Summary

  • Fans yearn for a revival of dormant sports games with fresh concepts
  • Past successful sports games like ATV Offroad Fury could return through remakes
  • EA's popular Fight Night series could make a comeback due to boxing's resurgence.

Modern sports video games have mostly consisted of annual releases of the same flagship names, like Madden NFL, NBA 2K, and EA Sports FC. While these series continue to maintain large fanbases, other꧙ players have been getting tired of them, noting that these games change little from year to year outside of roster updates or graphical enhancements.

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So, there's an appetite for dormant sports properties to return to the gaming picture. Progress has already been made on this front, with remakes of the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater titles. Other 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:underrepresented sports in the gam♈ing world💎 could follow suit, as 🧜could titles that offer unique takes on more popular sports.

10 𒐪 ATV Oဣffroad Fury

Off-road Racing

An image of racers in ATV Offroad Fury 4.
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ATV Offroad Fury 4
Released
October 31, 2006

The ATV Offroad Fury series was hugely successful for the PlayStation 2. These games allow you to race across both winding racetracks and open-world terrains in all-terrain vehicles.♍ It had a total of four games, plus a spin-off for the 💯PSP titled Blazin' Trails, before it was merged with the MX series for the multi-platform MX vs. ATV series.

MX vs. ATV continues to go strong to this day, bu🦂t a remake or remaster of the original games would please many 🌠PS2 fans. The main hurdle such a game would have to get through though is reacquiring the licenses for the soundtrack, but with the Tony Hawk games having done so for its remakes, it's not hard to see ATV doing the same.

9 SSX

Snowboarding

The character Elise riding her snowboard in SSX Tricky.
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Your Rating

SSX Tricky
Racing
Sports
Systems
Released
November 5, 2001
ESRB
e
Developer(s)
EA Canada
Publisher(s)
EA Sports
Engine
game engine
Multiplayer
Local Multiplayer �꧃�
Franchise
SSX

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

Snowboarding games were once a🦩 staple of co🌳nsole gaming, with Cool Boarders, 1080 Snowboar🍬d, and Amped being a🅷mong the more notable series that dominated in the early 2000s. But no series made quite as much of an impact as EA's SSX games. The series' colorful cast of characters, outlandish course design, and enthralling gameplay made the games a staple of sixth-generation console owners' libraries.

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After going dark after 2005, SSX was revived for a 2012 reboot. While the game was mostly well-received by critics, some fans were upset by its more grounded presentation. No🐭 new SSX game has seen the light of day since, and players are hoping that if it does come back, it emꦉbraces the over-the-top nature of the original games.

8 🅘 Fight Night

Boxing

Isaac Frost, a boxer from Fight Night Champion, competing in a match.
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Fight Night Champion
Simulation
Fighting
Sports
Adventure
Systems
Released
April 26, 2010
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
EA Vancouver, EA Canada ꦚ
Publisher(s)
EA, EA Sports

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION

While professional wrestling and mixed martial arts games continue to ওcome out on a regular basis, boxing hasn't been so lucky. EA's Fight Night, formerly known as Knockout Kings, was the dominant boxing video game series for much of the 2000s, with new installments on an annual or biannual basis.

In 2011, the game went in a darker and grittier direction with the M-rated Fight Night Champion, with overhauled gameplay and an original story. While hailed by critics, some fans weren't keen on the new direction, and no new games have been made since. How🐓ever, with boxing enjoying a resurgence in mainstream popularity, there is room in the market for a new Fight Night, and the success of EA's UFC games could be the template for a new boxing title.

7 Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure

Skateboarding

Woody posing with his skateboard in Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure.
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Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure
Released
September 3, 2003

The success of the Tony Hawk video games 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:inspired many imitators, and several of those were based on pre-existing characters. The 𒁏most popular of the bunch was 2003's Disney's Extreme Skate adventure, which allowed Disney fans to play as characters from Tarzan, The Lion King, and Toy Story and skate in environments based on the hit movies.

While no sequel was ever made, there is potential for Disney to revisit this concept in the future. In 2023, Disney launched a free-to-play kart racer called Disney 𓆉Speedstorm, which featured its characters participating in Mario Kart-like races. A skat👍ing game could follow this same template, and allow for many brand-new Disney properties to be represented as both skaters and courses.

6 Def Jam

Professional Wrestling

The character Santos fights Magic (Busta Rhymes) in a subway in Def Jam: Fight for NY.
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Your Rating

Def Jam: Fight For NY
Fighting
Wrestling
Systems
Released
August 20, 2004
ESRB
m
Multiplayer
✃ Local Multiplayer 🌞

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

Developer
AKI Corporation, EA C🏅anada
Publisher
EA

After WCW was bought out by the WWF in 2001, EA Games lost the rights to make games based on the promotion to THQ, who held the WWF license. Thus, a WCW game in development at the time had to be retooled. Out of the ashes came Def Jam Vendetta, a hybrid wrestling-fi𝔍ghting game starring popular rappers under the Def Jam label at the time, with their songs being featured in the soundtrack.

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A sequel, Fight For NY, came out the following year, and was even more popular. Unfortunately, the series was put on ice after 2007's Def Jam: Icon received middling reviews due to its൩ gameplay overhaul. A new game in the vein of the first two has been on fans' wishlist for well over a decade, and could focus on a brand-new generation of rappers under the Def Jam umbrella, like DJ Khaled and Rick Ross.

5 Streetℱ Series 🌠

Various Sports

LeBron James as he appears in NBA Street V3.
nba-street-v3.jpg
NBA Street V3
Sports
Systems
Released
February 8, 2005
ESRB
E For Everyone
Developer(s)
EA Canada
Publisher(s)
EA Sports
Franchise
NBA

EA Sports is the king of sports video games, and in 2001, it decidedಌ to stray from its traditional offerings with NBA Street, a game that focuses on street basketball with over-the-top presentation and gameplay akin to '90s arcade games as opposed to the NBA Live and 2K games' simulation-style.

Football and soccer 🎀fans would also get their own street variants with NFL Street and FIFA Street respectively. However, EA stopped making these games after 2008, and while FIFA Street got a one-off revival in 2012, NBA and NFL fans weren't so lucky. A reboot or rerelease of the Street games would provide fans tired of the simulation-based league games with an alternative product.

4 ♚ Aggressive Inline

Inline Skating

A gameplay image from 2002's Aggressive Inline

Platform

PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance

Release Date

May 29, 2002

Publisher

Acclaim

Developer

Z-Axis

Genre

Sports

One of the more forgotten Tony Hawk-inspired games was one that tried its hand at another sport entirely. Aggressive Inline, rather than focusi🥂ng on skateboarding, has you roller-skat🔴e around the courses, which were much more open than any Tony Hawk game had ever done at the time. It was an innovative new concept that would inspire later Hawk titles.

While the game was liked by those who played it, Aggressive Inline largely went under the radar upon its launch in 2002, and no💫 sequel was ever made. However, the game eventually became regarded as a cult classic and many fans would be excited for it to return, whether as a rerelease of the original game or a brand-✅new reboot.

3 ♔ ♋ Mario Baseball

Baseball

Mario and Donkey Kong in the opening cinematic of Mario Superstar Baseball.
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Your Rating

Mario Superstar Baseball
Sports
Simulation
Systems
Released
July 21, 2005
ESRB
e
Developer(s)
🐻 ꧑ Namco, Nintendo SPD
Publisher(s)
Nintendo
Engine
miyamoto
Multiplayer
෴ Local Multiplayer
Franchise
Super Mario 🃏

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

Platform(s)
GameCube

Mario Superstar Baseball laun⛎ched on the GameCube in 2005, allowing you to simulate baseball games with characters from the beloved Nintendo series. After a Wii sequel, Mario Super Sluggers, came out in 2008, thꦅe series has remained dormant. To date, it's the only Mario sports series to not have made its way to the Switch, and many fans have been clamoring for a new game.

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With Nintendo Switch 2, it's only a matter of time before 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the next Mario Sports title gets announced, and Base🍒ꦉball seems like the logical next step. The plumber's return to the baseball diamond is long overdue.

2 𓆉 Outlaw Sports 🍨

Various Sports

A screenshot of a character from 2005's Outlaw Tennis.
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Outlaw Tennis
Released
July 26, 2005

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

Hypnotix's Outlaw series of sports games consisted of two golf games in addition to tennis and volleyba🐼ll entires. The game's main gimmick is that, unlike most sports games, it consists of crude and provocative themes similar to those seen in Grand Theft Auto, incꦺluding highly sexualized characters and lots of profanity.

Reviews for the games were good, but not great, and the series never achieved anything more than cult popularity. After 2005's Outlaw Tဣennis, Hypnotix was bought out by Electronic Arts and the series was discontinued. Despite largely average reviews from critics, a remaster of the old games may please fans.

1 💮 🌊 Backyard Sports

Various Sports

Backyard Sports characters Pablo Sanchez and Kiesha Phillips in the teaser trailer for the series' 2024 revival.
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Backyard Baseball 2001
Released
June 6, 2000

Platform(s)
PC

Humongous Entertainment, known for its point-and-click children's adventure games, released Backyard Baseball in 1997, which allows y𝐆ou to play baseball controlling cartoon children. Several sequels expanding to other sports were later launched, and Humongous collaborated with major sports leagues to feature child versions of top athletes of the era as playable guest characters.

More than a quarter-century after its debut, there continues to be plenty of nostalgia for the games and their characters, especially fan-favorite Pablo Sanchez. Re-releases of the original games were announced ওin 2024, and the potential for brand-new games, possibly focusing on new sports like golf and tennis, are high on fans' wishlists.

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