Best Imaginary / Fantasy Sports games?

[Ivo]

I remember one for the PC around the late 90s called... Hyperblade. It was sort of a "Speedball" take of Ice Hockey I guess. No ice, but the players were skaters. I only played the demo of it but it seemed like a decent game at least.

[fastbilly1]

Bloodbowl. Either the Boardgame or the PC version that came out this year. Stay away from the 90s pc game.

It is true Fantasy Football.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Oh, Ball Blazer or the 7800 is also great.

[Luke]

From someone who has been skateboarding for 14+ years and still only has a 4inch ollie, the first 2 THPS games are incredible. The rest are just super silly.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I include the third Tony Hawk game, but after that they were all crap cash-ins on the franchises' name.

[Luke]

I include the third Tony Hawk game, but after that they were all crap cash-ins on the franchises' name.

In all seriousness, I'm not even that big of a fan of THPS2. There are 2 schools of thought:

1) You play games to escape reality
2) You play games to immerse yourself into a reality

I'm a fan of both schools, but in sports games, I prefer the latter. I like realism in my sports games (MLF aside). Grinding on phone wires/dinosaurs etc. is ridiculous. I thought the first THPS stretched reality, but didn't transcend it. Just me though, all my friends consider THPS3 the pinnacle of the series.

[shadobeni]

As far as this thread is concerned I wouldn't consider Tony Hawk or Virtua Tennis as being Imaginary / Fantasy sports games. Those games even if they aren't necessarily sim-like or the most realistic are clearly aiming at replicating an existing sport.

I'm looking for the rarer sort of sports title that is more or less original and not too similar to any existing sport.

Super Dodgeball for the NES I would consider as a fantasy sports game. The same company who developed that game apparently developed a series of sports games based on major north american sports. Although none of them stray far from the sports except for their basketball game which had 3 baskets on each side, one above the other.

[pepharytheworm]

^^^^
I agree. Ball Blazer was a good example, who knew Lucas Arts could do sports

[Luke]

As far as this thread is concerned I wouldn't consider Tony Hawk or Virtua Tennis as being Imaginary / Fantasy sports games. Those games even if they aren't necessarily sim-like or the most realistic are clearly aiming at replicating an existing sport.

Super Dodgeball for the NES I would consider as a fantasy sports game.

I don't follow your logic. Super Dodgeball replicates dodgeball.

In THPS you have Spider-Man grinding on Dinosaur fossils, it's completely fantasy.

Diff'rent Strokes I guess.

[shadobeni]

Yeah you're correct about super dodgeball, it's probably more of an arcade-style sports game than a true fantasy sports game. I initially included it because I felt it altered the sport of dodgeball enough that it was a very different from real dodge ball. The super shots and the health bar being the main reasons.