So many of us nerdy types have little to no interest in sports. The minute I hear co-workers and family members talk about coaches and quarterbacks, and tune out immediately, having no reverence for the various stats associated with sweaty men playing with balls.
But I can't lie that I have enjoyed some sports games over time, especially growing up around people that liked basketball, football, and wrestling. Many of these games have become my favorite games of all time, even though I much prefer to be set in scenarios set in fantasy and fiction.
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Ah, the beloved Windjammer. A game so beloved, that small competitive tournaments are played of it to this day. I'm glad to see this game get so much love because when I played it I thought it was incredible. Though, the ONLY reason I was able to play this was via emulation. While I did have the privilege of experiencing 90's era arcade, I was just a child who could only get a few chances to play them on irregular trips to the local mall and I'm pretty sure the few arcades I got to never had this game, so it wasn't until high school and college where I sunk deep into classic game emulation where I really got to appreciate this game. I often wonder how many fans who have such reverence for this game actually played it in the 90s at an arcade, versus via emulation or console ports.
Many of say "I don't like sports games" until we remember that NBA Jam exists. A true representation of "They don't make games like this anymore", a wild, hype, over the top, arcade consumable, bombastic baskebtall slam fest with loads of spectacle. Perhaps some of the personality of this game is better left in the 90s, but it is strange we don't get sports games with such accessibility and personality, now opting for simulator style experience because "errybody plays video games now".
NBA Street felt like the more modern answer to NBA Jam, taking a trick combo mechanic similar to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater meets NBA Jam with 21 points based Street basketball. Goaltending and knocking down opponents to steal the ball is just fine here. Use the turbo button to speed you up and the more of them you use in tandem with ball tricks, the more you can build up combo to rack up a secondary point score and the Gamebreaker, a special mode for your team to get extra Shot points and steal points from the opposing team. However, the more complex the trick the more difficult it is to pull off for you player, as only some ballers have the Handles to pull off such tricks without dropping the rock for the opposing team. Getting good at NBA Street was rewarding, pulling off tricky combos, juking and tripping up the opposing team, stealing the ball for another score chance, and setting up spectacular alley-oops pass slams before finally getting a gamebreaker (or two, or THREE even) in a match and dominating your opponent. I also loved the character creator. While there aren't a ton of options compared to modern games, you did have a reasonable amount of choices. The best part is taking your character into the main tournament ladder and powering up their skills to the point of overpower absurdity. I made my player as tall and heavy as possible, making it easier for him to swat enemy baskets and withstand being knocked down. Because all his stats we're maxed out, he was a goal swatting, ball stealing, rock handling, slam dunking, fast running, three point shooting 8-foot tall god. I will always remember my brother complaining about the fact that my giant that would normally play as a Center could also function as a ball stealing 3 point shooting Forward.
NBA Street returns with an amazing soundtrack, improved appearances, more star players, more teams, longer play time and OH MY GOD ITS MICHAEL FUCKING JORDAN. If you weren't a gaming kid of the 90s, you simply don't know how important this was. Michael Jordan was (and arguably still is) the best basketball player at the time, and because of that, he was expensive and difficult to license in a game. It was rare if not impossible to find a game with Michael Jordan likeness feature in the game. You could get Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside, but no MJ. In fact, I think there was a "Unnamed Player 23" filling in for Michael Jordan on the Bulls, with a blank, grey colord "Default Man" avatar whenever he scored, while other players had portraits of themselves. So yeah, you could play as Michael Jordan on the Bulls, and in the Story mode, you could recruit him on your Custom team early in the game, making your team an unstoppable force. MJ didn't have maxed out stats, but he was one of the best if not best forward, making him almost never miss a shot and being proficient in handling the rock, stealing the ball and in some cases being a good goal defender as well. He could fit every role on the team and it felt like setting yourself up for failure by not including him.
I think many of us "Old school" gamers remember the days of booting up this game and hearing the poorly, sampled NES era "DOUBLE DRIBBLE" announcement. A game from the day when Konami was a king on the NES, and made sports games other than PES, it was a pretty straight forward baskebtall game since there was only two buttons to work with. It was pretty neat seeing the cinematic slam dunks. These did interrupt gameplay a bit, so DD isn't always the best game to go back to.
This game has a weird feeling in my head. I don't exactly remember owning or playing this game back in the day, but when I booted it up in an emulator, it felt immediately familiar. Maybe my brother rented it once. Maybe I played it at a friends house. Maybe we had copy and just never played it much. Still it was one of my first forays into hockey and the fact that hockey players are allowed to fight each other. If you have never played this before, its worth dabbling in. It's made from the same Konami that made classics on the NES and SNES.
WAYNE GRETZKY'S 3D HOCKEY! That sound byte is burned into my head. This was one of the early games for the N64, maybe even a launch game. My memory is foggy on this game, but I definitely remember the bright colors of the puck as it switched possession and the 3D block letters. Again, this was back in a time when sports games were arcadey, so once you learned the controls, you could pick up and play this game in short bursts.
Years ago, For the longest time, I was looking for Fifa 64 on Youtube and I was absolutely confused when I Found it.....this wasn't the game I was looking for. What the heck was that awesome soccer game for the N64? After some time I Found it! International Superstar Soccer. It has been a very long time since I've played this game, so from a gameplay standpoint, it is hard for me to remember what i loved about playing the game. But there are two things that will stick with me forever: The catchy menu screen music and the in game announcer. Upon a scored goal, the Announcer yells GOAL! GOAL! in various forms, which such hype and excitement, as if announcing the most exciting and exuberant moment in his life. I found that this is actual normal with announcers in real soccer games, since goals are rare compared to a basketball game or American football game, so they are worthy of celebration, though in this game, if you get good at it you will hear those screams quite often. I forgot how good the announcer was as I looked up old videos and the announcer was great at explaining the current situation of the game and the moment of each play.
This was the early era of fully 3D, simulation style Sports games. I don't quite remember if this was something my brother rented or something I rented out of boredom or having no other interesting options at Blockbuster, but what we have is a pretty decent basketball game that isn't too overwhelming and complex compared to modern games. There is little reason to go back to this game unless you have nostalgia for it though. But maybe it is worth a shot for you if you're curious about this genre and rather pay something that is more simple than the "trying too hard to be real" sim games of now.
