Favorite SNES sports games from each sport?

[dudeguy]

I just bought a lot of sports titles, most of which I havent played. What are your personal favorites from each of the main subgenres; football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, etc?

[CapitanClassic]

Football - I prefer the arcade style of Tecmo Super Bowl, although this is mostly just a graphical upgrade of the NES title. The other title most people point to is Madden ‘94. I probably have only played ‘93 and ‘94, and the older version didn’t support the Multi-tap.

 

Basketball - Really only one choice here, NBA Jam ‘TE. The only other one I would play regularly would be NCAA Basketball which has some neat mode-7 effects.

 

Baseball - Really only one choice here too, Ken Griffey Jr.. If you aren’t into realism though, you might prefer Super Baseball 2020 or Super Baseball Simulator 1000.

 

Hockey - Really one choice again, NHL ‘94. Better on Genesis, but still regarded as one of the best (if not the best) hockey game of all time.

Soccer - As far as gameplay goes, Sensible Soccer is the clear winner. If you want good graphics and gameplay, you cannot go wrong with International Superstar Soccer Deluxe.

 

Tennis - Only one good choice here, Super Tennis, and it is an excellent one.

 

Golf - The 16-but era was not kind to golf games. They all play rather sluggish. There are several good choices for golf on SNES, but Hal Hole in One Golf has the standard 3-click interface, overhead view,  and decent speed with loading.

 

Boxing - Super Punch-Out, a great sequel to the NES original (or arcade), and still regarded as one of the best games of all time.
 

Wrestling - Three good choices here. If you don’t mind a street fighter game masquerading as a wrestling game, Saturday Night Slam Master. A more traditional game of the genre would be WWF Raw or WWF Royal Rumble.

 

Racing - Lots of good choices here. On the battle cart side there are the excellent mode-7 Mario Kart or F-Zero and 3/4s view battlers Rock ‘n Roll Racing. For more traditional racers, any of the titles in the Top Gear series are great.

 

Volleyball - Super Spike V’ball but now we’re are getting into the more obscure sports, and titles in the Summer Games / Winter Games categories.

 

 

[Tanooki]

Football -- depends how you feel, I don't like it, but I will say that Tecmo had the best, EA were dicks to Nintendo so their Madden games were sorrier versions.

 

Baskeball --  NBA Jam, hands down, may not be 'real' but it's best, real again NOT EA, Konami had a solid one, as did the NCAA one CC said.

 

Baseball -- Easy, Griffey, make sure it's the one made NOT by Nintendo (meh) but the one RARE did, utterly fantastic, many modes even a homerun derby, fake... SUper baseball 2020, a solid Neo Geo conversion.

 

Hockey -- NHL 94, the rest...bleh, shame really as well it's EA sloppy seconds to the Genesis since they were lazy suck ups.

 

Soccer -- Mostly bad to fair, but the Konami ones are the only option, whichever floats your boat

 

Golf -- Honestly, not sure, HAL had a solid one, but also while thin, the T&E Soft stuff was very very good, but only gave you one course whether it was Waialae or whatever

 

Boxing -- Just punchout, it's arcade, but who cares, it's fun  There are serious ones, but ehhh...

 

Wrestling -- Honestly, if you stick within the US,  WWF Super Wrestlemania is fine but lacks the personalized moves, in that case RAW, also while crappier (and -2 people) Midways WWF Arcade is very solid.  But if you go import hand down, no contest at all, Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium (this specific version, massive roster, as many Japanese as WWF/WCW guys of the 80s/early 90s, it's stunning a masterpiece by far.

 

Racing -- F1 ROC II for more 'real' style cars and stuff, as is the Top Gear games.

 

Faux (Space/Karts) Racing -- F-Zero, Mario Kart, Biker Mice From Mars, and Rock n Roll Racing (Biker Mice shames RnR Racing) -- honorable mention despite frame rate for Stunt Race FX, it's good, just low FPS

 

Tennis -- Launch(ish) release Super Tennis is a good one, it's lean, but plays well

 

 

Other than that, not going to dig into more obscure oddities, party games, olympics...just boring.

[Wayler]

When it comes to sports, multiplayer is usually key and I'm glad I have lately gotten into SFC collecting, as there are great multitap titles there.

I'll also state that american sports (american football, basketball, baseball) are not in my field of interest.

 

Hockey - NHL '94 of course, no contest. I hate that this version doesn't have a season mode and solid statistics. The latter versions did have them but the overall feel and gameplay went downhill. Genesis owners are spoiled in this department and NHL '94 is being played online and tinkered with to this day.

 

Tennis - Super Family Tennis SFC (or Smash Tennis in PAL) from Namco. Basically similar to Super Tennis, but with the option of 4-players on multitap. Great fun.

 

Soccer - Sensible Soccer PAL (Championship Soccer '94 in the US). Amiga title by origin, this one doesn't even try to emulate real football (yes football because the game is played mostly with it) with the little guys running around like on steroids and goals scored from the center of the field. Frantic action and insane amount of teams to choose from, including the Sensible League with teams like Pizza Toppings and Crimes United. The player names were bonkers.

 

Racing - Battle Cross SFC- Like Super Off Road but with bikes and 5-player support. Insane fun. As the 6th player is always the computer, I bet someone with the talent could fiddle this to work as a 6-player affair. 

 

Pool - Side Pocket. It's Pool, so pretty hard to screw that up. Although the computer in this one is brutally good. Best to just play by yourself or with friends.

 

Golf - Strangely enough, I have never played a golf game on the SNES, although there are plenty out there. One game is on my radar though: Super Naxat Open SFC. Looks to be a standard golf game, but the golfers are from Naxat franchises, like Spike McFang. 

[Kirk_Johnston]

Super Punch-Out!!

 

Super Tennis

 

F-Zero (yeah, I'm counting that in future racing category)--is that considered a "sport"?

 

Dunnot about the rest to be honest, as I'm not a huge sports guy.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston