Re: ESPN NFL 2K5 Maybe the Greatest of All Time, But Not In Its Time
Just stumbled across this forum. Interesting question, Steve. May I amend the question to read, "What sports game did you have the most fun with?'' because my list includes games that were probably inferior to subsequent versions and/or seem archaic by today's technological standards. But these are the games that I longed to play over and over again:
1. Tecmo Super Bowl, NES (December 1991): Still the king after all these years. We're talking stone age compared to today's games. But, man, it seemed years ahead of its time with NFL/NFLPA licenses, season mode and, especially, stat tracking. I bought it on a Sunday night from Toys R Us ($54 was extremely steep at the time), but played it until 7 a.m. that first day. Needless to say, it was worth the price.
2. College Hoops 2k4, XBox (November 2003): One of the biggest one-year improvements in any series that I can recall. Not only was the gameplay superb, I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere (real arenas and courts, enormous number of mascots and fight songs) and the depth of options. When you're playing a college basketball game the following summer, it has to be good.
3. Madden 10, 360 (August 2009): Post-patches. I've been a huge critic of this abomination of a series, but nearly 10 months after its release, I'm playing this game more than any other. I'm a graphics ho and proud of it, and this game just looks marvelous. Couple that with tight gameplay (no game-killing bugs) and I can overlook any other shortcomings.
4. NFL 2k5, XBox (July 2004): Not being familiar with this series, I was skeptical, but the $15 price tag (it was either on sale when I bought or there some kind of $5 off special the store was running) lured me in. Fantastic graphics and gameplay, coupled with a presentation element (particularly the weekly show with highlights of other games) that amazingly still hasn't been matched by even next-gen Madden, made for lots of fun and much anguish after its demise.
5. FIFA 1998: Road to the World Cup, PSX (December 1997): Strangely, I don't remember a lot about this title, expect that I played the hell out of it and loved it. The original PlayStation was a piece of junk for sports games and nearly prompted me to abandon this tremendous pastime, but this game was its shining moment. Loved the fact it had 170-plus countries and the custom tournaments I would create.
Honorable mention: 6. NCAA Football 2004 (XBox), 7. NHL 10 (360), 8. FIFA World Cup 2006 (Xbox), 9. NBA 2k8 (360), 10. NHL 95 (Sega) Genesis.
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Last edited by Spanky; 05-30-2010 at 08:11 PM.
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