The Current State of Sports Games

Years ago I used to commonly say that I didn't like sports video games, but when I came to think about it, that wasn't really true. I primarily do not play the likes of Madden, 2K, or FIFA, but I do play the new NBA Jam on Fire Edition and years ago I played a lot more.

Dating back to the Super Nintendo I played both the arcade and console version of the original NBA Jam, I also played Tiny Toons: Wacky Sports Challenge, and Looney Tunes B-ball. The PS1/N64 era gave me WCW vs NWO Revenge, Tony Hawk, and Mario Tennis. The PS2 and Xbox era had me playing Street Hoops, MLB Slugfest, Aggressive Inline, and my favorite SSX Tricky. During this time I was also introduced to Super Dodgeball for the NES. My time with the PS3, 360, and Wii generation was almost entirely devoid of playing those games. Why? It's because sports games in this day and age lack diversity.

Sports games now and in the previous generation are mainly confined to the simulation style of a bare few franchises. If you want basketball your only option for a good few years was only the 2K series. Last year NBA Live returned only to receive negative critical reception. For football your only choice is Madden and for soccer FIFA is the only choice as well. UFC is pretty much in the same position as basketball. Boxing? Your only choice is or should I say was Fight Night, as the last Fight Night game Fight Night Champions came out back in 2011 and EA has yet to announce plans for another entry. Extreme Sports Games? Lol, no. College sports games are also no longer around though that is understandable given the controversy around the commercialization of college athletes.

For me growing up as a geek who was ridiculed for lack of ability or interest in sports, and the type of demographic I grew up with that played them, I tended to gravitate away from the realistic simulation yearly released franchises, but the sillier and more fantastical arcade sports have always captured my interest. WWF No Mercy, Hot Shots Golf, SSX 3, Rockstar Table Tennis, Skate, NBA Street Vol.2, and NFL Blitz are games I wanted to play at one point, but why aren't there any from this generation or the last gen I want to play? Well, I was interested when EA announced the new SSX, but my interested immediately dwindled when they took out the colorful zaniness that made the original unique and the complete lack of offline multiplayer. My interested has diminished because the mainstream industry has stopped making them.

Backyard Baseball received a new entry for the PS2, Wii, and 360 in 2010, but it went pretty much under the radar and hasn't been heard of since. The new NBA Jam by EA was the only big one. I've heard from others that there are more of them in the indie side of the industry, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I keep up with gaming news and primarily the when indie games are covered it's a platformer, rpg, puzzle, or fighting game. The likes of Meat Boy, Shovel Knight, Skullgirls, The Stanley Parable, Slender Man, Hotline Miami, and the Five Nights at Freddy's series are popular, but why haven't there been any sports games in the indie scene to get any attention? I can't actually answer that, but it does look like the genre of arcade sports and certain simulation sports games aren't deemed profitable by publishers anymore. I hope we can see a resurgence to the genre pretty soon as games are always in need of variety.