Yesterday,
we revealed that you, the readers, chose The Golf Club as their winner for the best indie/arcade game of 2014. With such a strong lineup of games from non-major developers, this field was extremely competitive this year. The staff voting was incredibly close, with vote counts being very narrow for first to third.
This year, each staff writer gave their full list of top sports games, from first to third and then we assigned points to each vote (three for a first place, one for a third place), to come up with the winner. Here are the best indie/arcade sports games of 2014:
Gold - The Golf Club
The Golf Club achieves the feat of sweeping this category with a unanimous first place choice between our staff and our readers. Be it the social aspects of the game, which our community absolutely adores, or the course creation aspects which many others heavily enjoy,
The Golf Club delivered an authentic and fun golfing experience. With more improvements on the way into next year, there is no better time to jump in with
The Golf Club and enjoy all that it has to offer.
Silver - Out of the Park Baseball 15
The baseball management simulation has always been a staff favorite around OS, and has been a perennial winner of this category. It is actually somewhat big news that it was able to be unseated atop the list, but rest assured this year's game is just as deep and addicting as any other. Thanks to a bit of a rocky launch period (the theme of 2014 it seemed), Out of the Park wasn't as universally loved as-is typical. However once the kinks were worked out,
OOTP 15 was an incredible game with everything you could imagine.
Bronze - OlliOlli
OlliOlli is a side-scrolling skateboarding game which features some awesome courses to move through.
In our review, we praised the game's variety and its ability to keep you engaged through a huge library of courses. The controls were the game's weak point, but the overall effort and stylish fun offered by OlliOlli was enough to earn it a place at the podium with a bronze medal.