ESPN'S TOP 25 SPORTS VIDEO GAMES

[AppleQueso]

And I'd put WCW/NWO Revenger above No Mercy.

Woah, I thought I was the only one.

[Luke]

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I don't consider Punch Out to be a boxing game either

Tennis: Virtua Tennis

I get where you are coming from regarding Punch-Out!!, but...c'mon. It's not actual boxing, but it is a boxing game.

Virtual Tennis should have been close to the top ten. Sega and Tennis are like peas and carrots.

[Razzmatazz]

http://espn.go.com/espn/playbook/featur ... games-ever


Discuss.

NBA Street 2 ranked higher than NBA Jam? What?

Both are solid games. Street 2 is one of the better 3d Basketball games. The lack of Sega Sports titles irks me though - NFL 2k1 is still my favorite NFL game. Though PES 2011 not being on there is just shameful. PES is one of the absolute biggest gaming series period, sales put it almost in the top 10 of all time, and 2011 is considered the best by many.

But he is entitled to his opinion, and he seems to favor baseball and football games.

If you're going to put any PES game in it has to be the peak of the series - which is any of 4, 5 or 6 on Playstation 2. I know the last few PES games have been a bit better, but none of them are as good, or as fun as FIFA 11, 12 or 13. Master League is still fun but it stills feels like I'm playing a bastardised version of Virtua Striker instead of the realistic sim-heavy Pro Evo that was on PS2. An argument could be had for Sensible Soccer as it is generally regarded as the greatest football game ever anyway.

[Menegrothx]

No fantasy sports games? No extreme sports games besides THPS 2 and SSX? No tennis games? Only one soccer game and it's not PES (there's also good soccer games on the NES I've heard) or one of the PS1 Fifa games? And with out ever playing one, I'm quite certain that there's atleast one great Japanese baseball game that belongs in that list (probably one wrestling game too). Atleast Neo Geo has some famous baseball games if I'm not mistaken. Pro wrestling games qualify but MMA games don't? Well atleast there are boxing games in the list.

I'd also expect to see Winter Games/California games type of 8-bit sports compilation game on a list like that.

Not a bad list, actually. I was scared they'd rank something like Madden 13 as #1.

My list would look completely different of course - I'm mostly only into retro sports games and I don't like wrestling or skating at all.

Because there were so damn many skate and wrestling games on that list The Tony Hawk's Pro Skate series is legendary. It's one of the game series that definied an era. It acomplished something that none of the traditional team sports games really did: it was simply a fun game to play to the point that people who dont care about sports at all would still buy it. It was basically an AAA game amongst others. Although I guess EA Skate managed to pull the same trick when it first launched, but it had a much smaller cultural impact than the THPS series, and I assume it didn't sell nearly as much (comparatively) as THPS games did.

I'm also a big wrestling fan, and I thought No Mercy had a weak roster. Granted, the WWE was at its peak, so the roster probably is very familiar to a lot of people, but WCW games had stacked rosters. No Mercy was better just by virtue of being the most recent game in its engine.

I don't consider Punch Out to be a boxing game either

Pro Wrestling: No Mercy, Royal Rumble/RAW (16 bit games) (Here Comes the Pain I here is good too), throw in a Fire Pro Wrestling game or 2

Shut Your Mouth and Here Comes the Pain had great rosters. 2002/2003=WCW and ECW were dead and WWE was full of big name wrestlers from both of them and had on top of that most of it's attitude era wrestlers (Stone Cold and The Rock hadn't left the company yet) and there were some new rising stars like Randy Orton, Batista and Brock Lesnar.

[EvilRyu2099]

Tony La Russa Ultimate Baseball should be number 1! Or Bill Walsh College Football!

[01toubib]

http://espn.go.com/espn/playbook/featur ... games-ever


Discuss.

NBA Street 2 ranked higher than NBA Jam? What?

Street and Street 2 are phenomenal games. I can easily see someone preferring them to NBA Jam.

x2. I prefer NBA Street 2 over NBA Jam. Both were sweet in there day, but Street 2 does so many little things well like the retro setting in NYC and the music.

I think the list actually fairly well made, and they do give good explanations on why each game deserves to be on the list. My only gripes are Shaq Fu and Bill Laimbeers Combat Basketball are missing from the list, and I think NFL Blitz should of been higher. Growing up every arcade, even Chuck E Cheeses, had Blitz.

[Sload Soap]

Obviously an American sports-centric list, but Sensible World of Soccer is listed as one of the ten most important games of all time. It is actually deserving of this, with people still playing and updating the game to this day.

I also agree with Razzmataz that PES peaked at 4,5,6, though I preferred 4 and 5 on xbox due to faster loading and more save space for replays. I think FIFA's rise is more to do with PES getting worse over time than anything else. Not that FIFA ever had a bad time of it, even when it was shite, it still outsold PES.

Also, where are the cricket games? Brian Lara Cricket on mega drive is still superb.