Sports games, Past and Present

[felix]

Hey all..
Im an avid sports game fan.. I have been since playing some of the early snes sports games like Madden and NBA vs playoffs series.. Its been fun to see how much sports games have changed over the years.. Anyways, I want to hear your favorite sports games (not based on $ value) but based on a value of how much you enjoyed playing them..


NES
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Allstars baseball - This was back before the licenced teams and players.. You could play boys vs girls depending on what teams you chose and the best part was that it was baseball at its best. The controls were great, had a good difficulty curve and kept baseball basic.. the way baseball should be. If you wanted to throw a curveball, you simply pushed the directional button the way you wanted the ball to go... You didnt have to know all the technicalites of a curveball or how to hit it.. You just knew if you pushed the button to the left, the ball would follow.. My point is that baseball is a simple sport.. its the american pastime and I think that this game captures it in all its beautiful simplicity.

SNES
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This is tough.. because sports games really started to take off.. You had the Madden series, The NBA live series, Mariocart and other arcady games like that, and quality golf games where tossed in the mix. All in all, I have to give it to EA games for making the best sports games at the time.. Between the NBA live series and the Madden series, they kept things current and updated their games enough to make buying another copy of virtually the same game worth your hard earned scratch.

Dreamcast
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I know I am going to take flack for this, but I loved virtua tennis 2.. I hate tennis, but this game kept me entertained for HOUR and HOURS.. only game to keep me this tied up for this long was FF3..

PS1
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This one is tough too, because you have EA sports vs 989 games.. I personally think that the EA sports did a better job but its still a tough call.. Best game (in my eyes) was NCAA football 2003.. Good graphics, smooth animation and the dynasty mode was amazing.. im in my 14 season with BYU with 6 national titles under my belt.. Go COUGARS!!

PS2
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I am an avid hockey fan.. I watch hockey, I play hockey, I go ice skating about 3 times a week and I love every second of it.. People say that the best hockey game for ps2 is the ESPN hockey game.. I disagree strongly.. If you want the true hockey experience, play NHL 2004. It is the closest game to REAL hockey to date. If you dont know the legistics of hockey or have never played REAL icehockey (as in a league or dropin) then maybe you should stick with the espn nhl games.. Oh, I didnt pick '05 because I think it isnt even close to the same game is 04.. the engine on 04 is better and the hits are a little more realistic.. plus with the changes (all for the worst) it just kills 05..

Anyways.. I want to hear your fav sports games and why..

[Nature Boy]

Star League Baseball
Atari 800 XL

I spent *hours* perfecting my skills on this one. Playing against the computer I might swing at 2-3 balls per game. Playing against another person gets me a little antsier so I bite even when I know I shouldn't.

Micro League Baseball
Atari 800 XL

I'm a stat guy - that's why I love baseball! And this is the first game that let me simulate games. Every year I'd create the previous season's World Series winner as well as Blue Jays team, and I'd have a 64 team tournament (ala March Madness). Yes, the 27 Yankees won often...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003/2004
Xbox/PC

I have 2003 for Xbox and 2004 for PC. They're slightly different but similar enough that I have to combine 'em. I never much liked computer golf until TW2003. It's probably the Xbox game I've played the most (I played it just this past weekend again in fact). The PC version is sweet because on a laptop I can play it anywhere!

[Kroogah]

Old
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Ice Hockey on NES is the best hockey game I've ever played, and honestly one of the best NES games I've ever played. Ditto for Baseball Stars and its respective sport.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run is slightly more realistic, but not nearly as fun as Baseball Stars.

New
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Here's where my love for sports games exploded. I never gave them a second thought until I played NBA Street Volume 2 and Hot Shots Golf 3. Here are my picks for each sport:

Football: NFL 2K, NFL 2K1 (DC)
Basketball: NBA 2k5 (Xbox), NBA Street V3 (PS2)
Baseball: World Series 2k5 (Xbox)
Tennis: Top Spin (Xbox), Tennis 2k2 (DC)
Boxing: Victorious Boxers (PS2)
Golf: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (Xbox)

To be honest, almost all of those rank somewhere in my favorite games of all time.

[Ascending Wordsmith]

NES

Ice Hockey - Pure, concentrated fun. The 'super puck' code is still one of the best codes ever devised. Six teams, three sizes of athletes, loads of fun.




Super Tecmo Bowl - Ooh! Lookee ma, they got the NFL and the NFLPA license! The in-game cinemas just got the blood flowing, and who can forget the catchy tunes?




World Cup Soccer - It's River City Ransom on the soccer field. Super kicks, and super diving head shots are the norm. Even more fun with a Game Genie and 4 players!

[DJ_DEEM]

i personally think blades of steel is better then ice hocky, but thats just me, i think ice hockey is my all time fav. sports game

[stevec1636]

well finally a question about my love of sports games. I have been playing them since i was 8 on the Intellivision so here is my list

Intellivision
NFL football
MLBPA baseball

Apple 2E
Micro league baseball: i can't tell you how many seasons i went through on paper, keeping all my own stats.

NES
Baseball Simulator 1.000
Tecmo Bowl 2

Genesis
Any of the early NHL games 92,93,94
NBA Live 95
Tecmo Super Bowl
John Madden 94
Joe Montana 2
Mutant league series: please make a new one!!

PSX
NHL 98
Triple play 99: i loved using the old timers on my team, brought back memories of micro league
NFL Gameday: the 1st one was good, after that

Saturn
World series baseball: i loved the Homerun derby.

Dreamcast
NFL 2K or 2K1
Virtual Tennis
World Series Baseball 2K2

PS2
NHL 2003
NHL HITZ

Xbox
ESPN Football 2K5: best football game ever
ESPN NHL 2K5
ESPN Major league baseball
NHL HItz PRO
Top Spin Tennis

[TurboGenesis]

Favorite Sports games for me:

NES:
Tecmo Bowl
Pro Wrestling
Blades of Steel
Slalom

Genesis:
Evander Holyfield Boxing

SNES:
Tecmo NBA basketball

PSX:
NHL 98

Dreamcast:
Tennis 2k2 (this game is sooo addictive)

[goatdan]

No flack from me on the Virtua Tennis 2 option. In fact, I think most people agree the Virtua Tennis series is one of the best Tennis games ever made.

I would also say:

World Series Baseball for the Saturn
MLB 2K5 for the Xbox (and PS2, but I haven't got that version)
NBA series for the Dreamcast
Ribbit King for the GameCube (okay, so Frolfing isn't a real sport... but this is my favorite golf-like game ever)
MLB for the Nintendo. It isn't the best baseball game, but it was so simple I loved it.

[Tachikoma]

I havent played a sports game seriously since the NES days. Then, my favorite sports games were Tecmo Bowl and Blades of Steel. I used to play those for hours at a time.

[DigitalSpace]

My favorites on each system I've played:

Atari 2600:
Bowling
Ice Hockey

NES:
Golf
Kings Of The Beach - One of the best 2D volleyball games ever made, if not the best.

Genesis:
Jordan vs. Bird
Mutant League Football
Mutant League Hockey - It's a shame that EA only made two Mutant League games.

Super NES:
Brunswick World Tournament Of Champions (bowling)
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
NBA Jam
NBA Live '96
NHL Stanley Cup
Super Baseball 2020

N64:
1080° Snowboarding

PlayStation:
Hot Shots Golf - I really like the mini course.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

PS2:
Hot Shots Golf 3
SSX 3
Strike Force Bowling

Gamecube:
1080° Avalanche
Beach Spikers - Sega's volleyball game is a blast, and chock full of digital babes.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour