Top 5 Greatest Sports Games of All-Time

by Mark Saldivar

My childhood is full of fond memories of all-night gaming sessions with the Nintendo Entertainment System, 2-Liters of Cherry Pepsi, and cold pizza.  Nothing could deprive me of sleep more readily than that awesome 2-button life-sucking controller that I just couldn’t seem to put down.  You just can’t put a price on the pure feeling of satisfaction of finally taking down Shadow Boss (or Dark Link if you prefer) in Zelda II or pouring countless hours into Ninja Gaiden and finally beating it.  Sometimes you would master a game so completely that you had to make up ridiculous challenges for yourself.  Ever try beating Super Mario Bros. without warping or dying? (please note – trying this WILL result in a broken controller or two)

As time passed and I got older, the gaming systems got more advanced.  I started with Pac-Man and Joust on the Atari, moved on to the Nintendo and Super Nintendo, gamed through the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era (with a brief stop on the Nintendo 64 for some Golden Eye and Perfect Dark), and find myself currently the proud owner of my second - and much overused - XBox 360.  Amongst the dozen or so different game systems I’ve owned and the countless thousands of games I’ve played, I have found that there is no greater pleasure than putting a beatdown on a friend or family member in a sports game.  You haven’t truly lived if you haven’t owned bragging rights over your friends or family for winning that Super Bowl on a last second touchdown pass (there’s always next year scrubs!).  In honor of these memories, I present my top 5 sports video games of All-Time:

5) Super NES Play Action Football

The game cover alone is badass

This was the game that first made my dad realize he no longer wanted to play football games with me.  Super Play Action had it all, high school, NCAA and Pro football all in one game.  This was the first time I could remember being able to use my Cornhuskers to get to some make believe Banana Bowl game and win a National Championship.  Sure, the game had its glitches (like passes that only traveled 5 feet off of the ground allowing for interceptions anywhere along the flight path of the ball and stiff arms that looked like massive right hooks), but all of the football goodness I ever wanted was right there in one box.

4) Tecmo Basketball

Look at the graphics on those shorts!

Everyone knew Tecmo Bowl, but not many people can remember Tecmo Basketball.  This game was awesome.  It was based on the 1991-92’ NBA Season when pro basketball was at its height.  All of the games greats were in there: Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isaiah, The Dream, Grandmama, Tim Hardaway; you name the star and they were there.  Full season play and stat tracking were both great features.  My cousin and I would stay up all night and finish an entire season.  Note: do NOT let Jordan shoot a 3-pointer from the right wing at the top of the screen or you will lose.

3) NCAA Football

Colorado was pretty used to this happening

I can’t specify a year because the entire franchise has been great since the Playstation days.  I remember epic seasons played with my friends – ESPECIALLY the season I lost the National Championship.  Since we were all Husker fans we decided no one could be Nebraksa, so I chose the Arizona Wildcats and their speed back Trung Candidate and my friend chose the Georgia Bulldogs.  We played through a full regular season, both emerging undefeated to play for the title.  The game was close the whole way through, him taking the lead on me with just under a minute left.  I quickly drove my team down to his 25 yardline and with my last play, threw a pass to a wide-open receiver in the endzone for the win – except he dropped the pass and I lost.  That one still stings.

2) Madden Football

Again, no specific year as the whole series has been solid, but I do remember some good years – Madden 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2012.  Madden 2000 might have been my favorite because it is the first one I can remember having a salary cap and player contracts.  Finally, I could be a cap genius (I did find out that you could trick the computer into really bad trades with Eric Green).  Add in the fact that Barry Sanders was in the game and a sweet theme song by Ludacris and you had a recipe for awesomeness.

1) Tecmo Super Bowl

James, I KNOW you remember seeing this

Tecmo Bowl started it all with a simple-to-learn-and-play arcade classic.  Tecmo Super Bowl took Tecmo Bowl and put it on steroids creating what is the best sports game ever.  Tecmo Super Bowl had all of the teams, all of the players (except Jim Kelly and Randall Cunningham evidently – QB Bills and QB Eagles anyone?) all of the games, all of the stats, injuries, end zone celebration animations and more.  Who can forget using Bo Jackson or Christian Okoye in “Excellent Condition”, or throwing bombs from Joe Montana to Jerry Rice? This game quickly became my favorite game of all-time.  I would pull all-nighters with my cousin and by the time 6 AM rolled around, my Buffalo Bills squad would be crowned Super Bowl Champions over his San Francisco 49ers for the umpteenth time.

No one could beat me in my heyday.  I proved to myself how good I was after not playing the game for over a decade, signing up for a Tecmo tournament, and winning that as well.  Tecmo Super Bowl even holds a special place in my memory for the most epic win ever when, being down by 2 with seconds left, my game-winning field goal was blocked, only to be picked up by my kicker, Scott Norwood, and returned for the winning touchdown with no time left.  Tecmo Bowl will forever remain the best sports game of all-time.

Notable mentions: NBA Jam, Arch Rivals, Baseball Simulator 1000, Baseball Stars, Winter Olympics (NES), Mario Golf, Ring King