GRecommends: Sports games – Top 10 revealed on p3

Update: Results revealed on p3

The summer of sport is upon us, and with the Rio Olympics about to get underway this month's GRecommends is to find the 10 greatest sports games of all time.

The definition, as always, is up to you – but here's what Wikipedia has to say:

A sports game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports.

Just list your top 10 below (each counts for one vote, so ranking them isn't important).

There will be separate GRecommends in the future for Racing games and Beat 'em ups, so you might want to keep your powder dry for some of them.

Voting is open for a month and closes on 31 August.

I'm looking forward to see what gets nominated.

The Edge list from 2003 was:

• Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (Amiga, 1988)
• International Track & Field (PSOne, 1996)
• Sega Bass Fishing (Dreamcast, 1999)
• Mario Tennis (N64, 2000)
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, 2001)
• Jimmy White's Cueball World (PC, 2001)
• Amped (Xbox, 2001)
• Madden NFL 2003 (PS2, Xbox, 2002)
• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Xbox, 2003)
• Winning Eleven 7 (PS2, 2003)

FIFA17
FIFA16
FIFA15
FIFA14
FIFA13
FIFA12
FIFA11
FIFA10
FIFA09
FIFA08

Here's my top 10 to kick things off.

• California Games (PC, 1987)
• Super International Cricket (SNES, 1994)
• Mario Tennis (N64, 2000)
• International Superstar Soccer 64 (N64, 1997)
• Wii Sports (Wii, 2006)
• Rocky (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, 2002)
• Mario Golf: Advance Tour (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
• WWF No Mercy (N64, 2000)
• Championship Manager 01/02 (PC, 2001)
• Pool Paradise (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, 2002)

Mario Golf (N64)
Fifa 98 RTWC (multi)
WWF No Mercy (N64)
Alpine Racer (Arcade)
1080 (N64)
NBA Courtside (N64)
Striker (PC)
Pong (Atari)
Wave Race 64 (N64)
Sega Bass Fishing (Dreamcast)

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (SNES)
Pong
Everybody's Golf (PS1)
Daley Thompson's Decathlon (ZX Spectrum)
Hyper Sports (C64)
Winter Heat (Saturn)
California Games (NES)
Legend Of The River King (GBC)
Tennis (GameBoy)

I thought this was gonna be easy but, seeing some of the responses so far, there is plenty of stuff that I'd forgotten about. Will report back later.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (Multi)
Championship Manager 2001/02 (PC)*
Mario Tennis (N64)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Multi)
Amped 2 (Xbox)
1080 Avalanche (GC)
SSX3 (Multi)
Wii Sports (Wii)
WWF Smackdown 2 (PS1)
Snowboard Kids (N64)

*I was going to go for 00/01 but I see Celer's gone for 01/02 so I've copied him as then it has a greater chance of making the cut.

International Superstar Soccer '98
NHLPA '93
Virtua Tennis 2
Wave Race
Brian Lara Cricket
NBA Jam
OutRun 2

SerialCeler wrote:...The Edge list from 2003 was...
• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Xbox, 2003)
...

. For REAL?

Saint of Killers wrote:...NBA Jam...

From downtown! [Revises list]

SerialCeler wrote:...

Celer, I'm gonna be "that person"... what if some folk vote for, say, ISS 64 and others vote for ISS '98? Will the votes be added together? I guess there could be some separations such as FIFA '95 (Mega Drive) and FIFA 16 (PS4)?

I'm not sure if I shoulda asked this because I can see cans of worms being sprung open even as I write. Err... I'll go now.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Mario Tennis (N64)
Mario Tennis (GBC)
SSX3
Wii Sports
Wii Sports Resort
Everybody's Golf
1080 Snowboarding
Rocket League (??????)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (???????????????)

Avoiding voting Snowboard Kids because its a kart racer not a sim or even an arcade sports game

Saint of Killers wrote:International Superstar Soccer '98
NHLPA '93
Virtua Tennis 2
Wave Race
Brian Lara Cricket
NBA Jam

OutRun 2

To give a more serious answer (I am going to avoid individual titles for annual or long running game series) here is my list:

FIFA (series) – I always enjoy a game of FIFA and so it has to up there.
NBA Jam – I probably lost weeks of my youth playing this on the Megadrive.
Speedball 2 – I only had a demo of this on the C64, but played it like it was the complete game, awesome stuff.
Sensible Soccer – As with NBA Jam, I lost much of my youth playing this.
Football Manager – I don’t think I have ever played the newer versions, but the old C64 game is probably one of my most played games of all time.
Wii Sports – Free with the Wii and just awesome.
Virtua Tennis 3 – Loved this game on the Xbox 360.
Pete Sampras Tennis – One of those awesome Megadrive carts with extra control ports built in. I don’t know if it has aged well, but I used to play this all the time against a mate and have fond memories.
Daley Thompson’s Decathlon – I don’t think I ever owned this, but my uncle had it and I can remember mashing buttons on his Spectrum.
NHL (series) – I am nominating the series but only ever played one version back on the Megadrive and cant remember what year (94?).

Last edited by Rex Kramer on Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Couple of initial thoughts, more to be edited in later.

EDIT: The final 10

Track and Field (Arcade)
NBA Jam (Arcade)
World Class Leaderboard (Speccy)
Player Manager (ST)
Speedball 2 (ST)
Sensible World of Soccer (ST)
Championship Manager 01/02 (PC)
PES 4 (Xbox)
Everybody's Tennis (PSP)
Everybody's Golf (Vita)

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
FIFA 12
Football Manager 2014
Rocket League
Top Spin 4

jawafour wrote:
SerialCeler wrote:...

Celer, I'm gonna be "that person"... what if some folk vote for, say, ISS 64 and others vote for ISS '98? Will the votes be added together? I guess there could be some separations such as FIFA '95 (Mega Drive) and FIFA 16 (PS4)?

I'm not sure if I shoulda asked this because I can see cans of worms being sprung open even as I write. Err... I'll go now.

It is one game, one vote, that's the only way to make it fair. It's the same for other series like Mario or Halo for example.

GRecommends is about having to make tough choices.

If people do vote for a series, I'll just take that as a vote for the most recent game in the series.

Racing is a sport, fight me:

Rocket League
Dirt Rally
Forza Motorsport 6
Forza Horizon 2
Blood Bowl 2
Wave Race 64
The Golf Club

Track and Field
Mario Golf (N64)
Mario Tennis (N64)
Champ Manager 01/02
Premier Manager 3
Fight Night Champion
PES 4
Adidas Power Soccer
FIFA RTWC & 13

OrangeRakoon wrote:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (???????????????)

Avoiding voting Snowboard Kids because its a kart racer not a sim or even an arcade sports game

So Snowboard Kids is out yet Ocarina of Time is in, I assume for its fishing minigame?

ISS 2000 (N64
Mario Golf (N64)
Virtua Tennis 2 (DC)
PES4 (Xbox 360)
1080 Snowboarding (N64)
Super Mario Strikers (Gamecube)
NBA Jam (Mega Drive)
NBA 2k (Dreamcast)
Mario Tennis (N64)
FIFA Series from 2009 onwards (Xbox 360)

GRecommends: Sports games – Top 10 revealed on p3

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