Over the many years of playing sports video games there have been a few that I still play. Whether it was playing games with my friends when I was in high school or now with my wife and kids, these games have a special place in my video game heart. I would say the first sports games I remember playing were on the Atari 2600. It was their football and baseball games. When the Nintendo 8-Bit system game out I leveled up with Tecmo Bowl. As the consoles have evolved there have been so many great games out there. Here are a few video games that belong in the Hall of Fame for sports games. Over time I will post more games that need to be in this hall of fame.
Hall Of Fame Sports Video Games
Tecmo Bowl
Tecmo Bowl was such an upgrade from the Atari football game. There was cool music. You could play with a handful of NFL teams on the NES system. I was glad to see the 49ers in that game. Besides the 9ers, I was happy to see that Bo Jackson was in the game with the Raiders. The Bo Jackson meme from Tecmo Bowl that you have seen is one of the closest things to how a video game lived up to real life. If you haven’t seen the crazy clips of Bo from Tecmo Bowl, watch it. After that watch his real life highlights and you will how similar art imitates real life.
NFL Blitz
Playstation and the Nintendo 64 were two of the best consoles that were ever created. One of those games that came from that era was NFL Blitz. First released as an arcade game in 1997, NFL Blitz quickly became one of the most memorable football titles in video game history. In 1998, the first console version became available for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. It was a 7-on-7 game with NFL teams. It was a mix of football and wrestling. There were so many great memories playing this game with my friends back in the day. It was a different way to look at a football video game and will forever be one of the best football games.
NHL 22
This game is an all time classic. EA Sports has perfected the sports video game industry. What makes this game special to me is that my daughters and I play this game on the PS5. We all have our teams that we use when we are playing each other. Jordy is the Bruins, Lily is the Rangers and I use the Hurricanes, but with the Whalers uniforms. One of the last games I played with Jordan went into overtime and it was fun playing 3 on 3. The graphics are great and we laugh a lot playing this game together.
Tiger Woods Golf
When my wife and I were dating, we would play a few video games together. One of them was any game in the Tiger Woods series. We play golf together in real life as well. There were a few catchphrases from that game that we would say from time to time. One of them is from David Feherty, when he is giving the play by play, he would sometimes yell out, “Oh look a warthog!” There are different courses that range in difficulty. Plus one of the versions we had the opening song was Nelly’s “Number 1.” The early 2000’s were when golf games started to shine.
Generation Griffey
Also if you really like this article, I would suggest you pick up Jon Finkel’s book, Generation Griffey. It’s a festival of ranking things in book form. Jon ranks Commercials, Comedies & Comedians, College, Television, Sports & Action Movies, Food, Gear, Personalities, Video Games, Athletes. Sound good? Order it here!