Cut4 Roundtable: What sports video game are you nostalgic for?
Welcome to the Cut4 Roundtable, in which our staff confronts the same question about baseball, sports, pop culture, or some combination of all of it. Today's topic: what sports video games of yesteryear that we're nostalgic for.
Dan Wohl: MLB Slugfest
NBA Jam. NFL Blitz. Both pinnacles of sports game nostalgia. But the company behind the two arcade-style classics, Midway Games, wasn't finished there. In 2003 they attempted to bring their unique brand of violence and physics-defiance to baseball with MLB Slugfest.
Now, you might say this makes no sense. And it doesn't really. Letting defenders tackle receivers before they have the ball is a cartoonish version of football; the word to describe a baseball game in which infielders can record outs by punching runners off base is more like "mockery."
But that's why I kind of love it. No sport is in love with its (admittedly glorious) history like baseball is, so I find such an irreverent take on it refreshing. And the title, using a real baseball term that works as a super-violent double entendre, is perfect.
Like all Midway sports games, the secret features are hilarious. There are Mortal Kombat characters. There are bats in the form of bones, logs and icicles. Most impressively, there is a host of fantasy stadiums - hitting a home run into the water at AT&T Park unlocks "Atlantis Park," featuring a watery seabed playing floor and a gigantic octopus beyond the center field wall.
And let's be honest: What athlete/gamer in the NBA Jam era hasn't dreamed of being so hot that they're literally on fire? In MLB Slugfest, this can be a reality for a pitcher or hitter.
Dakota Gardner: Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
Here is the No. 1 truth about basketball: It was way better in the 90s. As such, while games like NBA 2K are amazing innovations in sports simulation, they'll never best the games for the retro consoles. Those games have the Charlotte Hornets, the Seattle Supersonics and the old Spurs logo.
My favorite overlooked sporting title comes from this class of game, and it is Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside. Here are the reasons why Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside is amazing:
1) Michael Jordan is not in the game. He is the only active NBA player not in the game. Why? Because Michael Jordan wasn't in the NBPA at the time. And of course MJ's not gonna be in a game named after Kobe.
2) Kobe has a 'fro. Remember those days?
3) Kobe Bryant is a better player than Shaquille O'Neal, despite the fact that in the year the game came out (1998), Shaq out-scored Kobe, out-rebounded Kobe, out-defended Kobe and only just tied Kobe in assists.
This is the last of the generation of games that were designed largely to stroke the egos of their namesake stars: Magic Johnson's Fast Break and Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. for example. This game is about Kobe, and while there are other people in the game, they're his supporting cast.
Yes, the controls were jerky and, yes, the animations were horribly stiff. But this game was N64 sports at its finest: Kitschy, awkward, and way better in hindsight.
Matt Monagan: World Class Leader Board
Researchers claim children have trouble remembering anything before age three. Well, these "researchers" didn't factor in those infants playing World Class Leader Board.
The classic PC golf game came out in 1988. I was born in 1987, but still recall playing and loving it (although I probably gamed well into the 6-8 age range). My dad, a bad big golfer, purchased the new technology for me and my brother. He wanted us to master computerized golf before we could walk. Before we could talk. We were chained to the basement desktop and forced to hack away day and night. JK. Love you, dad.
But seriously, we played constantly. And what a game it was. From the "ooohh's" and "ahhhs" of the non-existent crowds to each golfer's habit of taking a full swing from anywhere on the course to the late-'80s graphics, there was nothing like it. But the true genius of Leader Board had to be the quips delivered by the announcers. The "Looks like he, hit the tree, Jim," or "Ohh, can't be too happy about that one," have become regular phrases when my family competes out on the actual links.
Molly Fitzpatrick: Michelle Kwan Figure Skating
Figure skater Michelle Kwan, then 19, was already an Olympic silver medalist and two-time World Champion by this PC game's release in 1999. But to my 10-year-old mind, what mattered was that she was pretty, and also that her clothes had sparkles on them. So many sparkles.
Michelle Kwan Figure Skating allowed players to put together a competitive routine. I always chose the jumps that sounded most likely to maim Michelle -- triple toe loop, triple salchow, flying death drop. The accuracy of your clicking determined the skill with which she pulled off each move, and you were also responsible for picking out Michelle's music and outfit (allow me to reiterate: sparkles).
The only gaming -- if you can call it that -- I get up to these days is a few rounds of joyless, compulsive Candy Crush (if it's good enough for Jeremy Lin, it's good enough for me) during my commute. But this gameplay footage is making me surprisingly nostalgic. Maybe, years from now, scientists will discover a fully stocked turn-of-the-millennium CompUSA perfectly preserved in amber -- or I could just cough up the 50 bucks Michelle Kwan Figure Skating is currently going for on eBay.
So, which games do you remember fondly? Leave them in the comments!