Video games and professional sports would become intrinsically connected in the 1990s thanks to the rise in demand for both league and players association licenses. The days of generic skaters and batters from titles like Blades of Steel and Bases Loaded were mostly abandoned once real teams and real players crept onto the scene.
Video game developers like EA Sports and Midway effectively changed the game by injecting their titles with a greater sense of realism leveraged through agreements with professional sports leagues and their respective athletes. The best sports games of the 90s offered an escape by allowing prospective gamers to take control of their favorite teams and athletes of the era, and play out their own sports fantasies.
Sports games took center stage in the 90s, with titles like NHL '94, NBA Jam, and Tecmo Super Bowl standing among the most popular games of the decade. Of course, sports games would become bigger, faster, and more realistic following the 90s... but they were never quite as fun again.
Here are ten of the greatest sports games of the 90s (wrestling is a sport here, today).
10. Daytona USA
Daytona USA was one of the top grossing arcade games back in 1994. It certainly wasn't the first game to feature a sit-in cabinet and steering controls, but it was the first to include graphics capable of displaying a more true to life racing simulation.
Sega Saturn and Windows versions followed, and the game appeared on both Xbox Live and Playstation Network in 2011.
9. Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA Playoffs
Although EA Sports' Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA Playoffs only featured the 16 teams that qualified for the 1992 postseason, it was who was in the game that really mattered. Michael Jordan would disappear from licensed NBA console titles for the better part of a decade following his inclusion in Bulls vs Blazers.
His Airness was available for use to dominate friends and CPU alike in Bulls vs Blazers.
One of the earlier titles to emphasize individual player likenesses, Bulls vs Blazers featured signature moves like Shawn Kemp's off the backboard dunk, Tim Hardaway's UTEP two-step, and Jordan's "air reverse."
8. FIFA 99
The FIFA series made a massive leap in terms of graphics, gameplay, and controls with its '99 title. An Elite League game mode and more customizable options helped lay the groundwork for FIFA's ascent to the top of the sports gaming world that would come in the next decade.
7. NFL Blitz
Midway leaned on the NBA Jam formula for the release of NFL Blitz in 1997. The original arcade game was a brutally violent and sensationalized version of football. A slightly stripped down version hit Playstation and Nintendo 64 consoles in 1999, and countless high school and post-secondary credits would be lost in its wake.
6. WCW/nWo Revenge
People will tell you that WWF Wrestlefest is the greatest wrestling game of the decade, but those people were probably too old to get into WCW/nWo Revenge for Nintendo 64. Friendships were born, friendships were lost, rivalries carried over into real life, and that's just what happened on couches across North America.
Decent graphics, a deep roster, signature moves, finishers, and a fairly simple engine to master propelled WCW/nWo Revenge into the conversation of best wrestling games of all-time upon its release in 1998.
5. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
The simulation experience of Sega's World Series Baseball and EA Sports Triple Play series surely make them better games than Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball... right? Cito?
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
The popularity of ESPN's X-Games opened up the door to endorsements for many sports previously thought to be too fringe for such things. Skateboarding was bigger than ever, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for Playstation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast was another major reason for its resurgence in North American culture.
3. Tecmo Super Bowl
Few games of any genre have a cult following to match Tecmo Super Bowl. It's commonplace for the greatest NFL highlights of today to receive the Tecmo Super Bowl treatment, and the game's popularity is even further evidenced by the tournaments grown men and women still compete in annually today.
Without Tecmo Super Bowl, the legend of Bo Jackson just isn't complete.
2. NBA Jam
"He's heating up," "He's on fire," and "Boomshakalaka!" Those phrases mean far more to 90s kids than anything parents, teachers, and truant officers could have told them during the reign of the NBA Jam series of basketball video games. Midway eschewed the realism, rosters, and simulation experience that developers like EA Sports pursued throughout the decade, instead opting for a fun-filled arcade game that stands as one of the most popular sports games of all-time.
1. NHL '94
EA Sports removed fighting and bleeding heads from its NHL series for the release of NHL '94, but what they injected into the game would help make the first title to be licensed by both the NHL and NHLPA one of the most loved video games of all-time.
The ability to fire one-timers, check players into the bench, and improved physics plus real players and real teams equalled countless hours months years of 16-bit entertainment for hockey fans.
Hockey games that followed featured stat tracking, battery saves, better graphics, and far more game mode options, but few could stand up to NHL '94 in terms of its fun factor.
