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

[Crackdown]

I play loads of sports games, I love them.

Football games are my favourite by far (especially Sensible Soccer) but I also love boxing, wrestling and golf games. I think the only type of sports games I have never got into are baseball ones, I have even been known to enjoy quite a few grid iron games despite hating the sport in real life.

[Kollision]

Ignore.
Just to have an idea, the last ones I truly played were:

Super Volleyball MD - outstanding and great fun, I would LOVE to see a current-gen game based on the concepts of this underrated classic
Virtua Tennis 2 DC - great game; it's so good I never felt the need to get any of the newer iterations.

[Thenewguy]

Coicidentally I've been trying to brush up on my sports game knowledge recently, I played a bit of FIFA International Soccer, and FIFA 95, but they feel kind of unresponsive these days and I haven't been getting a whole lot of enjoyment out of them (though to be fair the controls haven't become second nature to me again yet as its been like 15 years). NHL94 on the other hand has been very playable, I think its dated better than FIFA. Played a lot of 2 player Pete Sampras earlier and thats also pretty playable, we were playing the "Crazy" mode with all the item drop power-ups, and competing to see who could kill Dizzy first.



I've noticed that there's a few different Mega Drive sports titles which get into big "best ever" lists, so I may try them out, one of them was Lakers Vs Celtics, which got into one of IGN's "best games ever made" lists

Also thinking about Sports Talk Baseball (seems to be well respected), World Series Baseball, NBA Jam etc

[Nobi]

Ignore.
Just to have an idea, the last ones I truly played were:

Super Volleyball MD - outstanding and great fun, I would LOVE to see a current-gen game based on the concepts of this underrated classic
Virtua Tennis 2 DC - great game; it's so good I never felt the need to get any of the newer iterations.

I didn't know they made a Virtua Tennis 2. Is it any better than the first one? Virtua Tennis is video game heaven. 4 player doubles mode is insane.

[Thenewguy]

I've just been playing this for the last hour, Tiny Toons Acme All Stars, its actually pretty fun, very reminiscent of Super Mario Strikers, its not the deepest game of Soccer (also includes Basketball) out there, but its got a lot more to it, than say Nintendo World Cup (the Kunio Kun Soccer game), its bicycle kicks actually remind me a bit of NWC too.

[Baloo]

I've just been playing this for the last hour, Tiny Toons Acme All Stars, its actually pretty fun, very reminiscent of Super Mario Strikers, its not the deepest game of Soccer (also includes Basketball) out there, but its got a lot more to it, than say Nintendo World Cup (the Kunio Kun Soccer game), its bicycle kicks actually remind me a bit of NWC too.

I really like Acme All-Stars, it's a very diverse game. Lots of neat modes sports and games to play, though the story mode is a bit tedious. Used to love the Bowling one.

[Thenewguy]

I've now played my 1st Baseball game, Sports Talk Baseball, seemed pretty good, it was quite playable, responsive etc, I had a little bit of trouble keeping track of the little men as they ran around the bases though, but I'd imagine that my inexperience more than anything else.

Played Brian Lara Cricket, that was very polished, and there's quite a lot to the controls, was also good fun.

Played Grandslam Tennis for a while (renamed Capriate or something in the US), that was also pretty cool, hitting the ball felt a little bit easier in comparison to Pete Sampras (which feels fast and loose), but the players were a little slower and less responsive and the graphics were a lot worse (to be expected from it being a much earlier game)

Played European Club Soccer (called World Trophy Soccer in US) it kicked my ass, but seemed pretty decent for an early title, you had all the expected moves, it was fairly responsive, music was quite good (though a bit funny with the funk style) etc, though I'm sure my tackles should have been connecting more often than they were, and the players looked a little stiff in their movement.

I really like Acme All-Stars, it's a very diverse game. Lots of neat modes sports and games to play, though the story mode is a bit tedious. Used to love the Bowling one.

Yeah, I find it enjoyable on multiplayer (possibly one of the games to check out if I ever get a multitap), I think the site review is just slightly too low, I would give it 7/10 I think (Its too lightweight for 9/10, and I think the single player doesn't quite have enough longevity to reach 8/10, the games best element is definitely the multiplayer, either way I think somewhere between 7/10 to 8/10 is the ball park of where it should be)

What did the Snes have? lame ass Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball and weaker EA sports ports.

I could formulate a list for you based on magazine scores if you were interested in comparing, I've been half doing that myself (played Striker earlier, which was actually quite a fast and fun arcadey style game, but was too easy on 1 player)

[GohanX]

I mostly ignore them these days, but I really do enjoy arcade style sports games. The only stuff that comes out these days that are of any interest are arcadey racing games and the occasional Nintendo sports game. The demo for the new NBA Jam was pretty fun, I need to get it.

[Hidden_Darkness]

I usually ignore sports games but there are a few exceptions that I enjoyed, I have absolutely no interest in basketball, football or baseball so I usually steer clear of those. I think the ones I enjoyed the most would be:

tony hawks american wasteland
tony hawks underground 1 and 2
tony hawks proving ground
dave mirra's freestyle bmx 2
mario power tennis
ssx on tour (its hilarious controlling mario in a snowboarding game)

would racing games count as sports games as well? I do enjoy racing games. I honestly did not like any of the sports games during the 2d era except for california games and the skate or die games for nes and megaman soccer for snes. I guess most of what I play sports wise would be either skateboarding or bmx or racing games, theres a few motocross games I like but I can't really think of the names of any. would something like mario kart or megaman battle and chase count as a sports game?

[llj]

I usually get them after a console has expired. As I'm only interested in one game for each sport, I generally read the reviews and get the best one. I got MVP Baseball 2005, for instance, on my Gamecube and it's the only baseball game I own for the system. I have NBA 2k6 and it's the only one I own on the PS2.

I'll probably get a baseball and basketball game for the 360 or PS3. I usually lean more towards simulation-quality rather than gimmicks and stuff. Though NBA Jam is always a good game to have around the house.

Yeah, I'm generally a bigger sports fan than the average hardcore gamer. I actually watch and follow seasons and stuff.

I haven't got into 8 bit and 16 bit sports games aside from the gimmick ones. Simulation, stats, and detail is much better in 21st century sports games.

[genesisguy]

EA NHL 93-98 are always in my Genesis rotation.
Madden or Bill Walsh not so much, but I dig them out in the fall.
Ice Hockey on the NES is as fun today as it was when it was brand new.
Tecmo Bowl on the NES is probably my all time favorite football game.

Now off the beaten track...
Bassins Black Bass w/ Hank Parker is one of the BEST SNES games. Shamefully it's the reason why I bought a SNES because nothing on the Genesis in the bass fishing genre was close. Yes. Bass Fishing is a sport!

[StarMist]

Yes. Bass Fishing is a sport!

But it's a flawed one, there's just about no home-field advantage. The bass almost never win.

[Clessy]

But it's a flawed one, there's just about no home-field advantage. The bass almost never win.

You've never gone fishing then. I'd say the bass always win. You catch like 8 of the 1000's of them. Thats on a really good day too.

[Thenewguy]

I got more into FIFA 95 today, turns out I was making some errors, some stupid, some not (on top of the fact that i'm used to the controls now). The previous owner of the cart had changed about all the options, so I put them back to their original state, which helped a lot, and the stupid mistake I made was in not simply picking one of the best teams in the game, as they're hugely more responsive (I also didn't know I could quick dribble by tapping B as it wasn't written in the online instructions I found). The game is quite playable now, and I've got a lot more moves to learn yet.

Been playing this Honuu No Toukyujii (Flaming Dodgeball Kid or something) seems pretty cool, its like the Kunio Kun Dodgeball game on the NES, graphics are pretty good, you get passes, hard throws, and special moves etc, I'm not really very good at it at the moment though.



Finally got around to playing Speedball 2, and its actually pretty awesome, seems really simple at first (the controls really are simple, pretty much 1 button does everything, you get a vertical scrolling layout with goals at top and bottom, everyone can be hacked, and its fairly easy to score) but its really fast and responsive, and there's other elements such as score multipliers, other ways to score points littered around the arena's, and upgrades for the players.

Very compulsive game



I also played Davis Cup Tennis, first impressions aren't too good at the moment, the view is pretty nasty and makes it hard to judge the ball distance, I dislike the voice work, and the players look like little bald trolls for some reason, I did get some rallies going in the end though, and the controls seem to be quite in-depth (I think it actually uses the 6-button controller).

At the moment I think the best Tennis game on MD is either Wimbledon, or Pete Sampras, Wimbledon is quite playable, but the graphics aren't up to Pete Sampras levels.

[Kollision]

I didn't know they made a Virtua Tennis 2. Is it any better than the first one? Virtua Tennis is video game heaven. 4 player doubles mode is insane.

I've only seen and played the first one in the arcades, but from what I've seen VT 2 is an improvement in all fronts. Players feel more organic, and the music is quite catchy. The game was released in US as Tennis 2K2.