Part II: How the Arcade-Sports Genre Can Rise Once More

[RaychelSnr]

Last week, I talked about the decline of the arcade-sports genre, but this week I will be discussing how the genre can rise from the depths.

It was only 10 years and two console cycles ago when Midway's NFL Blitz franchise was so popular that it actually outsold Madden '99 across the N64 and PSone platforms.

We are also only a half-decade and one console cycle removed from a time when EA's Street brand was strong enough to have four games in its portfolio sell over a million copies -- the three NBA games and the first NFL Street

How, then, did things fall apart so rapidly for a genre that, one console cycle ago, seemed to be on the rise?

Read More - Part II: How the Arcade-Sports Genre Can Rise Once More

[allstar3970]

EA Canada can get away with lack of feature set b/c the game costs only $10. In a full retail game (like most arcade titles have been) this would be inexcusable. But a $10 downloadable game? I think it works just fine in that case. I mean it could have been MLB Stickball....

[The Sim God]

nba jam & nba street were fantastic

3 buttons!!

i remember in like 93 (i was 13) pumping like 300 bucks into nba jam & the original mortal kombat over the course of a summer

kids these days go for graphics and not gameplay

hence im 28 and i like 2k football over madden.
gameplay ALWAYS beats graphics.

[mwjr]

SSX Tricky - does that count? Man, I loved that game.

[Laettner32]

This is the time for arcade style games to make a comeback as the sports genre as become about as hardcore as the RPG genre. I've been playing sports games since the NES and I don't touch MLB or NHL games because they are just way to complex for this 37 year old. I only stick with Madden and NCAA because I'm a football junkie.

[Smitty]

SSX series goes along with this, after Tricky they tried to combine the reality of the mountain and open world boarding with arcade like abilities. It took away from the raw fun for me.