What Are The Best Retro Sports Video Games?
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=23062
To go along with our selection of NBA Jam as our Together Retro Game Club title, I thought it would be fun to see what everone’s favorite old-school sports titles are. (The only restrictions for nominations were that they games were N64 or older and not include standard racing or wrestling games).
We had lots of nominations, but I narrored the list down to the most popular 30 titles — each of these titles actually had more than one nomination.
To go along with our selection of NBA Jam as our Together Retro Game Club title, I thought it would be fun to see what everone’s favorite old-school sports titles are. We had lots of nominations in the forum, but I narrored the list down to the most popular 30 titles — each of these titles actually had more than one nomination. (The only restrictions for nominations were that they games were N64 or older and not include standard racing or wrestling games)
[poll id=”20″]
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No arch-rivals?
I think that got one nomination, but so did a hundred others 🙂
Excite Bike, Punch-Out and Sensible Soccer.
But no Arch-Rivals? Shame on you.
Virtua Tennis series or this artcile never happened.
(perhaps not retro enough starting in 1999, but it the best 4 player sports game)
DC/ps2/ps3 owners owe it to themselves to get VT2 and have a blast with friends.
I’m saddened by the lack of one of my favorite all-time NES games, Pro Wrestling. That game was awesome and still a lot of fun to play today.
@d & Video E
Both of those didn’t fit the criteria above. I love both Virtua Tennis and Pro Wrestling, but no post-N64 or Wrestling (or Racing) games were included
Voted for Punch-Out!! in lieu of PGA Tour Golf.
Does Tecmo Bowl here stand for the entire series or at least the two games on NES? Tecmo Bowl was based on the arcade game and did not have a full line up of teams or any NFL licensing. The game most people are thinking of is the sequal, Tecmo Super Bowl, even though they call it ‘Tecmo Bowl’.
I’ve got to put in a mention for Major League Baseball on the Intellivision. It took advantage of the numeric keypad to give you direct control over each of your outfielders. It’s still the best baseball game I’ve ever played.
@threetoed
Yeah, I just put Tecmo Bowl in there, but it would apply to the whole “series” including Tecmo Super Bowl
Not to be too nitpicky, but virtua tennis actually came out earlier than Mario Tennis.
As to which tennis game is better, THAT is a tough call. Both are brilliant, and I would’ve dropped punchout in favor of virtua tennis if it were an option.
Activision Boxing?!
There’s retro, and then there’s retro. I’m sad there’s no Atari-era games represented on the list. RealSports Baseball, RealSports Football, and Pete Rose Baseball for the Atari 2600 are probably forgotten by most, but for their era were fairly impressive for what they were able to pack in to 4k of ROM. I would have nominated them if I’d known.
Punch-Out!! isn’t really a sports game, if you ask me. It’s really more of a primitive rhythm game with a sports skin. You don’t win bouts in Punch-Out!! through knowing boxing, but by recognizing and memorizing patterns. As a sport simulation, it’s pretty poor. Still a lot of fun to play as a videogame, though.
To me, another important criteria for a sports game is that it feature a 2-player vs. game mode, which Punch-Out!! does not.
Where is ISS?
If it’s not on the list, it didn’t get more than one nomination in the forum….
babababababaseball stars
I love intentionally hitting the batter three times so he runs up and punches the pitcher
How can it be that the best game of the most played sport on the world did not make it to the list?
I’m talking about International Super Star Soccer Deluxe for SNES and Genesis. Sensible Soccer? FIFA series? C’mon, they have little to offer next to Konami’s sportive master piece.
I think RBI Baseball for the Nes should be on the list. I really don’t understand how Bases Loaded is there and not RBI. I guess everyone has their own tastes.
Excite Bike, Mario Tennis and 1080 Snowboarding. Punch-Out would have been my next option.
I remember Skate or Die being kind of fun but I can’t really remember it to well now…
one single EPYX game (California Games)
then again… I’m guessing this is consoles we’re talking
Excite Bike, Skate or Die!, California Games
I know there’s no point in asking about omissions at this point, but I’m kinda surprised to not see NFL Blitz on the list. That game is like Tecmo Bowl on ‘roids.
Super Baseball 2020!!!
Where is International Superstar Soccer???? ISS???
¬¬
My favorite one is Motocross Maniacs.