Blast From The Past: The Sports Video Game Hall Of Fame

With the age of electronics broadening and the scope of the market spreading to everything from in home 3-D technology to movement-following game systems, you can bet that many ahead of our time will forget the things that started it all.

With product titles receiving budgets upwards of $30 million, I felt it was time to take a trip to the past and look at the titles that hooked a new generation of sports fans.

This slideshow was really a trip back to my childhood and something that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Here is my list.

These are the games that I feel are the best ever.

NHL '94, EA Sports

I completely hold this video game accountable for me being a hockey fan today. Not because it had excellent graphics or because I played it a lot. Just because I still remember the teams I used way back when.

Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars, baby!

In fact, I don't think I really remember playing it hardly at all.

NFL Blitz 1998, Midway

Madden NFL football on Steroids?

This game offered an arcade approach to Football. Instead of the serious, '2 yard and a cloud of dust' kind of thing you would see in Madden, Blitz offered a more fan friendly approach.

Hail Mary's for all.

Long 60-yard bombs and crushing blitzes made this arcade game one to remember.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater,1999, Activision

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater revolved around the highest score in your friends circle.

The scores would go from 100,000 points and then eventually some kid would break a million points and everyone would just give up on beating that score because they knew it would take too long.

What I really liked about this game was the soundtrack: my favorite list of songs ever to come out of a video game.

But the thing that really told me that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was one of the best sports games ever was that I still look for the same skaters that were in this game 15 years ago in the X games today.

I don't know of any other game that has had that kind of lasting effect.

Madden Football 64, 1998, EA Sports

Play 1: Fake Field goal pass
Play 2: Fake Field goal pass
Play 3: Fake Field goal run
Play 4: Fake Field goal pass

Touchdown!

Obviously there were some flaws within the games AI engine, i.e., the defensive AI allowing the same play to be run over and over again without compensating.

But this game offered the quirky commentary that only Madden could offer.

"They saw that one comin'."- John Madden

All-Star Baseball '99 For The Nintendo 64

Was it Todd Helton that rode the cover in 99'?

All Star '99 was part of a series that ended in the early 2000's, but ran for many years prior.

It featured a home run derby mode (Something that I was consistently bad at) and it had a great season mode.

NBA Jam, Midway, 1993

NBA Jam!

Man, all those crazy dunks that I would have Barkley or Clyde 'The Glyde' do.

The one thing that I remember most about this game was the arcade mode. In this mode they would randomly place beacons where if you took the shot from there, you would get that amount of points.

50 point shots, 100 point shots, 1 point shots, 6 point shots.

It was awesome and it made for some really good comebacks when you were down by 50 points because your friend snagged a 100-point shot.

Man, those were the days.

FIFA World Cup '98 EA Sports

Probably the most memorable game on this list for me personally.

I remember playing as the good ol' yanks (USA) and hearing the "I get knocked down, but I get up again, your never gonna keep me down..." song being played over and over again. (Tubthumping- I get knocked down)

The indoor 5 on 5 was probably the best feature this game had to offer along with the road to the world cup mode, which was far ahead of its time.

Tecmo Super Bowl, 1991, Nintendo

Out of all these titles, this was probably the one I played the least. I remember it very vaguely, mostly because my friends were playing it.

But from what I have heard, It is one of the many classics to come out of this time.

NBA Street (Vol. 2), 2003, EA Sports

Everyone has played some streetball in their day. Off the heezy and around the world stuff definitely generated some buzz within my suburb neighborhood growing up.

We would always watch the "AND 1" mixtapes on ESPN and then either go outside and try out our new moves or we would study some more playing "Street Vol. 2".

Those were the days.

And if there is any doubt in your mind that Street should be included on this list, you need to go get you noggin checked.

Maybe you've had the off the heezy move pulled on you too many times.

Street Vol. 2 was released in 2003 for the Xbox and included 29 NBA teams with most of the leagues stars.

Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario Kart, 1992/1997, Nintendo

Now I know many people will tell me that MarioKart isn't a sport and that it is based more on a cartoon than it is the sports world.

And to those I say who cares.

Racing is a sport and Mario Kart is one of the best games ever, and it deserves to be included in this conversation.

MarioKart was released Aug. 27, 1992 and the title is still running strong today. The initial release date was for the Super Nintendo and Mario Kart 64 was released 1997 for the Nintendo 64.

This title is one of the all time best and if you haven't played it, which I believe most of you have, I advise you do so.

It is a bunch of fun.

Track and Field, 1983, Konami

This game was before my time but even then, as a child, I gave this title a good chunk of playing time on the original Nintendo.

Man, can you believe that it was developed in 1983?

Seems so long ago... Well actually for me, that was before I was born, so it is understandable that it like seems like it was so long ago.