(ThyBlackMan.com) In my 25 years as an avid gamer, I have played hundreds of games whether at home, school, the pool room, or at some of the video game tournaments that I had enjoyed the opportunity to participate in.
My favorite types of video games that I enjoy playing the most are action, adventure, arcade, beat-em-up, puzzle RPG, sci-fi, shooting, and definitely sports games.
Here are my top 5 all-time favorite sports games.
1. Tecmo Super Bowl (NES Version) – In 1991 when the sequel to Tecmo Bowl called Tecmo Super Bowl was released, the game definitely ushered in a new era of football games with its over the 
top arcade style of gameplay where a running back like Bo Jackson or Barry Sanders could easily shred through opposing defenses with their amazing speed and doing the zig zag through the field to avoid getting tackled. My favorite gameplay element in the game like the passing play mechanic was also spectacular because a quarterback like Randall Cunningham or Warren Moon can throw a 80 or 90 yard touchdown pass to a wide open receiver and score the touchdown. 27 years after this game was released, the game has a deep cult like following to this day because there are yearly Tecmo Super Bowl tournaments that happen around the country. This game is my favorite football game.
2. NBA Jam – I was a real big fan of the original NBA Jam on The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis growing up during my childhood in the 1990s because I remember seeing the players doing these ridiculously over the top dunks like the tilt-a-whirl and the flipping dunk. NBA Jam also ushered in a new era of basketball games that had fast paced, over the top arcade style gameplay where even making several successful shots or dunks gets you a fireball when the announcer says “He’s On Fire. The “Fire Ball” was my favorite gameplay element in the game because with the fire ball, you can always make difficult shots like the jump shot or 3-point shot. After this game and NBA Jam Tournament Edition, the series was watered down and NBA Jam will never be what it truly was back in the early 1990s. The original NBA Jam will always be my favorite basketball game.
3. Bases Loaded 2 – One of my favorite sports games and my favorite baseball game that I often played during my childhood in Bases Loaded 2 for The NES was so fun and enjoyable to play, especially with my brothers at that time. One of the gameplay elements I enjoyed most about this game was facing different types of pitchers so that I can understand who I’m up against on the mound and some of the pitchers that I faced threw absoultely weird ghost like pitches that were very difficult for me to hit, but despite that, I definitely enjoyed playing this game so much back in the day.
4. WCW/nWo Revenge – In 1998, the professional wrestling scene in America and in particular WCW was at the peak of its popularity when WCW/nWo Revenge came out in October of that year for The Nintendo 64. The gameplay mechanics were amazing where certain wrestlers like Goldberg for example can actually do a grapple and then a combo meter appears on the screen that shows you how many hits you can dish out on your opponent before the combo meter runs out. I also enjoyed the entrances as well as the beautifully designed arenas including my favorite all-time wrestling arena in The Classic Nitro arena from September 1995 – March 1999. The game also had a score system that awarded you points based on performing certain actions like top rope moves, signature and finishing moves. This game is one of my two favorite all-time wrestling games.
5. Fishing Strike – One of the things that many people don’t know about me is that I have always had a love for the outdoors especially fishing since I was little kid because fishing helped me get away from the sometimes crazy atmosphere either in my old house or the old neighborhood that I used to live in. When I first started playing The Fishing Strike mobile game on Android a few months ago, I was absolutely blown away by the gameplay and one example was if you tried to pull in a rare brown catfish with a HP modifier of x223, you can use special attacks like the weather, the net, or a chopper to lower the fish’s HP modifier until it reaches 0 to pull it in. I play this game every single day because it’s not only fun and enjoyable, but it’s my favorite all-time fishing game.
The Conclusion – It’s always important to diversify your video gaming interests so that you won’t be focused on only one genre of video games.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)
