The Top 10 Sports Video Games Of All Time
There have been hundreds of sports video games throughout the years. In less than forty years we’ve gone from Pong to MLB 2K6 for the Xbox 360. But the evolution of games hasn’t always meant better games. Just because a game has flashier interfaces and better graphics, it doesn’t necessarily make for good gameplay. That’s the reason that many PS2 and Xbox games are doomed to linger in discount bins at your local game store, while classics like NHL ’94 and Tecmo Super Bowl continued to be obsessed over by sports fans. Here’s my Top 10 of all time:
10. Jordan vs. Bird (NES) – Was the one-on-one gameplay that great? No, not really. But the game was innovative with the three point competition and slam dunk contest long before it showed up anywhere else. For that alone it deserves a spot in the Top 10.
9. Madden 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GC) – The jump from ’04 to ’05 was HUGE. ’05 introduced the hit-stick control and defensive playmaker to bring the defensive control on par with the offense. Franchise mode is pretty much the same as ’04, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. My favorite thing to do is build a team from scratch. I love taking the worst team in the league and building them into a powerhouse. You can move them to a new city and build a new stadium, then draft real college players from NCAA ’05. Overall, I liked this game more than any other Madden. 2006 just didn’t improve upon this game enough for me.
8. Punch-Out (NES) – what kid born in the late 70′s or early 80′s DIDN’T spend hours on end trying to beat Tyson with Little Mac?
7. Madden ‘94 (Genesis, SNES) – Based on memory this game was awesome. I remember being able to play with all the NFL teams and a bunch of classic teams. It was one of my favorite sports games growing up. That said, I played it recently and it sucks. It can’t even come close to holding it’s own against Tecmo Super Bowl. The passing is unrealistic, and the running consists of repeatedly hitting the spin button while tacklers bounce off your runner. It’s this high just because of how much I remember enjoying it as a kid.
6. NBA Live ‘95 (Genesis, SNES) – This game might not have been realistic at all, but it was insanely fun to run up and down the court firing up threes and throwing up alley-oops. The fact that it was the first NBA game by EA with every team and every arena also scores it points. Not to mention, this was the first game with the 3/4 angle camera.
5. NFL Blitz (Arcade) – The football version of NBA Jam. Fast scoring, late hits, and crazy rules like being able to throw multiple forward passes behind the line of scrimmage make this game great. The arcade version was waaaay better than the PS or N64 versions.
4. NBA Jam (Arcade) – Between the arcade version and the console versions, I’ve played a ton of NBA Jam. It is one of the most unique games ever. Who didn’t enjoy beating the crap out of people in mid-air or hitting three after three when they were on fire? This game totally rocked. The best part was getting all of the codes and playing with mascots and Bill Clinton.
3. Little League Baseball (NES) – I don’t know why this game doesn’t get more attention as one of the best NES sports games. The gameplay is the best of any NES baseball game – pitching, hitting, and fielding all are simple and feel relatively realistic. Plus there’s just something fun and unique about playing with little leaguers. As far as I know this is the only little league game ever, although I could be wrong. Adding to the excitement, certain teams are significantly better than others. Want a challenge? Try winning a tournament with Italy, the worst team in the game. The replay value of LLB is unbelievable; I still play it to this day.
2. NHL ‘94 (Genesis, SNES) – I love modern NHL games as much as the next guy, but this game is the best ever. I still play it ALL THE TIME. The quality of play is amazing. Take away the easy wrap-around goals and the gameplay is amazingly real, especially considering how old this game is. Oh, and for the record, they are playing NHL ‘93 in Swingers but talking about the removal of fighting in NHL ‘94. Weird huh?
1. Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) – This game was far ahead of it’s time – editable playbooks and season long stat tracking were so cool back then. The gameplay is far from realistic but amazingly equal. For that reason, the game is still popular and there are tons of people who still play in online leagues. The advent of emulators has allowed for the editing of rosters – I’ve played versions of the game with rosters from as recent as 2004. There are also versions with college rosters and USFL rosters. The weird little gameplay quirks like Bo Jackson being impossible to stop, fumbles bouncing all over the place, choosing defensive plays by guessing the offensive play, 100 yard passes, etc make the game MORE fun. This game will never, ever get old.
Disagree? Rate and review sports video games at Games.SportsLizard.com. Adam McFarland owns the SportsLizard.com Network – a network of sports sites including collectibles, movies, books, and more.
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2010 FIFA World Cup
- Non-stop action pits you against friends in head-to-head challenges utilizing the Strike It System. Shake the Wii-mote perfectly in order to score or defend free-kicks, penalties, and corners, creating frantic action on the pitch.
- Compete as one of 199 teams from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final and play in any of the 10 official stadiums used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament.
- You and up to 31 friends can re-create the official tournament. Choose a country and advance through the tournament by taking on and defeating your friends one at a time to write your own history.
- Enjoy extensive multiplayer functionality, including 4-player versus support both online and offline.
- Compete in Global Elimination, a multiplayer, knockout-style tournament against up to three friends. Draft and strategically select countries to play as, create alliances and gang-up on rivals until only one remains.
2010 FIFA World Cup Wii With 2010 FIFA World Cup EA Sports celebrates the single largest sporting event on the planet with the only official and exclusively licensed video game for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Featuring all 199 national teams that took part in qualification and all 10 officially licensed stadiums to be used in South Africa, tournament creation allowing for 32 participants, and 4-player multiplayer support online and offline, 2010 FIFA World Cup i
Rating: 
(out of 8 reviews)
List Price: $ 49.95
Price: $ 34.98
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Review by Surgery100 for 2010 FIFA World Cup
Rating:
It’s a decent, arcade-ish, multiplayer-oriented soccer game, but it suffers from being far too similar to FIFA 10 (if you already own FIFA 10 you’re getting just slightly more than a re-skin of it). The game features unrealistic physics and some crazy-insane slow-mo effects (very Matrix-like) to really bring out the all-important “cool factor,” however, it eschews realism in favor of fast-paced fun.
The rest of the gameplay feels very old school with only eight directions available for movement which makes it very tough to have effective runs up the field and even tougher to turn the corner around the defender. Other annoyances come when you try to intricately weave passes through the defense. Having through balls and standard passes on the same button is a real mistake. You can no longer hold down the pass button to determine its power, as holding it down now triggers a through ball. Too often the player I’m trying to pass to was too far away for the game to realize where I was trying to go with the pass. Instead of it auto-detecting the distance and delivering a slightly faster-paced kick, all I got was a tap of the ball that then rolled five feet in front of my player. If you have a Classic Controller, I’d recommend using it. The results are much better than what you’ll get with either the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination or just the Wii Remote.
This game will appease younger gamers who just want to go kick the soccer ball, hear unrealistically loud noises when players take a shot and see lots of bright colors.
If you want to just finish a match with incredible scores and using fantastic tricks, this is your soccer game. Those looking for a realistic soccer game won’t find it here, you’d still better stick with Pro Evolution Soccer, far deeper and more satisfying.
Review by Louis Coniglio for 2010 FIFA World Cup
Rating:
I am a fan of FIFA 09 for Wii, but I was deterred from buying 2010 because of bad reviews. But with the World Cup coming up, I decided to purchase the game to get to know the squads for the upcoming tournament. I am enjoying this game immensely.
First off, the gameplay- the addition of using B to do high passes brings the game’s fun factor up by a mile, and was something missing from 09. The shots are explosive and remind me of a more arcade experience, but it’s quite fun. The shooting is a bit like the Footii matches from 09, but faster shot speed. There is a bit of slow motion that comes when shooting, but it enables you a split second to position your defensive player to make a block and help protect your goalie. I don’t find it obtrusive, but some might so please keep this in mind. So far, I am not sure if this feature can be disabled. Shooting on set pieces is more difficult, and is not as automatic as it was in 09- you no longer point the Wii remote at the screen, and requires some timing by shaking the remote at the correct moment. As a soccer fan, I like all of this.
Second, I really enjoy the Build Zakumi’s Dream Team feature, which put you and your (default) low rated all-star squad up against various nations, with objectives to complete in game. This feature reminds me of older EA games, accomplishing things to gain points for better skills, etc. As you defeat clubs and accomplish (like maintaining 68% possession against South Africa, or completing 10 straight passes and scoring off those passes against Honduras) tasks, the game allows you to trade players with the team you defeat. This enables you to build an All-Star team of the best Internationals! Another neat feature I like is, as you build your Dream Team, you are able to download it to your Wii remote to play at a friend’s house. Very cool, although I don’t know how useful it would be unless playing many friends in some sort of tournament. Overall, seeing the new kits, having 199 teams, and the innovative features make a cool game.
Update 5/11/10: I am still enjoying the game, having completed the Dream Team feature and now trying to complete the unlockables. I noticed some commments are negative toward the Wii version compared to other consoles. I think this is the point of the Wii. If you are new to soccer or just want to have fun and score a lot of goals, this is a fine game and system.
Review by Luke Merritt for 2010 FIFA World Cup
Rating:
This is not a version of the PS3 and 360 titles, but a different game unto itself. It isn’t designed for mature football fans who want to recreate the World Cup experience. Instead, the idea is that toddlers will enjoy shaking the Wii remote and hearing the cute sound effects.
You cannot change the field perspective- you must play left or right (which I cannot stand).
The longest a half can be is 5 minutes.
One touch football is virtually impossible- everything is predicated on blasting away randomly like an Atari 2600 game. Even on “hard” (there are just three difficulty settings), strategy and tactics are impossible and irrelevant. You can put in subs, but your starters never get tired, so what’s the point?
The game has sloppy presentation, implementation, and the gameplay will solely be entertaining to little kids or mental home patients, though in my world little kids should be educated to quality and understanding of the sport, not condescended to by a very obvious cash-in from a company long known for not really caring about its customers.
Absolutely dreadful. Avoid at all costs. If you want a real World Cup game, you’ll have to buy a PS3 or 360.
Review by B. Anderson for 2010 FIFA World Cup
Rating:
After my ten-year old broke his collar-bone, I was looking for something to make his enforced downtime a little easier. Saw this game advertised, and it certainly was topical. He readily mastered the interface, so I have to say it’s intuitive. Gameplay has been quite enjoyable for him and his brother. Has definitely made the healing process go a little quicker for him. (He can control the nunchuck part of the controls with the thumb on the broken arm side, leaving the larger motions for the good arm.)
Review by A. R. Khan for 2010 FIFA World Cup
Rating:
I loved FIFA 09, and I thought World Cup 2010 would be even better, with international teams and improved gameplay. EA Sports has gone in the complete opposite direction with this one. FIFA 09 was a more realistic simulation; this version is dumbed-down, arcade style gameplay. I’m sure little kids will love the slow-mos, rocket shots, and such other arcade-like features, but if you’re looking for the real thing, don’t bother with this one. I returned mine for a gift card.