Wow, I always thought the NHL games for the Genesis were the greatest. Now I have some backup when I tell my roommates that.

I have to disagree with Madden being the best sports video game because in my opinion it isn't even the best football game. The 2K football games from the last decade or so are much better in almost every aspect of the game and when they started to get popular the people at EA instead of trying to make their games better to compete, they just gave the NFL an undisclosed amount of money so that Madden would be the only NFL football game.

No Tecmo Super Bowl?

5. Ice Hockey
4. NBA Jam
3. Blades of Steel
2. R.B.I. Baseball
1. Tecmo Super Bowl

How could you leave off Bill Walsh College Football 95' for the Sega Genesis. This was one of the best games ever period. Running the half back option with Colorado is probably one of the funnest sports plays you can run.

Ken Griffey Jr's MLB for the SNES is a classic. The home run derby still causes me to take a time out from my honey-do list every now and then.

Gotta be Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Run on Super Nintendo. Best sports game ever with Madden a close second

Baseball Stars for the original 8-bit NES system. It was way ahead of its time by keeping stats and making and creating players with the ability to save it permanently.

NES Open Golf for original Nintendo. Fantastic game. I do also appreciate the respect to NHL 94. Ive never seen so many wrap-around-goals in my life as one player can score in one period of that game

Baseball Stars for the NES was an early classic; at least for a budding stat nerd such as myself. The NCAA Football series has actually overtaken the Madden series for me. The recruiting feature rules.

mvp baseball 2005
madden 2005
nba live 2006
nhl 2006
nba heat the arcade game

My favorite has always been NBA Jam for the Super NES. I used to play as the Orlando Magic and with Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson, and Horace Grant, I destroyed everybody I played with a barrage of threes. Good times.

You are a idiot. FIFA is better than Pro Evo ? That pretty much sums up you know jack shit about sports games.

Idiot. Pro-Evo is unprallelled !!

heres may top 5!
5. Fifa- never played soccer in my life but its great
4.NCAA Football- even though this years version sucks
3.Fight Night-incredible graphics
2.MLB the Show-nothing like making it to the show
1.MADDEN- duh...i agree, 2005 was the best

You have got to be kidding me!!! Madden is ok but it is no where near as good as NFL 2k5 OR THE WHOLE SERIES IN FACT!!!

For me the best hockey game is NHL 96 for Sega Genesis. It introduced the Spin-o-rama and got rid of the fatter players from 1994 and 1995. I could not be beat at this game.

After that, I have to go with the NCAA Football games. Madden is probably the ultimate, but college football is just more fun in general than the NFL.

what about tecmo bowl

Can't forget Double Dribble. How cool were the zoomed-in slam animations!

Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) baby -- it has to be included on this list. Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen running for 300 yards and five touchdowns a game. Charles Mann running roughshod through offensive lines. The pioneering detailed individual and team stats to keep track of your prolonged dominance. Great game.

Sega 1994 NHL is the greatest. I wasted many a college day glued to that game. My grades will certainly atest to that. The teams were great, the greatest players, and you could do anything. Gretzy backhand shot from the opposite blue line would always go in. C'mon, that's classic.

1) Tiger Woods PGA Tour '99.

I now have '06 which has improved graphics, but, the '99 version is the benchmark.

2) Home Run Derby

NBA Jam and NBA Jam TE. Suiting up as Bill Clinton or Air Dog will never be beaten. Shame Jordan was never on them, but the game was still the best. HE'S ON FIRE!!!

no Tecmo Super Bowl?? The zig-zag technique, the unparalled animation sequences... the BEST football music ever created, and in game at that!

nfl 2k5...hands down best football game ever

How can you leave out Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES? This is probably the greatest game of all time.

There's no way to leave either Nintendo's Baseball Stars or Tecmo Bowl off this list. The former allowed you to not only name individual players, but also improve your players' abilities with money from winning. Not to mention it's the first baseball game I remember which gave outfielders the ability to climb the fence and take away home runs. The latter needs no explanation.

NBA Jam deserves at least a top 5 mention. It was extraordinarily fun, and still is.

By far the greatest sports game EVER is the NES "Little League Baseball"!!!

Go Texas!

- Mark Flores
Lynwood, CA

Techmo Super Bowl was the first game that was endlessly playable. It also was the first with a save feature for full season play.

NFL Blitz. Not realistic. But sheer backyard playability.

Tiger woods golf.

Mario Kart, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis.

NBA Live 95 and NBA 2K where revolutionary for basketball video games. Penny Hardaway on '95 and Iverson on 2K were unstoppable!!!

Techmo Bowl!

How could you forget Techmo Bowl for the NES. Now that was an awesome sports game. Fading back 20 30 yards for the deep deep bomb. Awesome Half Time show. It had everything including the Nigerian Nightmare and an unstoppable Bo Jackson.

Blades of Steel needs to be in this discussion. And maybe some other old school games like Techmo Bowl.

The fact that more people know more about the achievements of Video Bo Jackson rather than Real-Life Bo Jackson tells you all you need to know about why Tecmo Bowl should be topping this list.

I've always loved NBA Jam since it came out some 20 years ago! It was and still is one of the most fun arcade style basketball games to play. From the insane alley oop dunks to the players catching fire, this game had it all and it'll never get old.

The fact that Tecmo Bowl (or Super Tecmo Bowl) isn't on this list makes it worthless.

Could not agree with you more! Nicely done.

NBA Jam TE has to be on there

Hasn't this discussion been used already? Way to be original guys.

1. Tecmo Super Bowl
2. Tecmo Super Bowl
3. Tecmo Super Bowl
4. Tecmo Super Bowl
5. Tecmo Super Bowl

Honorable Mention: Tecmo Bowl

TECMO SUPER BOWL NOT ON THE LIST? Wow.

Hands down best game ever....Tecmo Bowl!

Madden is the best but for soccer games Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) is definitively better, better gameplay, better graphics and less arcade. And if I have to choose a FIFA game it would be Fifa 98. It was awesome with every country of the world. I won the World Cup with Vanuatu !!! Try Fifa 98 it's the best.

How can you leave out Super Tecmo Bowl on the original NES, or even RBI Baseball III? 2 classics my buddies & I still play & we're in our late 20's!

1. MVP Baseball 05
2. NBA Jam
3. Tecmo Bowl
4. FIFA 07
5. ESPN Football 2K5

Baseball Stars has to be ranked up there. The first baseball game where you could create your own team. Madden will always be on the list but I seem to enjoy NCAA football more so I would have to rank taht one up there to.

PGA GOLF 95. SET THE BAR FOR THE FUTURE

TIGER WOODS GOLF 07 LEAPYEARS AHEAD

BULLS VS TRAILBLAZERS, JORDON DUNKING FROM FREE THROW LINE EVRY TIME

TONY HAWK 3 KIDS ALL OVER AMERICA SPENT USELESS DAYS ON THIS GAME

TK IN AUSTIN TEXAS

Its beauty was its simplicity; RBI Baseball.
Also, it had Andre "The Hawk" Dawson. He should be in the hall fame!

Tecmo Super Bowl!!!

RBI Baseball 3...the best.

mvp baseball caused me to get about 15 hours of sleep a week freshman year of college, its the best game ive ever played.

ken griffey jr baseball and nba jam have to be on top 5 too just because you can still remember them so well, they were classics.

Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball for SNES is the best baseball game ever. The newer baseball games are really boring. Ice Hockey for NES is amazing, we used it as a drinking game in college, my hands/finger still hurt from the square controller. The Tiger Woods golf series is also really awesome.

Maybe you should expand your list to the top 10 sports games of all time? I think people here have spoken, Tecmo Super Bowl should definitely be included somewhere. I also think the Tiger Woods games, the Tony Hawk games, Double Dribble, and Blades of Steel should be included in there.

5. NCAA Football
4. SNES NCAA Basketball
3. Sega World Series Baseball
2. Madden
1. Tecmo Super Bowl

You guys seem to forget the game that started it all as far as sports games go. Tecmo Super Bowl for Nintendo set the precedent for Madden and NCAA College Football. It was the first game to keep stats, include real NFL players, include the real schedule, and have a playbook to choose from!

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball


You know it's good, because is uses "Xtreme" in the title.

5. NHL 94 - Introduced a whole generation of kids to hockey. Too bad the league dropped the ball.

4. Madden Series - The best were Madden '97 and '05. Series has stagnated lately and is living off its name.

3. Super Tecmo Bowl - Football games keep stats?! Great game.

2. NCAA Football Series - Best was '06 but all have been great games that captured the college atmosphere. Recruiting is what puts it over the top.

1. Baseball Stars - Hands down the best sports game ever. Why haven't we gotten an updated version? No one wants to play 50 minute baseball games. 22 minutes and you're done and the player power up feature was unrivaled.

the best football game is PES/Winning 11, no contest

5. MVP Baseball 2002. Good mix between too much and not enough game help from the game.

4. Tiger Woods golf 2003. Game play was O.K. However, the characters you could create to play as were hilarious.

3. NBA Jam. Good 2-on-2 action. You could actually play good defense. (Although it did suck that the Bulls had Pippen & Kukoc instead of Jordan & Pippen)

2. Hardball for the Sega Genesis. Sure the teams and players were made up. The graphics were not great but the game play awesome.

1. Madden. (although I admit I've never tried 2K Football)

5. Tecmo Bowl
4. Fignt Night Round 2
3. Baseball Stars
2. Madden 93
1. NHL 94 (Genesis)

Honorable mention: MVP Baseball 05, Joe Montana Sportstalk Football, Mike Tyson Punchout, Dr. J vs. Bird: One on One, 4th and Inches, Tiger Woods 06

Tecmo Superbowl is my favorite football game of all time. One of the first FB games to keep stats, though racking up 200sacks in a season was pretty easy.

When 2k came out...I liked the play more than madden. More smoother on the graphics.

i appreciate somebody finally saying nfl blitz but the ultimate sports game of all time........ken Griffey Jr Baseball. Without a doubt takes the cake

This list doesnt hold water with out any of the Tecmo Bowl games.

The computer running by you even when you "picked their play"! The hours of fun and frustration!

Baseball Stars was classic also.
Bases Loaded was fun when you kept plucking their players.

Doubble Dribble with the frogs and moose. And if you kept hitting the reset button, you could get some Double Dribble Remix.

Mike Tyson was a good choice though. 0073735694

5.MVP Baseball 06'(PS2)
4.Fight Night Round 3(PS2)
3.Madden
2.NBA Live 07(PS2)
1.Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES)

PS- Yankees suck!

The 2K series on dreamcast were the greatest football games to have ever been released. NFL 2k2 was probably the best football game of all time.

Without a doubt, Baseball Stars should be on any list of Top Sports Video Games. As far as team building and individual customizing of your leagues were concerned, Baseball Stars was far far ahead of any other rivals from the late 80s & early 90s. Plus, it was humiliating to lose to the "Lovely Ladies" in their pink uniforms, and that made the game all the more fun.

I'll round out my Top Five with Madden AND Techmo Bowl (why can't they both be on the list?), Mike Tyson's Punchout, and Jordan vs. Bird.

joe montana sports talk football...
i believe it was 93 (had the robot voice). I could bet emmitt smith would run like 500yd games. Sega Genesis was greatness!!

woah all these games people have mentioned are great but what about NFL blitz for the N64 fire and football is amazing

I think Tecmo Super Bowl has gotten enough well-deserved love, so I will talk about some of my other favorites.

Greatest Heavyweights for Genesis was awesome. It let you build a fighter and you would get to train him to increase his speed, strenth, and stamina. Plus, fighters could taunt and would get busted open.

PGA Golf III for Genesis was also tremendous - with real courses and challenging gameplay that still holds up.

Coach K College Basketball had real players' numbers (although not names) and would track your progress and do weekly AP ratings.

The WCW and WWF games for N64 were revolutionary with the 4 player Royal Rumble mode, entrance music, and gameplay that was off the charts.

As for some older NES classics, Excitebike, Pro Wrestling, and RBI Baseball killed hours of my childhood.

Rightly said, by more than half the responses: Tecmo Super Bowl HAS to be on this list. IMO, it is the greatest sports game ever, Madden has never come close to the fun factor or how endlessly playable TSB was.

5. Blades of Steel
4. Double Dribble
3. Mike Tysons Punch Out
2. Super Mario Cart (SNES)
1. Tecmo Super Bowl

PS Yankees SUCK!

What about Super Dodge Ball for the NES, come on!

Double Dribble

Addicted to Madden, totally. I miss Tecmo Super Bowl and the old days of Nintendo (plain old Nintendo, not Super Nintendo), but now you have me jonesing for Bill Laimbeer Combat Basketball.

Fourth and Inches on the Commodore 64. I can never defend the screen pass.

5. Baseball Stars
4. Tiger Woods
3. MVP Baseball
2. RBI Baseball
1. Any MADDEN

Super tecmo bowl on the super nintendo! It was perfect in it's simplicity, with all the current players. i still remember christian okoye shucking everyone towards the goalline.

oh also double dribble for basketball with the dunks and RBI baseball for baseball

Bejeesus, guys, how did no one include Mutant League Football for the Genesis?! Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl couldn't hold a candle to Bones Jackson on MLF!

Furthermore, before the NFL screwed us all by giving pro football to one game publisher, Gameday beat the hell out of Madden, if only for the simple fact that John Madden is one of the most obnoxious announcers in real life, but in the game franchise you get the thrill of hearing him repeat the same dim observations over and over and over again.

Sega's Jerry Glanville Pigskin Footbrawl early 90's

Here's My Personal List:

1. Madden as a whole series, the impact its had to this day is unquestionable....

2. Mike Tyson's Punch Out....if I had a gamecube/wii that can load up classic games, Id still be playing it....

3. MVP Baseball 2005....what kills me most is after this version 2k sports bought the 3rd party licensing, killing the possibly of an 2006 version...

4. NBA Jam...pretty much fathered what you see today in the different sports arcade genre....

5. Tecmo Bowl.....Two Words....BO Jackson!!!!!!

Madden 2003 on PS2 was great, even though it didn't have the Hit Stick or the Cone;

Baseball Star, the original, come on!!

Tecmo Super Bowl with Steve Young in instead of Montana; classic!! I'd always kick the butts of Parcells and LT's Giants. And when Ronnie Lot was "Excellent", he'd walk over RBs!!

NHL 2002 on PS2; downhill from there.

And, sadly, the best baseball franchise ever ended with a classic simulation game; High Heat 2004 with the feel of a game; your cleanup guy getting 100 walks; minor leagues players that COULD help, unlike EA's MVP. Those guys got what baseball should be like.

from da boy vince

5.MVP Baseball 06
4.NBA 05
3.MLB 07
2.NBA Street 3
1.Madden

Holy Cow no hockey!

NFL 2k5 was rated higher and sold better than Madden 05. A truly innovative company wouldn't have had to worry about the competition, but instead they reached into their deep pockets and bought NFL exclusivity. Now everyone's treated to the rehashed game with roster updates on a yearly basis. Yay...

replace Mike Tyson with Fight Night and Madden with 2k5!

5. NBA 2k
4. Tiger Woods Golf
3. Mlb the Show
2. Ncaa Football
1. Madden

Greeting from Germland!

1. BULLS VS Blazers (Vlade's Shot Fake was the best ever in any Sports Game!!)

2. NBA 95 (Mitch Richmond was a beast!)

3. NBA 2006 (Really big jump...)


PS:

NBA 07 was a disaster!!

1. Tecmo Super Bowl
2. Tecmo Bowl
3. Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball

5. Fifa '96
4. Madden
3. Double Dribble
2. Super Dodgeball
1. Tecmo Super Bowl

Had to go with 10

1. NHL 94
2. Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball (The Jay Buhner look-alike who was after Griffey in the Mariners line-up was a home run machine)
3. Ice Hockey
4. California Games
5. Super Sprint Racing (the white car still haunts me)
6. NBA Jam
7. Great Golf (Sega Master System)
8. Lakers vs. Celtics
9. NHL 93
10.Little League Baseball

Your tyson code was wrong. code should be 007 373 5963

Thats the worst list for sports video games!!

Here are the real favorites:

1. NBA 2K7
2. MLB 2K7
3. NHL 2K7
4. NBA 2K6
5. ANY 2K SPORTS GAME!!!!

NO EA SPORTS SPORTSGAMES!!

THEY ARE THE WORST, IN PARTICULAR ON PS3!!!
XBOX 360 IS THE BEST!!

EA SPORTS SHOULD SPEND SOME MONEY AND GET GOOD GRAPHICS PEOPLE!!

Sports talk baseball for genesis. dave henderson was a monster in that game, and you could pitch brien taylor.

Change the name of this list to:
"My Five Favorite Sports Video Games" and you'd be fine.

5. MVP 06: NCAA Baseball
This is not even regarded as the best baseball game of all time, but here you put it.

4. FIFA 07
Winning Eleven is widely regarded as being head and shoulders better than FIFA.

3. NHL 94
I can agree with NHL 94, even though 98 was my favorite.

2. Mike Tyson's Punch Out
I can agree here, but not this high. Ring King in my opinion was a better game. My opinion, see. I'm not trying to pass it off as fact.

1. Madden
That's pretty general. I will say you mean Madden 95, in which case I could make a case for ESPN NFL 2k5. Never before has a game forced another company to scramble so quickly and make such a drastic move. This would be the equivalent of Halo 3 causing Sony to buy the rights to making First Person Shooters. I think Tecmo Super Bowl beats them all out because of it's longevity. People still play it to this day.

how is NBA Jam not in the top 5??

The vision cone pisses you off until someone turns it off and throws an 80 yard long bomb while facing backwards.

Then it's great.

This is ridiculous, Tecmo Super Bowl defined football in gaming. It truly is the best sports game in all its 2d glory.

Whoa!! Did somebody actually forget about the first NBA Live 95! This first real basketball game because it had a "real" fastbreak option and play calling. Set the standard for every bastketball game after.

I never understood why NHL94 gets this crazy cult following...to me NHL95 was way superior. That's when they started introducing full season modes with trades and cutting players and the whole deal. Besides all you had to do on NHL94 to score was go down the ice with your C on the right side and your RW down the middle, the C passes to the RW who one-times it, works just about everytime.

Odyssey 2 baseball - da best!

Kung Fu is the greatest and fiercest !!

In no particular order, these games are at least worth remembering:

a) Super Dodge Ball (NES)
b) Front Page Sports Football (PC)
c) Fight Night series (best 1 on 1 fighting game ever?)
d) Pro Wrestling (NES)
e) NHL 98 (come on, with 4 other buddies & a multi-tap, going for gold?)

you guys are nerds.

Fifa Sucks, period. That being said:
5. NHL '94
4. Madden '06
3. MVP '05
2. NBA Live '98
1. Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven 13, i think)

konomi Basketball (arcade game)
Hot shots golf
double dribble
RBI baseball
activision hockey on atari
for the time it was a great game !

5. Smackdown 2 - Playstation
4. Hardball '94 - Genesis
3. Bill Walsh College Gootball
2. Super Tecmo Bowl
1. NCAA Football '06

Baseball Stars for the old NES was a game ahead of it's time. It was the first game I ever played where you had control over where you hit the ball. Add in the ability to create custom teams, cumulative stats, custom seasons with multiple custom teams, player upgrades and easy game play and you end up with a classic game. Best of all, Baseball Stars led to the phrase, "I will play you in a non-league, drinking game." Does it get any better than that? I would buy it today if it was released for a modern system and I would buy the system to play it on, too.

This is tough...I could make all of them pretty close to equal...

5. NCAA Football 2006 (PS2)
4. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (PS2)
3. Mike Tyson's Punchout (NES)
2. Super Mario Kart (SNES)
1. NBA Live 95 (SNES)

NCAA 06 was the best football game in the series. This is also a better series than Madden (believe it or not).

THPS 2 got me started, but THPS 3 still has me hooked!

Mike Tyson's Punchout still pisses me off to this day. I finally saw someone beat Tyson - I'll still stuck on Soda P after all these years...

Super Mario Kart is still the best in the series. When we got bored, we would kill shoot green turtle shells and kill all other weapons to see who could last the longest! That was great!

NBA Live 95 - We used to create teams (I was the Jammers) and have tournaments every weekend. Del Negro/Stockton combo were unstoppable. Instant replay, critical shots, Jordan! Please drop this on the Wii. Instant purchase!

For me NHL 95 was the greatest. I believe it was the first game eveer where you could trade players, sign and release players and create players. It was revolutionary! With the season and the awards show at the end, it was the first stepping stone to what we know as dynasty or franchise mode in other sports games.

Ok, enough Tecmo Super Bowl, Madden, NHL, Punch-Out arguments. Clearly these games are all awesome and play too large a part in our lives.

Time for the 5 Worst Sports Games of All-Time

5. Super-High Impact Football (SNES) - Awesomely bad. Pretty much unplayable, except for the great computer trash talk. "SOMEBODY GET A BODY BAG!" At least this sort of format eventually gave us NFL Blitz.

4. 10-Yard Fight (NES) - Nearly no options in this one - except High-School, College, Pro. Same song every game, same play, every time. Same boredom. No wonder I didn't like football very much when I was six.

3. Bulls vs. Blazers (SNES) - Played this again recently and wondered how I had the patience to play a full game, never mind an entire playoff. I also don't know how people include this on their best lists.

2. Golf (NES) - Just impossible. No fun.

1. Shaq-Fu (SNES) - Not a sports game, but with an athlete. Probably the worst video game I've ever played.

I know I wasted many an afternoon trying to perfect my tricks on the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater, possibly the most addicting game EVER!
I also spent countless hours on Tiger Woods '05.
But I've always been and always will be a Madden Man.

1) Madden
2)Tiger Woods
3Tony Hawk

I tend to agree with someone earlier, change this to your favorite sports games of all time and you've got something. I tend to like the old school games. That said, here's mine:

5. The old arcade football game with the X's and O's and the huge roller ball. Never knew the name for it other than, "Football". Would always take an absolute beating.

4. Odyssey Baseball and/or Intellivision Baseball. Both were highly addictive for their time.

3. Track and Field in the arcade. How many quarters did you go through before you realized a comb between your fingers would make you run faster?

2. I haven't played any of the 2k football games, but my first real big stats monster was Frontpage Sports Football pro 97 on the PC. I met a handful of folks online who had created their own little cult following for this game. We would do a season in 2 weeks, a draft, salaries, players would get older. There was a lot of manual activity, but it was a blast. When I finally got ahold of a Madden game (02 or 03), it was almost as good as the setup we used to have.

1. Super Tecmo Bowl. Bar none. Seasons worth of stats. The ability to just absolutely crush another team with the "nose guard dive". Running out of bounds at your own 1 just so you could have that 99 yard play. Having a playbook based on formations so your opponent wouldn't know when you had called the "flicker". I knew guys who dropped out of college because they couldn't tear themselves away from this game (ok, this and street fighter).

Honorable mention has to go to any of those little handheld blip games. I think they had hockey, baseball, soccer, football and basketball.

#1 CYBERBALL

This is the worst list ever. Madden??? Please. The Game Day games of the mid 90s were way better. In the 2000s, the 2k series has reigned supreme. Nothing's come close, however, to Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. Who doesn't still play that game?

5. NBA Jam T.E.
4. NHLPA Hockey '93 (Sega Genesis)
3. NFL 2k5
2. Bases Loaded
1. Tecmo Super Bowl

the 2k series for Football, far exceeded madden in any year that both were released, dont beleive play them one after the other, madden is slow, less realistic and harder to control, 2k is faster paced, reactions are more realistic and the only reason madden gets all the hype is a six letter word MADDEN but six letters does not a game make better mkay

on the NHL i liked 93 better than 94 also, but both were great, i think i liked 93 better because i could score easier, but whatever

NCAA Football '08 is the best video game I have ever played. I think a key addition to the list would be Star Fox, if you don't consider shooting planes in space a sport, then consider me Myles Davis.

Hockey - NHL '94 (Genesis)
Soccer - Pro Evolution 2007 (PS2)
Basketball - NBA Jam T.E. (SNES)
Golf - Links Golf (PC)
Bowling - (Wii)

1)Bill Walsh College Football
2)Tecmo Bowl (and the "Super" sequel)
3)NCAA Football (my favorite was '03)
4)NBA Street 2
5)NBA Jams (any of the first couple of versions)

i dont know how many people actually played this one but run and gun 2. no nba licenses but was the first basketball game to allow you to press the shoot button during a dunk to do a layup and also "freestyle" capabilities. instead of using the analog stick you could rotate the joystick to spin and do crossovers. HANDS DOWN FAVE.
ncaa football close though

I always thought pong was great.

Madden is clearly the greatest sports game of all time you must be a complete retard to think otherwise

1. Mario Series (Mario 64, Party, racing, tennis)

2. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 (N64)

3. NFL 2K5

4. James Bond Goldeneye (N64)

5. Madden '06

I have never been a big madden fan, but it drives me nuts that EA owns the monopoly on Football video games. If you want the games to get better, give them some competion!!!

dougsidius says i liked tecmo bowl the best. It was really cool. I find Madden 2 easy. I also liked Nhl 96.

Funny how in 10-15 years kids today will talk about how Madden 06 or 07 is the best all-time. Why you ask? Because it was their first memory of a football video game. Of course tecmo bowl will be the best to us geezers!

They do not clarify some points. In the arcade, NBA Jams. If we are picking the 'Greatest' console games it all depends on if you are looking for arcade like play like being able to run over the whole other team with Bo Jackson in Tecmo bowl or drop back 20 yards and throw a 60 yard pass with Randall Cunningham, or some other super real simulation.

What about Bottom of the Ninth for the original Playstation...classic

Nobody has mentioned Ultimate Challenge Golf. I loved that one for the PC from the mid-90's. It was totally different than Tiger Woods Golf, etc. in that you did NOT do anything to swing the club. Instead you set up your shot by picking the club, stance (how many degrees open, square, closed), club face (open, square, closed), trajectory (high, normal, low) and so on. Then you just hit enter to execute. You were playing strategic golf trying to think through what the best shot for the situation was in terms of positional golf, shaping your shot, etc. It had nothing to do with how co-ordinated you were clicking your mouse.

I also second the guy who said Dr. J vs. Larry Bird One-on-One. That was a giant step forward when that came out compared to the generic stick-figure graphics most sports games of the time used.

I spent so much of my youth dedicated to these games, and I have ranked them according to how much time in my life has been dedicated to playing them:

8) Jordan vs. Bird - NES: A one-on-one style basketball game with a 3-point contest and a dunk contest, it was a great game, and was one of the first to have many different features (and still one of the only, maybe the only, to have a dunk contest)

7) Mike Tyson's Punchout - NES: I spent a ton of hours playing this one and loved that it never became really easy to beat it...and you game genie users don't count!

6) Triple Play Baseball - Sega Genesis: This was the game that EA Sports used to take over the baseball fans that used to play Baseball Stars. It had one of the first really detailed "Season Modes" and you could trade players and sign free agents. Awesome game, and the precursor to MVP Baseball.

5) Madden NFL Football Series - Many different systems: This game would be higher, but it had a lull in it's dominance when the two or three year run by 989 Sports' Football game overtook it for a few years during the Playstation One years. This game probably should be ranked higher, but since I am a college football fan first, this game always suffered in the "number of hours played" category with me. It wins major points having a draft and the ability to draft your NCAA players into the league, but still NCAA always won out. You can't lose a game, the Heisman is a big deal, the recruiting is always more interesting, and having new players every 3-4 years makes you want to keep coming back and winning National Championships. But Madden would rule if NCAA Football didn't exist.

4) NBA Jam - Sega Genesis: This game was flat out awesome. With the computer assistance feature, no matter how hot your opponent's team got, the computer would help you back into the game. It isn't a game for people who like to dominate, it is a game for people who like to have heartbreaker/chest pounding finishes, which was ALWAYS a certain last second finish that had the winning jumping off the couch screaming "OOOHHHHHH!!!" and the loser yelling "That's BULLS**T!!!"

3) Baseball Stars - NES: First game to allow created players and power-ups, had a challenging team to play against and allowed you to save your created team and come back day after day to make it better. And it would get erased just often enough to make you feel like you had to start all over and pick a different team. My Chicago White Sox were still the best ever, closely followed by my St. Louis Cardinals.

2) NCAA Football Series - Many different systems: From playing this on the Sega Genesis all the way to PS3, this game has been a staple in my collection for about 15 years (maybe 14). I love how the game has developed and has the fantastic Dynasty mode that allows you to recruit through the whole season and attend heisman ceremonies, As well as try to convince your players to stay in school, or have them enter the draft into the Madden game. It's awesome, and every year gets even better. As a Buckeye fan, I must get this game every year when it comes out, and I have ever since 1994's version on Sega Genesis. There is just something about college football, I even talked about some of the features above in my Madden discussion. It's just the best, except for one game in history...

1) Tecmo Super Bowl - NES: This game was even better than the original Tecmo Bowl, because it allowed you to play a season with real NFL players and keep stats. You can't beat that, because at the time it came out, there was nothing like it in any sport or on any gaming console. The game play was exciting, and the stress of hoping your thumb didn't slide off of the directional pad before your receiver or running back made it all the way to the endzone was priceless and endless entertainment. The greatest sports game of all time, and you can tell because it remains today one of the most difficult games to come by when you try and pick it up at used game exchange stores. In fact, most have a waiting list about 50 people long, and this is about 16 years after it's original release. Amazing.

It's not even close. Tecmo Superbowl is by far the best sports game ever, and debatably the best game ever period. The NHL games for Genesis were very good, and NBA Jam was also up there, and in terms of modern games, the madden series was pretty good too. But yea, Tecmo Superbowl, with Barry, Bo, QB Eagles (Randal), and the gang...no contest

I must add to my top 8 with my honorable mentions...my other post should be just before this is close to it (it may be the only one that mentions Jordan vs. Bird)...

Honorable Mentions:

California Games - NES: One of the best non-traditional sports games. It was the X-Games before they existed, and doing back-flips on a BMX nike was awesome. I was a stud in footbag too.

Excitebike - NES: You could create your own course, this was very innovative for its time.

Tecmo NBA Basketball - NES: One of the most underrated games of all time. It was basically the same game as Tecmo Super Bowl, a full season, kept stats, and it came out too close to the release of the next generation of gaming systems (ie Sega Genesis), to be remembered. But it took many hours of my time as well.

American Gladiators - NES: This game was almost as great as the show, and it was very fun to actually get to pretend you were competing against Ice, Storm, and Viper...

Caveman Games - NES: I loved this game, and I am not sure it was even all that good, but I seriously remember laughing at the games and graphics over and over...I still play it when I need a laugh...

Tecmo Super Bowl for sure. Ken Griffey Jr. baseball and NBA Jam TE should also be high on the list. Mix in Madden 2005 and NHL 96 and the list would be complete.

Temco Super Bowl?

Where's the love for NFL 2K5? The game is 3 years old and it still runs circles around Madden!

MVP Baseball 2005! Shame EA doesn't make these anymore.

MVP Baseball 2005! Shame EA doesn't make these anymore.

Tecmo Super Bowl! There is no other!

Am I the only person who owns Madden 08?

1. Madden 08
2. Madden 07
3. MLB 2k7

I wasted a semester of college on Ice Hockey in 1994. We played it as much for the fights as anything else. And i love NBA Jam. Played it on the arcade loads.

Mutant league Football and Mutant league hockey. Neither are realistic, but being able to take off some ones head and and getting an extra 15 yards for it was great.

Where's the love for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3?

1)Madden
2)Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
3)NBA Street
4)NHL 2000
5)Mario Golf

Tecmo freakin Super Bowl, with NBA Jam as honorable mention.