With Madden 09 set to come out tomorrow I got to thinking about my favorite video games of all time. Let's check out my fav 5 (3, actually...getting lazy tonight. Hey, its my first day) sports games in reverse order.
3. NBA 2k8 - PS3 - NBA 2k8 is my favorite basketball game. When I began playing NBA video games I was into the Live series. At the time there was only one reason to switch from Live over to the 2k series; YOU CAN TRADE DRAFT PICKS IN LIVE! What the hell was NBA live thinking back in the day? You can't trade draft picks? How was I going to dominate with Derek Anderson as my top guard playing with Sabas and Sheed? You couple DA with a couple first round picks and you can get that guard play you've been dying for. Those were the good ol' days. Now I'm a respectable gamer. 2K8's life like game play (I couldn't believe the first time I travelled in a video game) was a quick sell for me. Is this partly because of how incredible the PS3 looks on the right TV? Probably. But who cares?!? The only beef I have with NBA 2k8 is the rate at which you can progress players. You take Brandon Roy and have a solid year, win finals MVP and participate in training camps and shooting drills you could quickly have him in the 96, 97 range. And that is high considering he starts out around 89...
2. Madden 04 - PS2 - This game got me back into sports gaming. New feature to the Madden series: Franchise Mode. Franchise mode was so spectacular that it enabled the team owner to regulate things that a real life owner would regulate; ticket prices, deciding on relocating, and most importantly, hot dog and pizza prices. How much would a slice of pizza cost at the Metrodome during my tenure? $1!!! Fans loved it, moral was high, and the Minnesota Vikings were Superbowl bound. Can you say play action pass from Culpepper to Moss? Little did I know it would turn into the second coming of Brad Johnson and now Tavaris Jackson...Come on T Jack, I'm still behind you...until next year...
1. Tecmo Bowl - Original NES - What can I say? This game pioneered football gaming. The 4 play selections available at the tender age of 6-11 was plenty for me. I thought learning an actual pro football playbook would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I didn't pick the game up for years once the new platforms became available. Sega, Super NES, PS1, etc etc etc... Then, one summer afternoon in college I got to thinking about the Nintendo I had sitting in storage just begging to be played. Insert e-bay search; "tecmo bowl." In 7-14 business days I received another copy of Tecmo Bowl and the rest was history...Well, it was history after we set it up on a friends 68 inch big screen...hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut...
How will Madden stack up against these all time greats? I'll tell you in a couple days...
Some non-sports video game classics:
Contra - NES
The original GTA3 - PS2
Did I miss some? Let me know what your favorites are.
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NCAA Football 2000-2008:
Improvements have been made every year, but the height of my interest was probably 2002 despite Chris Weinke's cover appearance.
Madden has more goodies, but NCAA has always been set up for higher scoring. The ability to run the option, the wide variety of stadiums, and the fight songs put it ahead of the Madden series in my book.
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