Remembering the best sports video games of all-time

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Yesterday was National Video Game Day, so CSN posted asking fans what their favorite sports video games were and it brought back all kinds of nostalgia.

Most of the games were older, so let’s jump in the time machine to remember the amazing games from our childhood that we still love to this day.

NHL 94

This was one of the first games I remember really begging my dad for. I was eight years old and I got a Sega for my birthday, but I’m not sure my dad really got the concept of needing the newest and best games to play on the console. This was definitely one of them.

The introduction of the one-timer was an absolute game-changer and I basically scored every goal either this way or doing a wrap-around, which the goalies could never figure out how to save. While fighting was removed from the game, NHL 94 was one of the first games where the gameplay really took over.

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out

What an experience.

I can’t tell you how many hours I spent as Little Mac on my Nintendo, and later on an emulator at Cheltenham High School on the computers in the library when I was supposed to be doing some sort of project.

The story was tremendous. Running through the streets with Doc and facing the likes of Don Flamenco, King Hippo, Great Tiger, and eventually, Mike Tyson was remarkable.

My mind was absolutely blown last year when this game secret was discovered.

Backyard Baseball

For the simple fact that we were introduced to one of the greatest sports video game characters of all time, Pablo Sanchez.

 

NBA Jam

Nick brings up an interesting point, this game was not only amazing on console, but also in the arcade. I spent the majority of my youth at Challenges Arcade at the Willow Grove Mall (RIP) because my step dad was the manager. I think I had every single birthday there. NBA Jam was one of the best games to play at the arcade, unless you also count Top Skater as a sports game. In addition to its prowess at the arcade, NBA Jam was tremendous for Sega, especially if you used the Bill Clinton cheat code.

Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl

There were a lot of votes for both versions and along with Madden 2004 and Joe Montana’s Sports Talk Football, these are my favorite football games of all time. Sorry to everyone who listed NFL2K5, I just was a Madden guy.

What I loved about the Tecmo Bowl games the most was how absolutely dominant some individual players were. In Tecmo Bowl, the Chicago Bears were almost unfair to use unless you were playing the computer. What Walter Payton could do was absolutely unfair. In Tecmo Super Bowl, Bo Jackson was unstoppable and we were all introduced to QB Eagles, who of course, was the incomparable Randall Cunningham.

Honorable Mention

https://twitter.com/CoooopThereItIs/status/907656762484031489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

Special mention to these three for successfully executing a scene from Billy Madison.

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