Opinion Enjoying a sports game without enjoying the sport.

[Crayon]

When I was a kid, sports games were for everybody.

Every kid played that shit. Didn't matter if you liked the sport.


The games naturally got more complicated and realistic, but I still liked playing them, and I consider these two classics:

I never played a round of golf in my life. Much less ice hockey. Real life associations and licenses were becoming more prevalent by this time. Attracting more fans of the sport, I bet. For me, these are still classic video games. Unqualified.

NFL GameDay was the first sports game I played that seemed too complicated and generally inaccessible as a non-football fan. My friends who were IRL football fans were going gaga for this game. This is the first time I remember thinking that a football game would probably be really good if I liked football, but not otherwise.

Along the way, there's been spin-off games that try to keep it light. Mutant league, NFL blitz, Golden tee, etc. I don't know if these are as common anymore? Theyre in a sort of a gray area here. I'm talking more about the licensed sports games.


Does anyone play those without actually liking the sport? Did you do that in the past? I hardly hear anything about these games inform servings. Usually relegated to a single OT. You don't see threads where someone just randomly tried a licensed sports game and post their reaction.


Keep your free throws in. Whatever that means, fellow sportos.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

When i was younger the popular sports games over here were usually stick-wagglers or more like rhythm games with someone doing sporty stuff in response.






Then the infamous 8-bit football games that started gaming empires!




Then Sensible Soccer of course!



And i will always have rose-tinted glasses for C64 Leaderboard. Seconds-Per-Frame, people, Seconds-Per-Frame.


But, yeah, i'm terrible at sports so i've only had an interest in sport games as "games" not really the sport.

In the Footy/Ice Hockey type games though the main problem is i get overwhelmed and have no idea who the hell i'm controlling and often find myself running the wrong way when control is passed to my player because i was looking at someone else or had no idea i would get the ball. So i stick to more arcade sims. I could never get into Rugby games even though i like watching it and the same for Cricket.

Tennis is one genre of sports game that most people play and enjoy without playing the sport.

I used to play a mean game of Jimmy White's Snooker on the Spectrum and Super Monkey Ball Pool and Bowling were also my jams for a while. Generally though i've played a bunch of old sports games and was abysmal at most of them.

I do remember we had a Net Yaroze and two PS1 set up at Uni and when we were pulling all night renders or projects there was a semi-formal league going on with people coming in to our PC lab for a break and a chat and playing a game or two of FIFA i think but it may have been PES. People had fun. I was shit.

 

[Routa]

I was and am not a big fan of hockey, but growing up - I loved hockey games, especially with a group of friends.

The following two immediately come to mind.:

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey



NHL Hitz 2002



NHL Hitz is still a blast - the massive hits and fighting make for some memorable and hilarious moments. Some friends and I most recently played this as last year over the holidays when someone busted out an old GameCube for Smash - but it quickly turned into an NHL Hitz party. The announcer is the cherry on top.

 

[PossiblyPudding]

That's me with tennis and golf. I have almost no interest in watching or playing either, but give me a game to play and I'm there!

From the old Tiger Woods games to Everybody's Golf or Top Spin to Mario Tennis, it doesn't matter, I love them all.

For most other sports I either had family that played or played myself. So we always had a bunch of football, baseball and basketball games. With the occasional hockey one thrown in.

 

[NarohDethan]

I only play FIFA thanks to this. I like gridirion football but Madden doesnt look something I would enjoy.

Mario Tennis would fit this I guess.

 

[deftonesrcool]

NHL Hitz is the greatest video game franchise of all time

I'm cheating though because I actually love hockey

LGRW

 

[Crayon]

We're supposed to be Sharks or death out here. That's all I know about hockey. I've been to one game and it was pretty cool.

...

The last sports game I purchased on release was Fifa 96 on playstation. Sure enough, It was a good ass time.

Motherfuckin virtual stadium. Watch out.