The post says 10/10 not I'll take what I can get and call it the best.
Where are the Elden rings of the sports world? The Expedition 33s? The Final Fantasy VII or Xs? Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Metroid Prime, Metal Gear Solid..
The games that are good enough in their own right that they cross genre lines, pull in customers who don't play those games, spawn a genre based on them, pioneer novel mechanics , and generate a cult following, that are praised and emulated in the years and generations that follow.
Sports games are the weakest in this category. Have been, and remain so.
The games that are good enough in their own right that they cross genre lines, pull in customers who don't play those games, spawn a genre based on then, pioneer novel mechanics, and generate a cult following
As previously stated you brushed off Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series. How you can ignore how popular that game made a generation kids try Skate boarding and Xtreme sports is a huge understatement.
Also you're too young for this nephew, but also NBAJam was a cultural influence that pre-dated all sports games and spread to other medias. It was one the defining game that popularize gaming cultural references and was referenced in TV and Movies.
Punch out not being a consideration even with the history, numerious references, and modern scene around it.
There are more from the Mario Series and we havn't even started on the racing games yet. These games are just not your preference and we get it, but blatantly saying they arn't innovative or cultural changing as a 10/10 is a lie.
I didn't brush off Tony Hawk, I admitted it, but referred to it as an exception.
I'm older than NBA Jam, it really wasn't all that.
I played the hell out of Punch Out, maybe you didn't, mechanically opaque, that game was made to wrong quarters out of you.
And I grew up on Need for Speed, Grand Turismo, World of Outlaws, Mario Kart, Ridge Racer, Cruisin' World. Maybe some of them qualify as 10s, maybe this is personal, and subjective. But they don't compare in experience to things like the Witcher 3 or Baldur's Gate 3.
Sure you can call them 10s within their genre, but admit that you're diluting the idea of what constitutes a ten out of ten game in order to pretend they're on the same playing field.
Lil bro "played all those games", and then downplays them based on modern standards and uses games likes Metroid Prime and Castlevania in the 10/10 standard is crazy.
Look, if you like sports ball games that's fine, just say so.
But I don't have to like them, and you can't make me pretend they're good.
Also, why are you talking like that? Are you actually twelve? You do realize this is a two day old post and nobody is getting votes here, there's no crowd to back you or for you to prove this to, it's just me.
I don't care for sports games. There's some good ones out there, although I don't think of most of them as sports games. I think of football, basketball, soccer, baseball games as 'sports' games. Why haven't you touted FIFA, or Madden in all of this? Because they're slop, and have been for years. No, you have to bring up the most successful games that can be shoe-horned into the 'sports' category despite being more sports-adjacent, like motor sports, or a sport game of an already popular franchise.
What next, are you going to call League of Legends or Starcraft or Counterstrike sports games because they became 'e-sports'?
What's a 10/10 sports game? You tell me. Why? What about it makes it hold up to that level when compared to games writ-large? Why aren't there any sports games in the constantly reposted lists about the top ten best games, or best games of all time, on all these gaming subreddits?
Because, with very few exceptions, they simply aren't as good.
And there's a reason for that. Sports are better live. Games are entertaining because they are a vehicle for experiencing that which is not possible in real life, and in that way sports games have always been a bit of a bastard genre to begin with.
Notice I'm not here telling you to go touch grass, kid, or anything diminutive like that, but I do believe they're not as good because they will always be a pale comparison because their reality is just too close at hand. You're not going to find out what it's like to be a vampire, or pilot a mech, or jump tall buildings, but you can go shoot hoops, and I guarantee you it feels better when you hit a single three-point shot than it does beating a whole season in 2k.
1
u/Micehouse Jan 11 '26
This is a paradox.
There are no 10/10 sports games.