20 Most Underrated Sports Video Games Ever

When you consider that the world of sports video games has been around since the '80s, you have to realize there are going to be plenty of forgotten-about classics.

The purpose of this particular list is to talk about 20 of the most underrated sports video games of all time. We're talking any era, any game. The only qualification here is that each game is still playable to this day.

With all of that being put out in the open, here now are 20 of the most slept-on sports titles ever released.

Mutant League Football

Yes, Mutant League Football is a sports game. Just because the characters look like they are fresh out of a Dick Tracy movie doesn't take that underlying fact away.

Mutant League Football is tangible evidence that as long as football is involved, any game can be fantastic. Originally released for the Sega Genesis platform in 1993, Mutant League Football took the EA Sports engine and turned it into something great.

If you can get past the whole aliens and goblins as players, you can really learn to love this game. It's one of the most slept-on classics ever released in a sports context.

WrestleMania 2000

Back in the Nintendo 64 days, rival wrestling promotions WWE and WCW were taking turns churning out quality games. The culmination of all of those efforts was the 2000 release of WWF No Mercy.

No Mercy will never be topped. We all know this. However, the prequel to that classic on the WWE side of things, WrestleMania 2000, was also a near-perfect release.

WrestleMania 2000 featured an in-depth character roster and a solid create-a-player mode, and while the storyline wasn't anything worth noting, the multiplayer action trumped all of that noise.

Madden 2004

The Michael Vick craziness that went on during Madden 2004 took the game like a sandstorm. But at its core, Madden 2004 turned out to be one of the top releases in the franchise's history.

It had that arcade-like style that worked perfectly in the mid-2000s. All of the crushing hits, user catches and speedy quarterbacks created a wide-ranging world of Madden glory.

This game is underrated strictly because of Vick. When you think back on Madden 2004, all you remember is turning the edge with No. 7 and blazing 78 yards down the sideline.

NHL Open Ice 2 on 2 Challenge

NHL Open Ice 2 on 2 Challenge brought a taste of NBA Jam to the ice. As a late '90s release, Open Ice had a nostalgic feel that is hard to capture nowadays.

It blends realism with chaos in a perfect way. Because of the lasting success of the NHL franchise by EA Sports, NHL Open Ice 2 on 2 Challenge has fallen into underrated terrain.

Still, if you ever get the chance to chop it up on the virtual ice, don't you dare pass up on playing this forgotten classic.

FIFA Street

A few years ago EA Sports was on a serious Street kick. They released perfect games like NBA Street Vol. 2 and followed that up by tackling other sports.

FIFA Street doesn't have nearly as much of a buzz as NBA Street, but it's just as good. The gameplay was aggressive and fierce. And in soccer terms, that's a refreshing change of pace.

Street as a series has been known to layer their games with a perfect topping of fantasy. With FIFA Street, that blend worked exceptionally well.

NHL 95

All of the hoopla and celebratory measures that went down after NHL 94 came out were well deserved. The game revolutionized the way we played hockey on a console.

The follow-up to NHL 94 was NHL 95. This edition in many ways trumped its predecessor. You could trade players, run through a season of action and act as the general manager of your team.

Nowadays that stuff is secondary. But back when NHL 95 hit, there weren't many titles out there doing things like that.

Cohesive, buttery gameplay fused with those modes made NHL 95 better than any release up to that point in time. It's crazy how NHL 94 gets all of the attention when 95 provided a richer playing experience on all levels.

Fight Night Champion

The final installment of the Fight Night series was Fight Night Champion. Released in 2011, this boxing affair became an instant classic amongst fans of combat sports.

Champion took all of the top attributes of the Fight Night series and wrapped it into one flawless game. The boxing was invigorating and the character roster was expansive.

Despite not receiving a followup game—which is a crime—that combination was well worth the price of virtual admission.

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey

Those first few years of Nintendo 64 were glorious, weren't they? The Nintendo machine was churning out title after title, and fans were reaping the rewards.

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey was one of the best games to emerge from Mario and Luigi's console. Using Gretzky as the cover boy, the game felt like a fresh arcade experience was now available in your living room.

Memories of eating hot slabs of Domino's Pizza while running countless hours of Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey will be ingrained in every child of the '90s.

Forget about all of those NHL vibes from the EA Sports camp, Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey has always been the move.

Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs

It's fascinating that before NBA franchises like NBA Live and NBA 2K, there were games like this.

Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs was created to give users a true playoff experience. A player could choose one of 16 teams that made it to the big dance the year prior and try to rewrite history.

A sequel to the popular Bulls vs. Lakers and the NBA Playoffs, the secondary version was actually better. EA Sports—the company that manufactured the title—provided a better gaming experience.

Besides having a broadcast approach to in-game content, Bulls vs. Blazers also allowed consumers to build custom squads.

Revolutionary at the time, Bulls vs. Blazers doesn't get nearly as much credit as it deserves.

NFL Street

The world of Street struck again when NFL Street hit the world in 2004. For starters, any game that features Ricky Williams on the cover is an automatic winner in my book.

Besides Ricky's dreads flowing past an ensuing defender, NFL Street was able to perfectly capture the Street feeling in a football game.

Who knew that using your favorite players in everyday clothing would turn out to be such a serious endeavor? Like the rest of the Street franchise, NFL Street was able take that backyard feel and perfectly mix it into a video game.

The result was one of the most slept-on and underappreciated classics of all time.

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is one game that absolutely belongs on this list. It dropped during the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater era and somehow went unnoticed.

It could have been that surfing in general isn't nearly as popular as, say, skateboarding. More of a coastal sport, Pro Surfer was one of the first virtual attempts to bring that world to a wider audience.

Like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or even Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, Pro Surfer was filled with lush landscapes, a playable roster, complex tricks and fun bonus items.

To this day the game plays like new. Hopefully someday it will resurface for the next-gen consoles.

Top Spin 4

Top Spin 4 is one of the best sports games ever made and somehow it doesn't get any sort of recognition.

The Top Spin series set the bar for tennis games in 2003 when it released for the original Xbox. Since that first classic, the franchise has grown into one of the most challenging yet satisfying video game experiences.

Built with a fluid engine, players move around various surfaces like real life. In Top Spin 4, all of those advancements and metrics reached a critical peak.

The modes were fantastic and the characters reacted and played like real life. Despite all of this, Top Spin 4 still feels like a forgotten classic.

MLB Power Pros

Sometimes the less realistic a game is, the better it turns out to be. In the Nintendo universe, that has become a staple of the company.

MLB Power Pros was released in 2007 on the Wii console. Similar to Wii Sports, Power Pros gave baseball games a chance to be fun again.

The stress of running a franchise and controlling players was pushed aside in favor of a hands-on user experience. As different as the animation looks on screen, the gameplay is actually brilliant.

For better or worse, Power Pros is one of the best baseball games ever released. It's a shame that it only trickled out onto Wii and PlayStation 2. Because at the end of the rope, everyone deserves a shot to play this bad boy.

NFL Quarterback Club 98

Before EA Sports procured the exclusive NFL license, the world of virtual football was a totally different place.

Titles like NFL Quarterback Club 98 gave fans of the sport a chance to try out different game engines without being forced to get behind EA. Quarterback Club turned out to be one of the best ones. It featured interesting options like Simulation mode, created teams and even allowed users to unlock hidden clubs.

Assuming the EA Sports NFL deal runs out in the future, it would be cool to see NFL Quarterback Club make its triumphant return.

MLB Slugfest 2003

NFL Blitz presented as a baseball game couldn't possibly work, right? That was the thought a lot of video game addicts had when MLB Slugfest 2003 came out.

It was packed with a rowdy wave of action, which made it remarkably amusing. Forgotten about because of other titles, MLB Slugfest 2003 came, saw and conquered the lives of everybody who touched it.

WWF In Your House

WWF in Your House came at a time before the Attitude Era in wrestling. The product in 1996 was more cartoon-like and bubbly compared to what it became.

That era of wrestling led to really creative games like WWF in Your House. Built with an arcade engine instead of a traditional wrestling simulation, WWF in Your House turned out to be insanely fun.

It didn't feature a laundry list of extensive modes but the one-on-one action made up for that. Better suited for a multiplayer experience than a solo mission, WWF in Your House was madness.

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

We told you earlier that the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater era in video games led to some amazing titles. Flipping the script to the world of BMX, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX quickly became a household name amongst extreme sports fans.

Pro BMX was crazy. It was jammed with action, and for some reason, tricks on bikes looked a lot better than on a skateboard—sorry, Mr. Hawk.

Few remember Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX because another excellent title rivaled it at the time—Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. Despite all of that nonsense, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX was a bodacious journey into the world of BMX riding.

It still knocks today, and that's saying something considering it dropped in 2001.

MVP 06: NCAA Baseball

Baseball fans understand that MVP Baseball as a series is by far the greatest achievement by EA Sports. When the game ceased production, the developers pumped that engine into MVP 06: NCAA Baseball.

College teams were a tough sell at first. But the more you played, the further you fell in love with the game. Fastballs crept up on you, home runs were lengthy, and the MVP mechanics were cleaner than ever.

Most folks don't recall how great MVP 06: NCAA Baseball was. If you can get your hands on a copy, don't let that opportunity pass you by.

Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder

Another slide, another Tony Hawk's Pro Skater era game. We've already touched on the worlds of surfing and BMX riding. So why not talk about snowboarding?

To be honest, I have no idea who Shaun Palmer is. But apparently in 2001 he was a big enough deal to get his own video game. We've beaten it to death by now, but Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarding was another fantastic installment by Activision.

It featured an awesome career mode and great tricks, and the backgrounds were magnificent. Pro Snowboarding should never be forgotten for nostalgic reasons alone.

NFL 2K

Universally, NFL 2K5 is known for being arguably the greatest football game ever made. Before that culmination of events, 2K Sports released NFL 2K for Sega Dreamcast.

The game started when EA Sports made a decision to pass on Dreamcast for their Madden franchise. That rejection opened the door to greatness.

NFL 2K was so good. It had moments that reminded of you Madden while keeping its own core intact. Used as the base for what was to come, NFL 2K was another underrated winner.