The Amount of sports games from the mid 90's to the mid 00's was massive. so much competition, so many choices. That's why it was so messed up to see EA Sports Snatch up all the rights, they couldn't stand it.
Anybody have a favorite sports title?
The Amount of sports games from the mid 90's to the mid 00's was massive. so much competition, so many choices. That's why it was so messed up to see EA Sports Snatch up all the rights, they couldn't stand it.
Anybody have a favorite sports title?
Last edited by MacrossPlus; 05-17-2020 at 07:09 PM.
To me personally, The sports game genre had two peaks: 1996 and 2003.
For 1996, there was
1. NBA In the Zone 2
2. NBA Shootout
3. NBA Live '97
4. NBA Action (Sega Saturn)
5. College Slam
6. NBA Hangtime
7. NBA Jam Extreme
8. Slam n Jam '96
9. Madden NFL '97
10. NFL Gameday '97
11. NFL Quarterback Club '97
12. NFL Full Contact
13. Tecmo Super bowl (Playstation)
14. NCAA GameBreaker
15. NFL '97 (Sega Saturn)
16. Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball
17. Triple Play '97
18. Bottom of the 9th
19. 3D Baseball
20. Ken Griffey Jr's Winning Run
21. World Series Baseball II (Sega Saturn)/ World Series Baseball '96 (Genesis)
22. MLB Pennant Race
23. Hardball 5
24. NHL Powerplay '96
25. NHL '97
26. NHL Faceoff '97
27. NHL Open Ice
28. Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey
And for 2003, we had
1. High Heat Baseball 2004
2. All Star Baseball 2004
3. MLB Slugfest 20-04
4. World Series Baseball 2k3
5. MLB Inside Pitch 2003
6. MVP Baseball 2003
7. MLB 2004
8. NHL Rivals 2004
9. NHL 2004
10. NHL Hitz Pro
11. ESPN NHL Hockey
12. NBA Inside Drive 2004
13. NBA Live 2004
14. NBA Shootout 2004
15. ESPN NBA Basketball
16. NBA Jam (2003 Version)
17. NBA Street Vol. 2
18. NFL Gameday 2004
19. Madden NFL 2004
20. ESPN NFL Football
21. NFL Fever 2004
22. NCAA Football 2004
23. NFL Blitz Pro
Is the EA monopoly only a thing when it comes to football? Pretty sure there are still non-EA options for everything else.
It's been a while since I've really gotten into any sports games but goddamn, did I love NBA Street Vol. 2. Some other ones that I got hooked on at various times over the years were NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, Triple Play '97, Blades of Steel and Tecmo Bowl. And a few random Madden games here and there.
Mostly NBA Street Vol. 2 though.
EA tried to monopolize everything, the only reason they signed an exclusive agreement deal with the NFL was because Sega's ESPN NFL 2k5 outsold Madden NFL 2005, which scared the hell out of EA
NFL 2K5 was such garbage though. I'm not sure what so many's obsession with it is other than maybe its the last non Madden NFL game there was. I bought it because it was cheap and that cheapness quickly showed in my one and only season I forced my way through in franchise mode. While some parts of the gamplay were good other parts were so laughably bad. For isntance here are the two things I vividly remember showing what a mess this game was. There were others but these two stick with me after all these years.
1. I was playing the Colts and the computer AI had Peyton Manning returning kicks? WTF?????? Even if your QB is Lamar Jackson fast you aren't going to put him back there returning kicks due to the injury issues. Manning was slow as hell on his best day so what kind of screwed up algorithm was the AI using to make him the kick returner.
2. The draft scouting seemed cool and it did draft projections of where it expected players to go. It had 6 cornerbacks projected to go in the top 10 picks. Very unlikely in reality but its also not completely impossible as cornerbacks do go in the top 10 a lot. However come draft time the AI drafted kickers with 9 of the first 10 1st rd picks. KICKERS!!!!!! In the top 10 of the draft and nine of them. None of the projected cornerbacks went in the top 20 let alone top 10.
After that draft I turned off the game and never looked back. Madden has its issues but never anything as ridiculous as 2K5's.
yea its just the NFL I think they have exclusive deal with. I miss the days when NBA live was great. I use to play all the time from 2004-2008. Somewhere Live went to shit and 2k took over. But I'm not crazy about the NBA 2k games either.
Also I liked NFL GameDay. The play felt like a cross between madden and a arcade style game like NFL street.
always loved the Midway sports games
I had a Sega Genesis/ Megadrive in the 90s and the highlights for me were NBA Live 96 (95 was good but 96 improved on it and had classic/ retired players), NHL 96 and 97, FIFA 94 and 95 (94 was the first sports game that I played that completely blew me away and it was, IMO, head and shoulders above any other soccer games at the time), NBA Jam. I later transitioned to the Sega Saturn (a mistake) and wasn’t impressed by the sports titles there, but things picked back up for me with the PS2 and Pro Evolution Soccer, NBA Street and NBA 2K.
EA has a virtual monopoly on the NFL and Fifa, they have college Football as well but right now that series is basically in purgatory due to other reasons(namely using images and likeness of players who the NCAA is terrified of having to pay). Also something not usually brought up is that they have an exclusivity deal with ESPN for their games, which in a sports sim game is a big deal.
But even outside of EA most sports franchises only really have one relevant series at this point, even if it's not done via exclusivity deals companies, NBA has the 2k series(NBA live it basically dead), MLB has The Show(RBI Baseball is a virtual nonentity) etc, companies just don't want to sink resources competing with each other it seems
The NFL doesn't get it's fair share of the blame in these debates but they got scared too, namely by the price point, 2k5 was only 20 bucks, so Madden dropped to 30, the NFL which gets a % of game sales was terrified the new lower price would become the norm and thus put the accessibility deal up for bid in the first place. Fifa likewise is largely complicit with EA in some og the franchise's scummier behaviors(not the monetization part mind you, that crap is ALL EA)
Last edited by Hiromi; 05-24-2020 at 03:50 PM.
Last edited by Immortal Weapon; 05-25-2020 at 03:05 PM.
Yeah but EA has most of the licensed leagues in world football so pro evolution is pretty much a shell of what it used to be. Although, I’ll attribute that more Konami’s laziness because they really could get more creative with their licensed titles they have.
All this being said, EA’s influence and sports games have been pretty disastrous. Virtually all their focus now is on the monetized aspects of these games. There’s a heavy focus on the “gambling” aspects of these titles and they are doing literally everything possible to get money out of people’s hands after paying $60 for the game.
And the NFL just renewed the license for another 5 years, so don't expect anything to change.