Technos

Naxat Soft

1988

Technos

Sony Imagesoft

1989

or Amazon

Technos

Naxat Soft

1990

Technos

Technos

1993

Here you have three different games for three different consoles, but each one is packed with Kunio-kun awesomeness, such as the super deformed art style, numerous regional teams, at least three different modes of play, and special dodgeball moves. As you might expect, each new port incrementally improves on the previous one. Obviously, the NES version, known as Super Dodge Ball, is the most accessible. Gameplay is as simple as it is addicting, and that the final opponent is the U.S.S.R. is a humorous reminder of the good old Cold War days. Interestingly, in the Famicom version you play as a high school team (rather than Team U.S.A.) and your final challenge is—you guessed it—the Americans.

Take everything before add the stuff of dreams and you have the Super Famicom port. Multiplayer now supports as many as five different players. You've got much greater ability to construct and customize your teams, and you can even save your progress as they develop and compete. Naturally, the graphics and sound are also much better, thanks to the SNES hardware. While Japanese is just a small barrier to navigating menus, if you own the SNES cart I highly recommend you check out the fan translation by Azelistic at Romhacking.net. In closing, all three of these games are excellent in their own right. Your only obligation is to track down one that fits with your existing retro consoles and play the hell out of it.

HAL Laboratory

Nintendo

1994

or Amazon

Be it known that this website has a bias against golf games. It must be the most boring sport you can watch on television. Even billiards and snooker promise more action and a faster pace! Therefore, it shouldn't surprise you to find a very non-traditional golf game in this slot. How can you argue with the fundamental mechanics of the sport, Kirby cuteness, along with a whole slew of deeper gameplay elements true to Kirby games in general?

Rather than simply take as few swings as necessary to knock your ball in the hole, here you need to smack Kirby into all of the enemies on the course and upon hitting the penultimate foe the final one transforms into the hole. This raise all sorts of new and interesting gameplay decisions. What order do you choose to strike these enemies? How should you time hitting the enemy that bestows those Kirbyesque special abilities that you first learned to love in Kirby's Adventure? Do you go for the reliable path to completion or gamble it all with a risky use of Kirby's special powers? In short, this is so much more fun and interesting than normal golf!

Don't expect the complexity of golf mechanics to fall by the wayside, though. This title is no pushover in terms of challenge, and it's unlikely you'll be able to complete the first set of courses without having to start over once or twice. You need to carefully optimize Kirby's path by manipulating force (i.e. power), left/right spin, top/back spin, and giving him a boost with the A button at just the moment to edit his current trajectory. Naturally, by hitting Kirby low enough you can also launch him off the ground and into the air—always a favorite. All that and just imagine what happens when you start employing Kirby's special powers like the umbrella to float to the ground or the stone to plummet to a stop.

The title is rounded out with great little details. Battery save is predictable, but designing your character in artistic fashion rather than merely providing a name is a great touch. The controls and special powers can become complex and overwhelming, but thankfully there's a demo mode which shows you how to pull off 20 different gameplay maneuvers on courses. The only area where this title that comes up short is the music, which is average and repetitive. Otherwise, you'll be hard pressed to find a better "golf" game from this era.

Konami

Konami

1988

Konami

Konami

1988

or Amazon

Whatever happened to hybrid games? Most of the time, Blades of Steel is a traditional hockey simulator, but if players bump into each other three times in a row (without hitting anyone else) then suddenly you're faced with a one-on-one fighting mini-game. Naturally, the loser is the one who gets sent to the penalty box (but at least it's only 2 minutes, rather than the 5 that you'd get for real hockey rules). Not surprisingly, you'll find a loose interpretation of rules, in general. There's no such thing as offsides and only the icings are enforced according to the guidelines of professional hockey. Accurate? Maybe not. But more importantly you'll find that these odd rules only add to the fun.

While the earlier Ice Hockey—coincidentally also appearing in cart and disk format—is another excellent 8-bit sports game, it definitely lacks the graphical and audio polish of Blades of Steel. The latter presents more realistic characters, bigger sprites, real control over the outcome of fights (win the battle!), and the voice sampling—"Face-off!"—is actually quite good. This offers an interesting balance of improved realism, yet it accentuates the more exciting the action and violence more (i.e. better) than the real thing.

Although Konami didn't have any licensing agreements to back their development efforts, that didn't stop them from making clear homages to actual sports teams. The eight different teams (half from the U.S.A. and half from Canada) you can select sport colors that clearly reference real teams (NBA, NFL, and Canadian Football League). For example, you'll find the Chicago team wearing red and grey, which just happen to be the colors of the Blackhawks and the Bulls.

One really fun—blatant advertising—touch is that during intermission you occasionally get to play a mini-game that consists of piloting a non-powered-up Vic Viper against the first boss in Gradius. Afterwards, any attempt at subtley is abandoned and Konami flat-out encourages you to buy Conta and Jackal. Of course, both of those titles are pretty awesome, so it's hard to really complain. All in all, this is an incredible early hockey game, and it's very possible that no successor from any developer has captured the personality that will be found herein.

SNK

SNK

1989

or Amazon

Who would have thought that the developer best known for the Neo Geo and fighting games, SNK, is responsible for the baseball game that defined the template for all modern baseball titles? For the first time on the NES you could actually build and manage your own teams. Choose the strength of your new team (i.e. defense or batting). Win money by winning games. Trade players and fire them; there's even a free agent market for buying new players. You can also spend money on upgrade player statistics, which are tracked throughout the season and saved on the game's internal battery.

All that customizing wouldn't matter if there wasn't gameplay to match. Batting remains relatively simple, just swinging on a straight plane—so it's all about timing. Fielding, however, was drastically improved over previous baseball games. Your off-screen players will automatically drift towards fly balls. They can also jump, dive, and shift to prevent line drives when opponents are on base.

With eight different teams already included, the ability to create an additional six, and seasons that can last up to 125 games total, there's more than enough to keep you busy. Of course, there's also a simple vs. option for playing games against another human opponent. Like Blades of Steel, supposedly all teams and players are works of fiction, but you'll find some interesting coincidences, like players named Babe (Ruth) and Cy (Young). There's even an all female team and an Easter egg that allows you to purchase female players for your custom team.

Sensible Software

Sega

1993

Renegade

Sony Imagesoft

1994

Sensible Software

Sony Imagesoft

1994

It's hard to believe that this game originally came out for the Amiga and Atari ST computers back in 1992. Since then, it's been ported to about a bazillion other platforms—for good reason. No other soccer game is quite like this one. Immediately, you're struck by the minimalist graphics, featuring small, blocky players. Having the goals at the top and the bottom of screen is also an orientation that you don't see very often.

Don't let appearances fool you, though. Fire up this title, and you'll quickly discover the incredibly crisp gameplay. Players may be pint-sized, but—like the beautiful game that it's modeled after—the action is fast and silky smooth. Another neat aspect of this game is that unlike the vast majority of soccer titles, the players are actually properly proportioned relative to the size of the field, so you can really appreciate those long corner kicks that get converted to a scoring header.

The sound ranges from non-existent to above average—definitely the weakest area of this game. Nevertheless, the fantastic depth of gameplay more than makes up for this shortcoming. Each Sensible Soccer port has its own tweaks, so for the sake of brevity let's consider just the Genesis one here. You can choose to play one of over 60 international teams, over 60 club teams, or over 60 custom teams. There's not only the option to create and edit your own teams, but you can even design your own uniforms and leagues (in addition to the standard league, cup, and tournament options).

Like Baseball Stars, Sensible Soccer pioneered many of the awesome gameplay features that we take for granted in modern soccer games. The graphics and sounds may show their age in this title, but the gameplay is as sharp as that of just about any soccer simulator. Give this a try and you won't be disappointed.

Tecmo

Tecmo

1991

eBay or Amazon

Tecmo

Tecmo

1993

or Amazon

Tecmo

Tecmo

1993

or Amazon

Despite the humble 8-bit hardware, Tecmo Super Bowl remains an enduring favorite for football fans. That it pioneered territory as the first sports video game with licensing rights for both the league and player's association it sought to simulate is the well-known and obvious accolade. More impressively, to this day it retains a huge following, and you can find myriad ROM hacks that allow you to use the players from much more recent NFL seasons.

This title isn't going to win any extra points for accuracy, but that actually ends up being a bonus, because without any penalties to slow the game down you'll find one of the fastest and most action-packed football games ever created. The ability to break tackles is also great fun. In short, like the original Tecmo Bowl, this one features very arcade-style gameplay.

Despite playing a bit fast and loose with real football rules, there's still a hell of a lot of game to discover and enjoy here. Play three different modes (season, preseason, and Pro Bowl). Control multiple teams if you want. Be a micromanager, calling and running each play, or take a step back as merely the coach, letting the computer run the plays after you call them. Naturally, each player's statistics are tracked throughout each game, so you get a real feeling for the evolution and unique skills of each team member.

As if all that isn't enough, major plays like field goals and touch downs break into well-rendered cut-scenes—it worked in Ninja Gaiden, so why not this? Top it off with some of the best chip tunes in any NES sports game and you've got one hell of a complete package that easily breaks into the upper half of this top 10.

Konami

Konami

1995

Factor 5

Konami

1996

Surprisingly, this game's origins are found in Konami Hyper Soccer for the NES back in 1992, which was only released in Europe and Australia. What tremendous progress the series made with its second (Deluxe) version on 16-bit consoles. Fire up this game and you'll be treated to six modes of play—the less typical ones including a very deep training mode and a penalty kick where you can hone the essential tie-breaking skills. Unlike some other games in this top 10, you won't find real players listed here. In fact, all players appear the same size and lack unique faces, so the only way you can tell them apart is by jersey color, skin color, and hair color. This is a very minor gripe, though.

You can choose to play any of 36 teams. Most (24) of them are European, but you'll also find American, South American, and African ones. Virtually anything in a real soccer game is possible. That means everything from bicycle kicks to employing nefarious strategies like luring the goalie out of his box to set up a wicked chot to the corner of the net is possible. You can even slide tackle the opposing goalie to earn a quick red card. One of the best innovations, though, is the transparent player radar in the bottom center of the field. At last it's possible to get a sense of the macro strategy in soccer and make educated plays. Time the perfect cross to off-screen wing-men. Adjust your defense when your opponent overloads one side of the field.

It's also very nice that this Deluxe version makes some meaningful improvements over an already excellent original game. You can have two-player cooperative gaems against the CPU. An all-star team can be unlocked by beating the game on the hardest difficulty. The graphics and game AI are also improved. That the graphics, sound, and animation of the original version of this title were already excellent helps drive home the point that this particular incarnation is easily one of the best for any console of the era.

High Score Productions

Electronic Arts

1993

or Amazon

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

1993

or Amazon

Although you might miss the epic fights from Blades of Steel, just about everything else about this ice hockey game is better. It's one of the most widely-acclaimed sports titles and still retains a large cult following—just check out this fan site. The predecessors (NHL Hockey and NHLPA Hockey '93) already played quite well, but developers went the extra distance here tweaking the gameplay with both fundamental additions, like "one-timer" shots, and unique touches, like the fan who bangs on the glass behind the net.

Having licenses from the National Hockey League and NHL Players Association is a fine way to further support the excellent gameplay. Better still, you get to enjoy all this realism in four different modes: regular season, playoffs, best of seven playoffs, and shoot-out.

The graphics and sound are both great overall, but it's the little touches that really bring the game home. As you face-off the picture-in-picture gives you a close up of the two players, so you can see them jockey for position with their sticks as you button mash to try and win. The classic organ themes play at key moment when you skate up the ice, and there's also a fantastic "huh-ahh!" sound when you check a player off his feet, complete from boos from the fans if you're beating up on the home team. At a minimum this is the best hockey game of the era, and it's easy to put it in the list of greatest sports games ever made, period.

Nintendo R&D3

Nintendo

1987

or Amazon

This very well could be number one. Indeed, it's a game that flirts with perfection. The only thing holding it back is that there's no way for a friend to join in on the fun, too. Strangely, Punch-Out!! is one of the least sporty sports games in this entire list. Consider how each opponent has his own unique animations and attack patterns. You have to study each one and identify the vulnerabilities. Mashing the punch buttons won't get you anywhere. One could argue that this is more of a puzzle game than a sports one.

Yet as you work your way through each opponent, you learn new skills and hone your reaction times, ultimately preparing you for big bad Mike Tyson—still one of the toughest bosses you'll find in any video game—who can knock you out with a single punch. Although you can use a password to skip straight to him, if you haven't beaten the earlier opponents, building up your gamplay skills along the way, you'll never stand a chance. Nintendo's attention to gameplay and pacing is truly remarkable. There aren't any new moves to be learned or life points to be gained as you progress through all the bouts. It's purely you, the player, who is improving, so that by the time you do earn that title match against Tyson it's merely very difficult as opposed to impossible (in the even that you skipped there with the password and never playing all the earlier bouts).

Of course, you've also got the giant sprites used for opposing boxers, making excellent use of Nintendo's memory management controller 2 chip—the graphics still hold up well even by today's standards. You'll be entertained by hilarious and non-politically correct stereotypes for various nationalities (i.e. the wimpy French Glass Joe and drunk Russian Von Kaiser) as well. Pulling it all together is an excellent musical score and memorable sound effects (like when you hit an opponent just right to earn an uppercut). Throw the Rockyesque homage of Little Mac jogging behind the bicycling coach, Doc, and you've got a classic that may never be topped. It's actually much better than Nintendo's original Punch-Out!! arcade game.

Iguana Entertainment

Acclaim Entertainment

1995

or Amazon

Iguana Entertainment

Acclaim Entertainment

1995

or Amazon

Talk about simplicity and elegance—forget juggling an entire team's worth of players—let's focus on a two-on-two slam dunk-a-thon! Play solo, co-op, or against a friend. Pass, shoot, steal, push, and do it all harder with a push of the turbo button. Best of all, you can use that turbo power to perform some over-the-top gravity-defying dunks. This is exactly what video game sports should do more often, push the action and excitement to levels that transcend the capabilities of even the best athletes.

The graphics will immediately catch you eye, since they capture the likeness of real players. Perhaps the unsung hero, though, is the sound. The bounce of the ball, squeak of sneakers, swish of a clean shot—they're all captured brilliants. Don't forget those classic phrases by the commentator, some of which have even entered into the common lexicon, like "Boomshakalaka." Next time you're playing basketball, try yelling "He's on fire!" and see who gets it. Chances are, you won't be disappointed.

Not only do you have all the real teams, players, and even rookies, you can also unlock special characters by entering the right initials. Favorites include Bill Clinton, Jazzy Jeff, Mark Turmell (he was one of the key designers who made the game!), and Kirby (only available in the SNES version, naturally). Play enough games and you might even manage to break the backboard on a dunk, and given how amazing a party game this can be, you'll almost certainly destroy some backboards.