Madden, NBA 2K, NHL and FIFA make up the mainstream sports games which dominate the market with each new annual release. With EA Sports and 2K Games ruling the scene and sales, they significantly control our experience of sports games. However, perhaps due to fancying a new challenge, some players want to experience their favorite sport through a new vision.
As the mainstream sports titles are so dominant in the sales and charts, many great games within the same sports can get overlooked or simply put aside in favor of the major release. Here, we’re going through a bunch of games set in popular sports that offer a new and perhaps even more entertaining experience than the same-old titles that we’re all used to playing.
Super Blood Hockey
Super Blood Hockey embraces both the glory days of retro hockey games and the high-speed and inherent violence that people enjoy in the sport – while adding in a hefty dose of humor to offset the violence. The charming game with great music and fun gameplay is further bolstered by the game modes offered – which include a franchise mode focused on the buying and deaths of inmates/players – and the sheer brutality of the game’s mechanics.
Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition
When it comes to football, some games can be overly complicated and require too much fiddling for many players to enjoy casual, hands-on entertainment within the sport. While rich in features and deep in fundamental gameplay, Mutant Football League offers a title aimed at entertaining through its impact gameplay and parodies of the NFL. With species-specific superpowers, field hazards, and the inclusion of a comprehensive dynasty mode, there’s plenty to dig into for any adventurous football fan.
Sporting Legends
Combining several of the most beloved sports stars from across many sports that don’t receive a lot of attention in gaming, the Sporting Legends casino game series has fused several slots featuring legendary sports stars into a suite of three jackpots. Games of AP McCoy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Frankie Dettori, and Top Trumps Football Stars all feature legends of sport in games that are tied to a daily, weekly, and an ongoing progressive jackpot. Horse racing, snooker, and soccer fans can find a game to suit them while spinning to trigger one of the ever-growing Sporting Legends prizes.
Golf Story
Some think that golf is boring, but the sport has been notoriously popular in gaming – particularly when motion controls are at hand. Developers Sidebar Games decided to play around with golf’s perception as somewhat of a dull affair by creating a very tongue-in-cheek, story-driven game: Golf Story. There is a very entertaining local two-player mode for some traditional head-to-head golf gaming, but making your way through the campaign of Golf Story is certainly the main appeal of the highly rated, retro-looking sports game. While Golf Story is great fun, for now, it’d be well worth keeping an eye out for the studio’s follow-up game, Sports Story, which is described as being “a sports game, but not always.”
Boxing Champs
The likes of Round4Round Boxing and eSports Boxing Club are both in the works as successors to the much-loved but discarded EA boxing series Fight Night. Those two seem to be quite some way away but in the meantime, boxing fans can look to the surprisingly deep Boxing Champs. Career mode is the highlight, as you get to custom build your boxer, earn level-up points, and then enhance the key factors of your boxer while you rise to the top. Best of all, in this top-down boxing game, there are plenty of controls to allow you to select which punches you throw, when you throw them, when you block, and where you move.
If you happen to be looking for a more offbeat boxing, golf, horse racing, snooker, soccer, football, or hockey video game, check out the titles above.