ESPN's Top 25 sports games of all time

[pratty]

WWF No Mercy? fail.

Blasphemy!

Dont think there should be any wrestling games on it (Unless its Olympics type wrestling), its a sports list !

Olympic wrestling? Pah, bunch of amatures!

[koopa42]

Wrestlefest destroys all .... you know it.

[llj]

I prefer the Fire Pro series when it comes to wrestling.

Otherwise, the ESPN list generally covers the usual suspects. Virtua Tennis 1 or 2 definitely is a big omission though.

[HalcyonDaze00]

Wrestlefest destroys all .... you know it.

Wrestlefest is still the best wrestling game, but the best sports games would be Pro Evo 4/5/6 and the Football Manager series.

[kiwimike]

ESPN was always going to be US centric, with an overdose of NBA/NHL/NFL and whatever the baseball is Lol, though there are some terrific versions of those around of course.

As previously mentioned, they probably wouldn't consider it as it isn't 'serious' sport, but the Monkey Ball mini games are terrific fun. If compiling a list I'd have a couple of Mario games in there too, especially Tennis, and Mario golf plays a good golf game with a lot of multiplayer silliness thrown in to make it fun.
Multi event games like Hyper sports should rate a mention in my list, and I like a bit of variety. As well as FIFA, there are a few cricket games I would consider, probably more the Codemasters ones. I enjoy Rugby League 2 (being a huge fan of the code) but for Rugby games IMO the Jonah Lomu Rugby on PS1 is hard to beat.
Awesome golf on the Lynx is sadly overlooked.
Aside from NBA Jam, ESPNs list is all about serious, realistic sports games. Subjective of course, but their OTT appearances of the US codes suggest they are rather blinkered, which you'd expect of course.

***Edited add on: What was I thinking?! I've missed a nod to my all time favourites: The racing 'trilogy' off the N64: Wave Race, Excitebike 64, 1080. You can add Tony Hawks skateboarding in here as well

[errolwd40]

Bit late to this party but here goes,

1. ISS PRO EVOLUTION (PS ONE) 2000
2. SWOS (AMIGA) 1994
3. WCW/NWO REVENGE (N64) 1998
4. FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (360) 2009
5. WWE HERE COMES THE PAIN (PS2) 2003
6. MARIO TENNIS (N64) 2000
7. VIRTUA TENNIS (DREAMCAST) 2000
8. ISS PRO 98 (PS ONE) 1998
9. VIRTUA TENNIS 3 (360) 2007
10. INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD (PS ONE) 1996

[DPrinny]

Raised a smile with the developer comments on WWF No Mercy saying how they're asked a lot why they don't make games like that now instead of the way they play now. Think modern WWE games are presented in a fantastic way, you really feel like its an episode of Raw, but the gameplay is the same stiff, clunky thing every time. Fur coat and no knickers you would say.

No mercy isnt even the best N64 grappler,

[errolwd40]

YEAH, MY COPY OF WWF NO MERCY WAS FAULTY, THE SAVE GAME KEPT ON CORRUPTING, I HAD TO EXCHANGE IT 3 OR 4 TIMES.

[DPrinny]

It was a problem with the first batch, ones that you can get now should be fine

[errolwd40]

Ha Ha sorry about that only just noticed.

[skodathegreat]

Not a mainstream game, but New Star Soccer 3 was great. could plough hours into that.
Reminds me of Sensible Soccer quite a bit.

Slightly off topic, but can anyone remember UnSensible Soccer? I remember seeing it on a magazine cover disk, was effectively the same gameplay from memory.