Sports Games: Do You Play Them, Or Ignore Them?

A conversation in IRC sparked my interest in this. Seeing as most of you are avid classic gamers, do you enjoy sports games from the time period (Or at all really) or do you tend to ignore them and pass them on as you see them at flea markets and thrift stores, in favor of more original and well-renowned titles?

Recently I've been playing a lot of classic sports games, like Blades of Steel, Joe Montana Football, NBA Jam, World Series Baseball II, etc. and find that they're a hell of a lot of fun! As someone who for the longest time wasn't really a sports fan at all, I've found that sports games have given me an appreciation of sports on television, and sports on general.

What are your guys opinions on Sports games?

I don't collect sports games aside from the top one or two golf games for each platform. I rarely even play those. If I did want to play a sports game I probably would play a 2D iteration of that genre though.

I ignore them. I stopped playing sports games years ago. I found them repetitive and am just not that big a sports fan. I don't play either classic or modern sports games. I honestly don't understand the lasting appeal of franchises like Madden.

Oh yeah. I love sports games, especially Genesis football games. Madden, and Montana. I also play a lot of Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. Currently in a season of World Series Baseball II on the Saturn(2-28 with the Astros:().

I played the shit out of Virtua Tennis on the DC not too long ago(4 player doubles mode is unbelievable fun), and now I actually like, and understand the sport of Tennis.

Sometimes you just have to:

I usually ignore them, however several years ago I picked up "World Series Baseball '95" for my Genesis and I must say, it was quite a bit of fun. I hit a lot of home runs in that game.:)

I don't have a problem with sports games. I've played basketball and boxing titles for years. Very hardcore when it comes to those 2 sports.

I always enjoy sports games. I'm a huge basketball fan and a casual baseball and football fan. As of lately, all I have been playing mostly is NBA2K12 and MLB 11 The Show. They really are incredible sport simulation games. There is many different game modes, so It doesn't get that repetitive. Of course I enjoy the retro sports games also. NBA Jam is always a blast.

All I play generally, are sports games.

I really only play Mutant League Football, golf and racing games. The rest are pretty much ignored.

I love the Sega sports football games like College Football's National Championship and the later Joe Montana games based off the same game engine. The Madden games and Bill Walsh games are just too stiff and slow for me. I collect them, but do not enjoy playing them. I also absolutely love Tecmo Superbowl for NES and its incantations on Genesis and SNES.

Of the EA games, NBA Live is an excellent series that I still love to pick up and play from time to time. Even the Marv Albert and David Robinson's Supreme Court games have their own charm. As for basketball games, Pat Riley is too cheap and cheesy feeling for me to really enjoy.

Regarding baseball games, Tommy Lasorda is a nice game, along with RBI and its successor by Tengen. I enjoy them from time to time as well.

Racing games are my real passion and Mario Andretti and Outrun are great games. Hard Drivin' is almost unplayable though.

Baseball is as if someone decided to combine all the best attributes of sporting and picnics, then give Abner Doubleday what was left. Yet once upon a time I enjoyed Bases Loaded II.
Blades of Steel is excellent. But ice hockey games aren't well supported.
I do like golf in general, which the PS2/&c era's graphics massively improved upon...incidentally, golf is a game one can simultaneously play and ignore.
Basketball games are flukey at best; NBA Jam isn't basketball, it's pure video game weirdness in basketball clothes.
US football should make for superb gaming but the games are always broken; ; JM 94 was probably the peak; Madden is insufferable.
Boxing's good for gaming though I haven't kept up with it: Evander Holyfield's may be the last I played long--pretty fun.
I detest racing sims, especially those that imitate Nascar, Formula 1, and the rest of that tosh. People complain about RPGs, but that's where the real grinding is.
Never could stand Track & Field, a strong contender for the worst game on the NES, so probably haven't given Decathlete its fair shake.

I still find myself playing Tecmo SB, greatest Heavyweigts, PGA III, NBA Jam TE and NHL 96 from time to time. I go through spurts when I end up playing one of them for a few weeks straight. The Genesis had some great sports titles.

Wait, do the Road Rash games count? Because I still play 2 and 3 quite often.

I kind of flip flop on the sports games, going from "GOTTA PLAYZ!", to complete disinterest for years on end. Back in the day, the only ones I owned wereArnold Palmer's Tournament Golf NFL Football '94 and World Series Baseball '95... nothing else. I played them quite a bit, but then I lost interest in sports games when the 32-bit era rolled around and left sports games behind. For a short while, I got back into them and bought most of the Visual Concepts 2K5 lineup for the XBox when Gamestop was doing their best to clearance them out. But that didn't last long, and those football, baseball and basketball games haven't been touched since.

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Originally Posted by shinobimusashi

Oh yeah. I love sports games, especially Genesis football games. Madden, and Montana. I also play a lot of Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. Currently in a season of World Series Baseball II on the Saturn(2-28 with the Astros:().

I played the shit out of Virtua Tennis on the DC not too long ago(4 player doubles mode is unbelievable fun), and now I actually like, and understand the sport of Tennis.

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Hahaha! Wow, sorry to hear that! I think I'm 6-0 or 6-1 with the Phillies right now, their pitching is meh but the players can hit which makes up for the game when my pitcher like Mulholland tires out by the 7th. I hate Lenny Dykstra though, what a terrible lead-off hitter.

Tecmo Super Bowl I feel like I could never get into, that the NES hardware just didn't support it. I should give it another try, and the SNES/Genesis versions of it look way more appealing. Joe Montana Football on Master System just played so much better for me. Shame that one doesn't get any attention at all.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

Blades of Steel is excellent. But ice hockey games aren't well supported.

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Agreed, there doesn't seem to be many. I can't stand the NHL series, the controls are just junk. Your player simply slips and falls on the ice way too much, and you have to move them just right to score any kind of goal. Too complex for me, and hockey games haven't gotten any better over the years.

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Boxing's good for gaming though I haven't kept up with it: Evander Holyfield's may be the last I played long--pretty fun.

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Ever try greatest heavyweights on Genesis? That's another really solid boxing game.

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I detest racing sims, especially those that imitate Nascar, Formula 1, and the rest of that tosh. People complain about RPGs, but that's where the real grinding is.
Never could stand Track & Field, a strong contender for the worst game on the NES, so probably haven't given Decathlete its fair shake.

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The Sega Racing sims you should definitely take a shot at, just for the heck of it. NASCAR and that junk sucks, but Daytona USA and Sega Rally is really where it's at when it comes to racing games IMO. Simply fun arcade racers.

I remember, I was at a friends house with another friend who were playing a gamecube basketball game and when I tried. It...it just felt to repetitive, the only thing you could do different was switch your team logo to another team logo and characters.