News Post

68-Game Field Announced for the Greatest Sports Game Ever Tournament

02:31 AM - February 29, 2012 by RaychelSnr

The field for the Greatest Sports Game Ever Tournament has been announced, with 68 games making the cut into the tournament of tournaments to crown the Greatest Sports Game of All Time!

This is the second ever Greatest Sports Game Ever tournament, with the first tournament being held in 2008. In that tournament, NFL 2K5 was the winner.

(Click to compare this year's field with 2008's)

The first round matchups and regions will be announced on March 1, with voting set to begin on March 11. In the meantime, we will be hosting a bracket challenge where you will be able to break down the bracket just like in March Madness for the chance at prizes!

So without further adieu, here is the field of 68 as selected by the OS Editorial staff based upon your nominations:

#1
NFL 2K5
NBA 2K11
Tecmo Bowl
Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball

#2
College Hoops 2K8
MVP Baseball 2005
Tecmo Super Bowl
Forza Motorsport 3

#3
Baseball Stars
Mike Tyson's Punchout
Tony Hawks Pro Skater
WWF No Mercy (N64)

#4
NHL 94
NBA Jam
NCAA Football 2006
MLB '10: The Show

#5
RBI Baseball
Madden 2001 (PS2)
Out of the Park Baseball 12
Coach K College Basketball

#6
FIFA Soccer 10
NHL 10
Winning Eleven 9
Forza Motorsport 4

#7
Madden '95
Madden 2005
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
NBA Live '96

#8
All Pro Football 2K8
Trials HD
Virtua Tennis (Dreamcast)
SSX: Tricky

#9
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
NBA 2K12
Mario Tennis
Mutant League Football

#10
Joe Montana's Sports Talk Football
Bases Loaded 2
Triple Play 96
Skate 3

#11
Blades of Steel / Double Dribble
High Heat Baseball 2001
Front Page Sports Football Pro
NFL Head Coach 09

#12
NFL Blitz
Top Spin 4 / NCAA Football 99
NFL Gameday 98
NBA Live 10

#13
Bill Walsh College Football
NFL 2K1
MLB '08: The Show
Lakers vs. Celtics

#14
Tiger Woods 2003 (PC)
Madden NFL 10
Fight Night Round 3
Football Manager 11

#15
Hot Shots Golf
Pro Evolution Soccer 12
NASCAR Racing (PC)
NBA Street Volume 2

#16
Excitebike / Ten Yard Fight
Need For Speed 2
Pong / NFL Fever
Backbreaker

So what do you all think without seeing any of the regions? Who got snubbed? Who's too high? Too low? Any early favorites?

Member Comments

# 41 10yard-Fight @ 02/29/12 09:40 PM

#11 seed and #5 seed respectively...

they left out some classics of course but the field is nice in all

# 42 10yard-Fight @ 02/29/12 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spottieottiedop


	Wow selection committee. Two games got snubbed big time. Double Dribble the arcade edition and NES. And Coach K on the Sega Genesis.

above message was directed at you

# 43 tyman21 @ 02/29/12 10:03 PM

So happy to see NBA Street Vol 2 up there!

# 44 Tecmo Bowl Cy @ 03/01/12 12:04 AM

As an avid original Tecmo Bowl player I'm very pleased to see it got a #1 seed. More people gravitate towards Tecmo Super Bowl with the added teams and extra plays to choose from. However I must say that over the years we have gained a ton of knowledge about the original, and now our strategic game-plans for Tecmo Bowl are exceedingly complex despite the game only having 4 plays. It's only gotten better with time for us.

As for R.B.I. Baseball not being higher...I completely understand why people love Baseball stars so much. Mainly because of the revolutionary GM aspect at the time that Baseball stars presented. However, I think R.B.I. had a far superior interface sequence in terms of the pitcher/batter match-up. Very smooth. Really outside of being able to dive and rob home runs, Baseball Stars fans really can't cite any other major advantages it has over R.B.I. And R.B.I. was very indepth with player abilities...and real players as well. Daryl Strawberry, and Kirk Gibson instead of the lovely ladies.

Each pitcher in R.B.I. had his own distinct abilities. Some had a great fastball, some threw a nasty knuckle. Each Batter had different power and speed ratings as well. Pinch hitters also got a big time power boost in their 1st at bat, making for some interesting managerial decisions late in games.

But that's just the opinion of a guy who loves those 2 classic titles.

Ice Hockey was snubbed in my opinion. Not as flashy looking as Blades of Steel, but with the option of using players with different skill sets really made it an interesting game.

# 45 C the Lyte @ 03/01/12 08:02 AM

I love all the "This game got snubbed" talk.

It's just like the NCAA tourney!

# 46 truintellectplaya @ 03/01/12 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackRome


	The list of basketball games is a joke. No 2k8. The best basketball game they ever released. The best dribbling system ever in a basketball game. The last time online actually worked and you could get a game instantly. The last time the game actually moved in real time. The last year they had a message board for the lobby that madden copied. Yet 2k12 and 2k11 which both have animation issues is listed. Have at it.

Well I agree that NBA 2K8 was a favorite of mines. They actually went and complicated a lot of things a little much after that. The online worked so fine for me that year that I have not played online since because I realized that there servers were not the problem it was the human across the world pulling plugs and doing everything they could to see themselves up top when they did not have the skills to be there. All that said, the game is not better than NBA 2K11 or 12 if you really get into them and I am one of the people that there online has always worked well for. Lastly, it did deserve to be on this list. I think this site just does not want to give this company the credit it really deserves in totally owning the basketball world and destroying the more wealthy competition.

# 47 ShawnGr33n @ 03/02/12 05:37 AM

I created an account just to say how much of a snub World Series Baseball 98 for the Saturn not being on this list is. That game had a lot of firsts in American baseball games (pretty sure the first to let you guess pitch pre-at bat, pretty sure the first to have real 3D stadiums, the first to have player specific swing AND pitching deliveries). I might have to dig out the Saturn and fire this up during March Madness.

Also on the mid-majors snub list (to keep it NCAA Analogy):
-NHL Hitz (some of the best co-op in sports history)
-Power Pro Baseball (arguably the series that lead to the Road to Glory and My Player modes).

Super Tecmo Bowl was a complete game changer. That is definitely my alum school in this fictional universe.

Also, did anybody ever play the ORIGINAL arcade Tecmo Bowl? I saw one once when I was visiting family in the midwest and went to the movies. It was pretty sick instead of button mashing when someone tried to tackle you they had joystick wiggling. And I'm pretty sure I remember local stats for the best rushers/passers being shown in the attract mode loop.
(http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10043)

# 48 stiffarmleft @ 03/02/12 02:29 PM

I agree with most of the games but if I had a personal field of games these would be on it:

Bottom of the 9th - PS1
TV Sports Football - Amiga
Double Dribble - Nintendo

I may have played bottom of the 9th more than any game ever.

# 49 aftershock1914 @ 03/02/12 11:15 PM

Tecmo Super Bowl in same bracket as CH2k8 and MVP 2005....thats the group of death

# 50 beecravey7 @ 03/04/12 11:14 AM

If EA would have been making baseball games and 2K making football games over the last few years the world would be a way better place.

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