Yahtzee Got Me Thinking Sports Games

[themind]

The FIFA '13 Zero Punctuation got me thinking about sports titles in video games, and I figured this would be a proper place to get some input on an area of interest for me.

The doldrum of sports games for me is that they mirror real sports too closely. The old argument always applies, if I wanted to play football/baseball/basketball/bowling/etc, I would go outside and play it. It seems foolish, in a sense, to play a video game version of a real game. On top of that, what is the real difference between Madden 2005 and Madden '13 or FIFA 2005 and FIFA '13, with the exception of updated team rosters and a handful of animations? The substance of the games doesn't change because the sport itself remains static.

My somewhat long-winded intro leads me to my question, are there any "off the wall" sports titles out there that can be recommended to me? I used to love Mutant League hockey and football for Genesis, and even Super Baseball 2020 was different enough to be semi-entertaining in its day, but outside of a few older sports titles, is there any sports game that transcends the genre and is worth checking out?

The usual response I get is NFL Blitz or NHL Hitz, which is basically the same sport in an arcadey setting with power-ups and HE'S ON FIRE!!!

Perhaps there are a few games out there that didn't bloop on my radar, and I'm asking the forum goers if they have any suggestions for a solid sports game that isn't a traditional sports game. Any platform, any era, I am curious to see if any developers took a shot at trying to go outside the box with a sports game.

 

[omega 616]

Erm, bloodbowl on the PC? It's a kind of roll the dice, turn based NFL game.

Instead of humans, you have orks, elves, werewolves and goblins. There are probably more but I have never played it ... there might not be some I mentioned as well.

I just know it's not the usual NFL game and there isn't just 1 race.

 

[AndrewF022]

I still think despite the close resemblance to their real world counterparts that sports games still have a place in gaming, due to the simple fact it's not always feasible to get the required number of people to a park to play a big game of Football, Cricket, Basketball or whatever your sport of choice is. It is however very easy to get a couple of mates around and have a game on the Xbox/PS3, since its less people, less preparation and you can be completely wasted and not have to worry about getting injuries, or a serious hangover haha.

As for suggestions, if you're a fan of Soccer definitely check out the Football Manager series. If you're a fantasy fan theres Blood Bowl. Then you got extreme sport games, like say Tony Hawks Pro Skater. Monday Night Combat (if you want to classify that as a 'sport' game haha). So theres not a whole lot of options, but there is some stuff out there. Not a whole lot though, unfortunately.

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

I don't care about or watch sports in real life. Except the occasional interest in the Olympics or something to do with extreme sports, like the Dew Tour. Snowboard Cross was AWESOME in the last winter Olympics, real life SSX, baby!!!
Note that I have played few sports games, but I have loved a few which I will get to when I answer the second part of your post.

The old argument always applies, if I wanted to play football/baseball/basketball/bowling/etc, I would go outside and play it. It seems foolish, in a sense, to play a video game version of a real game.

I always thought this argument was really stupid. For one thing, 99% of people can't play sports at a professional level. Second, you play more than one role in the same round/game/event, while you'd play one role, maybe two in real life. You're the strategist, coach, quarterback, linebacker, center, point guard etc. at the push of a button. You can't possess your teammates in real life. Finally, playing sports in real life is much different than playing a video game of it. Despite games being closely modeled off the real sport, they play very differently. There's almost no physical exertion on the video game side, you don't have a birds eye view in real life, pushing buttons is much different than physically doing the action, real sports are much harder than the video game of it, there's different strategies in video game versions because you have greater macro control over what happens.

All that aside there's still the primary point: sports games are just games with certain mechanics like all other games. If you happen to enjoy those mechanics in a game, then who cares if it's based off something you could allegedly just go outside and do? You could go to a range and shoot targets, so why play shooters? You could go try to get good at Parkour, so why play platformers? You could study history and learn real life military tactics then join the Army, so why play Men of War?

People enjoy sports games for the power fantasy and/or the mechanics in addition to other reasons, just like any other video game, so why does it matter if you can play some form of it in your backyard?

RANT OVER

To answer the second part: the most sporty games I've really enjoyed have been 10 Yard Fight on the NES (it was just simple fun), NHL Hitz (on GameCube, good fun for the $3 I paid) and NBA Street 1 & 2 on GameCube. NBA Street is like exaggerated Basketball with a trick system, and best of all: no GOAL TENDING! You can snatch those rocks out of the air as much as you want, baby. If you want to further broaden your definition of sports games, I really like the Tony Hawk games, the Skate games and the SSX series. But wait, I can snowboard in real life!? Alright, I'm never playing SSX again, my bad.

"off the wall" sports titles out there that can be recommended to me?

I would qualify everything I mentioned above as off-the-wall except for 10 Yard Fight and NHL Hitz. So... I recommend trying NBA Street 1 or 2 (GameCube/PS2/Xbox), Tony Hawk games (THPS 1-3, Project 8), , Skate 2 or 3 and SSX Tricky, SSX 3 and SSX (the newest one on PS3/360).

P.S. I'm not anywhere near as mad as this post might make me appear. You have a nice day, I don't dislike you. I just dislike the "why play sports games, if I could just go outside and play them?" argument.

 

[w9496]

NFL Street was a really good unrealistic football game. It was almost arcade-like, and had a bunch of game modes to boot.

Actually, all of the Street games were more fun the the realistic ones.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Aside from the silliness of the whole "just play it in real life" argument, which Fuzzy Logic covered pretty well, I think it's also a pretty big mistake to call out sports games as never having any changes beyond animations and roster updates. Of course, due to the yearly release cycle there are very few major changes that come in one fell swoop to revolutionize the games. There just isn't enough time to conceive, plan, execute and test that sort of thing if you're pumping a game out every single year. If you do, however, actually compare titles across several years there are often some pretty big changes in how the games actually play. Outside of the big new things that do pop up from time to time like general managing, isolated solo player career modes, full on practice modes, etc. there are also play experience changes that come as a culmination of several years worth of minor tweaks, additions and removals. In short, there may not be much outwardly different between, say, NHL 12 and NHL 13, but if you actually sat down and played them you would feel they played differently.. and the difference would be even more pronounced the farther back into the series you went.

Anyway, my peresonal favourite non realistic sports game based on an actual sport is NGA Street Vol. 2.

 

[Haefulz]

I'll preface my post by saying I used to be a huge fan of sports gaming, and while my interest in the genre has definitely diminished over the years, I still love to play a quick game of NBA 2k or Madden with some friends.

I'd like to address your point about playing real sports over video game sports. It's a valid point for someone who isn't a sports gaming fan, or even a casual sports gaming fan. But to people who are really hardcore into the sport, the experience of playing the real sport and playing a sports video game is completely different. In NBA 2k13, I can take over control of my favorite NBA franchise, negotiate contracts, make trades, and go on a championship run with some of my favorite players. Unless I'm a multi-millionaire in real life, I'm never going to get that chance to actually have that experience.

Even in the actual gameplay, I experience something different than if I got a few friends together and played a 5-on-5 pickup game at the park. While I definitely have more fun playing a real game with friends, video games let me take control of some of my favorite players whose athleticism is far beyond my own, performing moves I could only dream of doing. On top of that, as one user pointed out, it isn't always possible to grab enough friends to get a small pickup going.

So while I can definitely see why someone who is kinda into sports games could think that playing the real sport is the same experience only better, for some people, there are things in sports video games that even real life can't satisfy.

 

[Juan Cantu]

Theres was a megaman soccer game i liked for the SNES i think, dont remember it to much tough.

 

[dwp9296]

NBA Homecourt is a really fun arcadey basketball game. It's got stuff like power ups and double slam dunks where you get double the points.

 

[Mojo]

I can only recommend: Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube. Grab some friends and some beers and I can guarantee you'll have one hell of a good time.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

and what do you expect from someone form australia?
they dont like football/soccer as much as they like Australian Rules football

*Tries to picture Yahtzee playing this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh5hNY83UA4] sport*

0_0

 

[Guffe]

Difference between FIFA05 and 13 is HUGE.
I mean seriously, the difference isn't just in animations, graphics and team setups. The difference is in the flow of the game. They try to change it for the better often, duh, but for example I thought FIFA11 had a better flow than 12 and 13 takes this to completely new levels, the flow of the game is just perfect. To say recent sport titles I guess you would survive by buying every second or third game nowadays but FIFA didn't get difficult until 10/11, before that the worldclass difficulty was easy to beat by repeat one or two things the computer always fell for, that isn't the case anymore.

As for over the top sports games? no idea, sorry.

 

[GoaThief]

and what do you expect from someone form australia?
they dont like football/soccer as much as they like Australian Rules football

*Tries to picture Yahtzee playing this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh5hNY83UA4] sport*

0_0

Oh come on, we all know both codes of rugby have it beat!

Completely fair point all the same, I'd love to see an Escapist game of footy - methinks there would be death and destruction.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

The only one I liked was the Quidditch on the GBA.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

My somewhat long-winded intro leads me to my question, are there any "off the wall" sports titles out there that can be recommended to me? I used to love Mutant League hockey and football for Genesis, and even Super Baseball 2020 was different enough to be semi-entertaining in its day, but outside of a few older sports titles, is there any sports game that transcends the genre and is worth checking out?

Speedball: Brutal Deluxe

The greatest sports game ever. It was out on the NES, Megadrive and PC and was pretty popular in its day.

 

[Britisheagle]

The doldrum of sports games for me is that they mirror real sports too closely. The old argument always applies, if I wanted to play football/baseball/basketball/bowling/etc, I would go outside and play it. It seems foolish, in a sense, to play a video game version of a real game.

Yeah I always have this argument with my friends when they ask why I don't play FIFA. Where I am from I am like the only one who doesn't play/ enjoy it (I just say I must have been born without that gene) but my reasoning is that these people play hours on it. And I mean hours. If I put in that much time playing football in real life, the chances are I would become really good and, although I would never be playing on proffessional level, there would be a real sense of achievement, not just gamerscore.

OT: As has been said a few times Bloodbowl and to an extent the "street" versions of some sport games because of the crazy stuff you can do which probably isn't possible. Also takes real skill to pull them off.

 

[Toasty Virus]

The Harry Potter quidditch game I had on the PS2. So amazing I spent hours playing that.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Bangalanga-doo-dah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlgLwoJkmY

I also recall hearing about some Football game on the X-Box that was rated M, as you could attack and kill the other players and... stuff? I don't really know anything much about it, nor would I know if that's the sort of thing that floats your boat.

Captcha: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". The heck...!? Episode titles, now? That one was terrible.