Fight Night Round 4

Top 7… Sports Games Nerds Actually Like

The only games that get geeks off the bench

Words: Shane Patterson, GamesRadar US

If there’s one thing us gamers love to do, it’s sit on our asses. And rarely are we ever tempted away from blowing the crap out of zombies and Nazis to partake in the sportsman-like area of gaming. Hell, anything involving increased blood flow, stretching, or rapid movement is a waste of time if there’s no cutscene for our rewards. Even sports games can be our kryptonite (your older brother who buys nothing but Madden and NBA Live really doesn’t count).

Why? Probably because simulating anything half-realistic is as boring as it sounds. Yet somehow, a select few have transcended god-awful tedium to become the only sports games we give a damn about. We present to you the top 7 sports games that get us cheering for the home team.

Selling points:
Simple controls, plentiful match types, Create-A-Wrestler, blood

Why we love it:
Say what you will about this sim of the popular fake sport (how does that even work?), but even the most jaded gamer can’t help but love cracking his buddy over the head with a barbed wire baseball bat to the screaming cheers of the blood-thirsty crowd. Selling 37 million copies across the entire series, WWE SmackDown enables gamers to bring the pain with notable faces and created superstars in over a trillion match types and dozens of gameplay modes.

Even as the series gradually moved towards annual updates like other sports games and started - including General Manager modes (think the dreadfully boring NFL Head Coach) and Stamina meter (hold Select to catch breath? No thanks) - SmackDown’s never lost sight of its goal: to let you easily throw your opponent through a flaming table.

Would suck if:
Matches consisted entirely of rest holds, no weapons

 
10 Comments
suicidalstickman - 1 month 11 days ago
The weapons in WWE smackdown are funny.
andyAK47 - 1 month 11 days ago
i know nerds who play smackdown
danny343 - 1 month 11 days ago
wrestling is ace
LiveandLetDie - 1 month 11 days ago
Cool man.
mr_brightside - 1 month 10 days ago
lol mario kart! i wasnt thinking of that! very nice!
DanAmrich - 1 month 8 days ago
NBA Jam: Live by the turbo, die by the turbo. I used to play that on Xband on Genesis and in the NYC arcades. Oh man.
drunkenfish - 1 month 3 days ago
Lol I'm no nerd but I gotta check these out... spell 2 words...Kirkby??
SOLIDSNAKE1983 - 1 month 10 minutes ago
Mutant league football was EXCELLENT!!! I remember the witty comments after each player was killed or scored a touchdown!
Heathan - 27 days 10 hours ago
You guys completely missed the best nerd game ever: Base Wars! I mean how can you beat robot baseball. WIth upgradable weapons, and the ability to attack other players in battles to the death, the game was great fun, and I hate baseball.
iceman1987 - 23 days 20 hours ago
wrestling is for kids its totaly fake
Related Games
TalkRadar 22 – quiz show!
360 Feature
Oct 10, 2008
Why games fail at storytelling
360 Feature
Oct 10, 2008
Guess the game from the sound effect
PS3 Feature
Oct 9, 2008
New Game Releases for the Week of October 12, 2008 N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Oct 11, 2008
Little Big Planet: Requires A 600MB Install N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Oct 11, 2008
PS3 set to deliver the ultimate Alone in the Dark... N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Oct 11, 2008
What the Hell, G4? N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Oct 11, 2008
Get Multiplayer skin when you pre-order Resistance... N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Oct 11, 2008