Sports games that are still interesting to play today?

[retrosportsgamer]

Edit: Ok apparently Nintendo released the first college basketball game... WTF. It was developed by none other than HAL Laboratory! I'll keep researching but it seems that this is the earliest college basketball game with NCAA licensing.

Don't play that game (or the hockey game with the same engine). It is awful and literally nauseating.

Yeah NCAA Basketball and Stanley Cup Hockey - horrible games, extremely common also.

[retrosportsgamer]

A weird stipulation in the MLB exclusive agreement allowed console manufacturers to produce their own MLB simulation. As a result, Sony took advantage of this and we saw MLB: The Show rise. The irony is that now MLB: The Show is considered the best baseball game and we haven't seen a new entry from 2K since about 2013, I believe. As a result, Xbox baseball fans do not have a baseball game available to them anymore.

The exclusive deals for NFL and MLB really did not benefit the consumers in any way. We lost the superior NFL series as well as the superior MLB series.

2K had no interest in continuing on with bases and their 2K13 game was a huge mail-in effort (just a roster upgrade) that should have never been full price.

[Sarge]

Let me clarify with TSB III, it used real names for almost all the default roster, but didn't use them for the legends. It's really special to be able to tie the players to their real-world counterparts, and I consider the NFLPA license more important than the NFL license.

As for the Griffey games on SNES, I remember being impressed by them. The original, if memory serves, was much more arcade-like. The latter looked quite good, and I think used some of the same techniques as DKC with pre-rendering and all that jazz. It was also a lot more sim-like.

[J T]

BOOMshakalakah!

[prfsnl_gmr]

BOOMshakalakah!

Yeah. Now that the Hornets are back in Charlotte, it seems less-dated than ever.

Also...golf games never get old. I still love HAL Hole-in-One Golf, and I am trying to collect every golf game for the Genesis and Super Nintendo (only World Class Leaderboard Golf (GEN) and Zany Golf (GEN) elude me).

[BoneSnapDeez]

Edit: Ok apparently Nintendo released the first college basketball game... WTF. It was developed by none other than HAL Laboratory! I'll keep researching but it seems that this is the earliest college basketball game with NCAA licensing.

Don't play that game (or the hockey game with the same engine). It is awful and literally nauseating.

I got NCAA basketball sealed for $1.99 last year. Shows how well-regarded it is these days.

This thread is lacking is GOLF (EDIT: well it was until THE PROFESSIONAL showed up 5 minutes ago).

The T&E Soft games have aged very well and are still great fun today. I'm talkin' about Pebble Beach Golf Links, Waialae Country Club, Wicked 18, Valora Valley Golf, Virtual Boy Golf, etc...

EA's old PGA Tour games are also quite good. I like them on Genesis.

Other than that I mostly stick to the classics. Tecmo sports series, Konami Track & Field, all the old Sega Sports games, Sega's 2K games, Blades of Steel, NBA Jam, 1990s NHL games, and so on...

[prfsnl_gmr]

(EDIT: well it was until THE PROFESSIONAL showed up 5 minutes ago).

I copied my love of golf games from you. (Seriously, you were posting on here one day about collecting golf games, and I was like, "Wait a minute....I always loved those when I was a kid! Why don't I own any of them yet?")

EDIT: Also, all games based on dodgeball are still worth playing today.

[ExedExes]

Also...golf games never get old. I still love HAL Hole-in-One Golf.

YES!

HAL's Hole In One is great, and I'll be bold to say it's probably the best SNES golf game too. Very easy to get into, simple swing meter, beautiful early Mode 7 effects. The T&E Soft games are just really SLOW and confusing and load quite a bit too. Too bad because Wicked 18 is a nice twist on standard golf.

On the subject of SNES baseball games, none had both an MLB *and* a MLBPA license. The Ken Griffey Jr. games just had the MLB license, and a few that had the MLBPA license off my head --

Tecmo Super Baseball
Super Batter Up
MLBPA Baseball
Sporting News Power Baseball

Also, the TSB games on the SNES weren't as good as the NES.

When I first saw the thread, I thought of Basewars on the NES. It still holds up with its special season mode where you can upgrade the parts on the players. I'd also say both Virtua Tennis games on the Dreamcast (VT2 being Tennis 2K2).

[retrosportsgamer]

We really need a dedicated golf game thread where we can debate the merits of Leaderboard Golf on the Commodore 64 and Sega Master System.

[noiseredux]

well, I've plugged this many times now but Madden NFL 08 on PC has big community still. Since it was the last Madden on PC (pfft) it gets fan mods including updated rosters each year. It also has an online community via private servers. So worth owning if you're a PC gamer into football games.