Best Sports Game/Series EVER Group B

[SirFozzie]

Matchup 1:

8 Cyberball

Take 7 on 7 football. Add Robots. And a Ball that explodes if you take too long to move it upfield. You've got Cyberball. I'm really shocked they haven't made a 2000's version of the game.

Atari Tournament Cyberball 2072 MAME arcade gameplay - YouTube


25 NES Pro Wrestling

The first Pro Wrestling game most of us played (holy shit, it turns THIRTY FIVE NEXT YEAR?). Still one of the better ones out there, gameplay wise. There was something cool about doing a brainbusta!!!! on the outside.

Pro Wrestling (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete - YouTube


Matchup 2:

9 NFL 2K sports series

We all know the story. Madden had the name and eventually won the war by buying exclusive NFL rights. But man, the NFL 2K game series was much smoother and more "lifelike" then Madden. It was one of the first real battles between graphic gimmicks and hoorah (Madden) vs tight game play. (NFL2K). We could see it go against Madden in the Elite 8, should both games get there.

ESPN NFL 2K5 Retrospective - YouTube

24 Tony Hawk Pro Skater series

But it's got a hard first round matchup. A long time ago, one Tony Hawk electrified the skateboarding world by performing a trick that others thought was impossible, doing 2 and a half rotations on a trick. The fabled 900. But these days, he's known more for the game series that came out of his fame.. The Tony Hawk Pro Skater series.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - Full Playthrough (Bam Margera) - No Commentary/Uncut (HD PS2 Gameplay) - YouTube

[SirFozzie]

One awesome thing about each game:

Cyberball: I loved the fact you could play Game Breakers mode in 2072 Tournament Mode. A bunch of different scenarios where you tried to make it through all of them with a limited amount of retries if you failed. First game I can remember with a scenario mode.

NES Pro Wrestling: Yes, there's only six fighters. Yes, it could get repetitive, but man, the feeling when you got to Great Puma. I never beat the son of a bitch, but it was fun spending an hour or two doing it.

NFL 2K series: The last NFL branded game was 2K5, but there was technically one more game in the series, as All Pro Football 2K8 offered a bunch of retired players/legends to build your team around.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater: This game probably leads my all-time leader board for "all time runs restarted" and "controllers thrown". Some of the later levels, while still a blast to play, had goals where you had to be pretty much perfect to advance. It drove me NUTS. (oh, and the soundtracks were great)

[Butter]

My brother used to work at an arcade when I was in Middle School. We used to stay after hours and play for hours. Then he had friends we would play head to head, and it was pretty awesome.

I played it a lot when it came out on NES or Sega or whichever one it was. The password system was less fun. I play it occasionally on Raspberry Pi.

[spleen1015]

When the NFL 2K series came out, I think I got it on the Dreamcast. It was a step or 6 ahead of Madden. Fuck EA and the NFL for going exclusive.

I forgot about Tony Hawk. It was a revolutionary game that got better and better with each new version.

[SirFozzie]

yeah, there's been some good matchups so far. I removed two of the seeds because folks mentioned games I missed.

[Kodos]

I loved the presentation aspects of the NFL 2K series, but never liked the actual gameplay all that much.

[SirFozzie]

24 hour warning.

[SirFozzie]

NES Pro Wrestling with the upset, at least in my mind, NFL 2K with the expected victory.