Sports video games are one of my favorite genres in the medium, so I thought it would be fun to look not necessarily at the individual games just yet… but rather the sports they represent. I’m going to rank my favorite five sports, based on the games that represent them.
I’ll cover each of the five consoles I’m currently focusing on: NES, SNES, Genesis, the original PlayStation, and the Nintendo 64. We’ll start this series with the NES.
5. Volleyball
This ranking is driven by one game– Super Spike V’Ball.
Super Spike V’Ball is one of my favorite NES games, and is far superior to the Technos coin-op that it’s based on. Super Spike V’Ball makes volleyball more accessible than perhaps any game that represents the sport… even moreso than Kings of the Beach, which is also very good. Getting the hang of different serve types, bumps, sets, spikes, blocks, digs, and kills is fairly easy. The difficulty curve is just right, with two circuits to conquer in the easier American Circuit and the more challenging World Cup. The music is catchy, and the effect of blasting an underpowered defender up into the air with a KABOOM is always satisfying. I find myself coming back to Super Spike V’Ball often, and even bought a Technos Super Pocket to play the game on the go.
Kings of the Beach also contributes to the ranking, though to a lesser effect. There’s a bit more of a learning curve for the controls here, which have taken some getting used to. That said, once players learn the play controls, though, the game is fun to play and will provide some challenge. As Ultra (errr… Konami) picked up this computer game for release– much like Skate or Die— the music here is expectedly good. The visuals are a little worse, as the players are less detailed and are a bit smaller, but not so much that it makes the game hard to recommend.
Also… both of these games have four-player capability with either the NES Four Score or Satellite. Getting together with a few friends and hitting the beach is always a good time.
4. Hockey
Just like volleyball has Super Spike V’Ball and Kings of the Beach powering it, hockey has the dynamic duo of Blades of Steel and Ice Hockey.
Similar to Super Spike V’Ball, Blades of Steel is also based on a coin-op and enjoyed more success on the NES. Blades of Steel maintains the timing aspect of shots used in the arcade game, based on a moving arrow that glides up and down along the crease. This aiming mechanism adds something rather unique. The rest of the game is fast and action-packed, and fights are probably the best of any 8-bit or 16-bit hockey game. There’s even some interactive intermissions, with a playable kind-of Gradius to be played! My only gripe with Blades of Steel is the rather uninspired progression/tournament system, which has to be cleared in one sitting.
Nintendo’s Ice Hockey is an interesting take on the sport. It’s still fun, but unlike Blades of Steel, it’s only 4v4. There’s also a lot of focus on choosing player types– thin/fast/weak players, all-arounders, and large/slow/powerful players. Each archetype has its advantages and disadvantages, so different team makeups can be experimented with to see which lineup gets the best results. Ice Hockey plays much differently than Blades of Steel; this isn’t a bad thing, of course… but it’s more a different way to play. Many NES players will tend to choose one game or the other, but I think both are worth owning– and help to elevate the sport of hockey to my 4th favorite sport on the console.
3. Olympics
This ranking is all about my own preferences, and I’m very much into Olympic-style games that challenge players to show off their raw button-tapping speed and precise timing. Konami’s NES conversion of its Track & Field coin-op is one of my favorite games in this genre. While some players will use the NES MAX, NES Advantage, or another turbo-featured controller for easy speed, I just use a regular (or dogbone) OEM controller to play. The NES version of Track & Field is more than a port of the arcade game; it also implements events from Konami’s Hyper Sports coin-up, as well. That said, it’s still all about shooting for high scores and setting personal records, and the events do loop[ infinitely until an event result doesn’t meet qualification levels. The visuals are a bit bland– especially when compared to Track & Field II— but get the job done.
I played Track & Field to shoot for one million points back in 2018. (I miss this setup.)
While the original Track & Field is my favorite of these games, Track & Field II and Capcom’s Gold Medal Challenge ’92 also get occasional play. Track & Field II builds on the original game with sharper graphics, more music, and new events. I personally find the sequel a bit less enjoyable than the original game, but that may be a result of having so much history with the original. Gold Medal Challenge is another “hidden gem” that’s a further evolution of the concept, and Capcom really did a nice job with its attempt at the genre. 18 events occur across multiple days as a cumulative competition, and all records are saved to the cartridge’s battery. This battery backup is really nice, as no other game in the genre saved data like this.
2. (American) Football
The sport of American football is well-represented on the NES, moreso than the lower-ranked entries on my list. These releases run the gamut from putrid (NFL Football) to functional (John Elway’s Quarterback) to decent (NES Play Action Football) to… the Tecmo Twins: Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl.
I want to talk about John Elway’s Quarterback for a bit. It’s a conversion of Leland’s Quarterback coin-op, which utilizes a joystick for player movement and a spring-loaded lever, like World Series: The Season uses, for precise passing. The more a player holds the spring-loaded lever down, the further the pass travels. It’s a nifty mechanic… but doesn’t translate well to an NES controller. RARE did the best it could when tasked by Tradewest to convert the game, and I think it kind of works. Like any arcade game, though, John Elway’s Quarterback is best experienced in short bursts of a game or two per session. There’s no season play or accumulated stats, and honestly, any CPU opponent is way too easy to beat… but the base game works and games move along at a quick clip. I admit to kind of liking this one, as opposed to many other players who consider it awful.
NES Play Action Football is a game I spent a lot of time on when I first had an NES back in 1991. I remember getting it on sale. It’s played in a different 45-degree angle perspective, and it relies on a player stamina system which leads to some rudimentary player management. It’s not a great game by any means, but it’s the football game that I played the most for awhile.
It wasn’t until my second run with NES in the late 1990s, when I was working at FuncoLand, that I got into the Tecmo Bowl games. The original Tecmo Bowl on NES is a very simple version of football that gets rid of or prevents penalties for faster and more streamlined play. “Playcalling” is choosing one of four plays– if the offense and defense both choose the same play, the defense often has the advantage and negative results for the offense occur. If the offense chooses a pass play and defense chooses a running play, the offense usually can take advantage of deep passing windows. If the offense and defense both choose passing plays, but both are different, then it’s more of a toss-up. It was certainly cool that Tecmo landed the NFL Players’ license for some familiarity. As is custom in many Tecmo games of the time, cutscenes are added after key plays. The arcade-style nature of the game led to a rather barebones experience, though. Instead of a season, players run the gauntlet of all teams included before making it to the Big Game, and stats don’t really carry over.
Tecmo Super Bowl fixes these issues, makes improvements, and tightens up the core gameplay to deliver one of the most evergreen football games ever made. The game has NFL and NFL Players licenses, so the player names, team names, and team logos are all authentic. Full season play is now possible, and battery backup means that progress is saved without the need to write down passwords. Deep stat tracking is here. Playbooks have been expanded, leading to more varied outcomes. New cutscenes and animations have been added. Player management, often governed by injuries, is introduced here and is easy to handle. Underneath all of these tweaks and additions, Tecmo Super Bowl still maintains that core arcade-style identity which makes the game highly accessible for players of any skill level. There’s a reason the game still gets new (unofficial) roster updates today, thanks to enthusiasts. The game is still played competitively at tournaments.
Football on NES is best exemplified by Tecmo Super Bowl, and Tecmo Super Bowl on its own would be strong enough to make football one of my favorite sports on the NES. But it’s my the number one favorite. That belongs to…
1. Baseball (and softball)
I could have flip-flopped football and baseball, but I think there’s too many very good baseball games on NES. Iconic series like R.B.I. Baseball and Bases Loaded are joined by excellent games like Baseball Stars and Bad News Baseball. Little League Baseball is great. Base Wars adds robots to the mix. Dusty Diamond’s All-Star Softball has emerged over the years as a fan favorite. Baseball Simulator 1.000 can be played traditionally or with special “powers” that make the game play much differently.
Those are just the standout baseball games. Nintendo’s “Black Box” game of Baseball, along with games tied to players (like Bo Jackson and Roger Clemens), are fine. Not great, or maybe even lacking (as with Nintendo’s Baseball, which I will probably write more in depth on in the future), but still perfectly playable. Oh, and there’s the historically-driven Legends of the Diamond release, which is flawed but still has that Baseball Stars DNA that makes it worth a few innings of work.
If you’re counting, I’ve made mention of almost 20 baseball games for the NES, if you include the individual games in each series– and that’s not all of them. The quantity is definitely there, and I think the quality is, too.
My love of baseball on NES starts with Tecmo’s Bad News Baseball. The look and feel of Bad News Baseball is similar to Namco’s R.B.I. Baseball games, or, to a somewhat lesser extent, Nintendo’s Baseball. What Bad News Baseball brings to the table, in my view, is personality– which, when added on top of the familiar-yet-solid gameplay, makes it stand out. It’s more than the bunny umpire or the subtle player details, though… it’s the feeling that the cutscenes give that evokes memories of playing youth baseball as a kid. The close plays and emotions on the basepaths. The dugout reactions to home runs. The team greeting a home run hitter as they head back to the dugout, complete with a surprise guest. Some home runs result in a baseball screaming out of the stadium, almost as if it’s a nod to the Baseball Bugs Looney Tunes short from 1946. It all creates a fun game to play that creates more smiles than frowns. I absolutely adore the game, and it’s one of my all-time favorites for the console.
I could write individual paragraphs or even full reviews of other NES baseball games. I could talk about how R.B.I. Baseball was part of several summers as a high schooler during the late 1980s, as a good friend and I would play all the time… and that was one of the games that ignited my interest in the console. I could talk about the relationship between Base Wars and Cyberball, and how the game’s sci-fi spin clicked with me more than I thought it would. I could (and may yet someday) rank my favorite baseball games for the console. This sub-genre alone could inspire me to write so many more things, and that’s why it’s my favorite sport represented on the NES.
That wraps up the first Retro Referee Ranking. When time allows, SNES will be next. There will be changes for sure, but where? We’ll see. In the meantime, feel free to drop your own sports ranking for the NES. What would you have left out? What would you add? What’s your number one? Feel free to leave a comment here, or you can drop by my socials.
See you next time!
Pete's Perspective 
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