2K3).

Hockey--I really like NHL Hitz, but the 16 bit titles again are more fun for me.

[Ruudos]

My favorite sports game is International Superstar Soccer Deluxe, and that's realistic. However I also like Nintendo World Cup, and that's anything but realistic!

[Videogamerdaryll]

"Little from column A, little from column B"

But I don't ( go both ways).

[zmeston]

Arcadey, and here's my reasoning for said preference in a review of of NBA Street Vol. 2 for GameSpy:

The Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, in his book "Which Lie Did I Tell?", states that "Here is one of the main rules of adaptation: you cannot be literally faithful to the source material. Here's another that critics never get: you should not be literally faithful to the source material. It is in a different form... Here is the most important rule of adaptation: you must be totally faithful to the intention of the source material." I feel the same way about videogame adaptations of true life, sports included: they should keep the bits that lend themselves to an exciting videogame experience, and throw out the rest. Fun over realism, always. (This is why I don't review flight sims; I'm less concerned with accurate turn rates and stalling speeds than with having a good time.)

The brilliance of NBA Street Vol. 2 -- as with Midway's NBA Jam, released a decade ago and inarguably the prototype for the EA Sports BIG concept -- is that it retains the elements of the sport that translate well into the videogame world, ditches the ones that don't, and makes the entire experience into a great game instead of a mere simulation.

-- Z.

[RubbarDucklin]

Besides, why do you want a sports simulation? Go play the real thing!

That's ridiculous.

With that logic what's the point of playing racing games? Just go to the local track and enter a race.

Why play Socom? Just join the army instead.

Plus it's kinda tough to find 21 other people to play a real game of football, or sometimes even just 3 other people to play 2 on 2 basketball.

While we are at it, Why not become Italian...and a plumber...and go save a princess in a castle instead of playing Mario

[Neonsolid]

Gone.

[Cryomancer]

I say arcadey as I'm not a big sport game guy, but then I love the hell out of Deathrow. That game is massively underrated, they should make a more polished version with online play, that would be awesome...although i hear there's tunneling software you can use with it.

[tholly]

the poll is dead...but i hate sports game, so i would have picked that option

[pixelsnpolygons]

I hate sports, the only sports sub-genre I can stand to be realistic is racing - perhaps a little basketball. I much prefer arcade sports - if it is over-the-top and easy to get into I eat it up. Watching me try to play a game like Madden is like watching Zoolander get the files out of the computer.