KSL Sports Staff Picks Best Sports Video Games Of All-Time

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Playing sports and attending sporting events has the power to create memories and bring people together.

Over the last few decades, sports-related video games have been able to do the same for many fans of basketball, football, baseball, and more.

During this time without many live sporting events, we thought to take a look back at some of our favorite sports video games.

Here are the favorite sports video games of the KSL Sports staff:

Jeremiah Jensen, SportsBeat

I’ve always enjoyed playing the Madden franchise but the best sports video game of all time is NBA Jam.  It was the first game that featured real NBA players. The game made the “Boomshakalaka” part of pop culture. Who didn’t love the crazy dunks and having the ball set on fire after you were “heating up”? Who didn’t love it when a player went flying when you steal the ball from him? Who didn’t play this game for hours at the arcade or on their Nintendo back in the early ’90s?

Sam Farnsworth, SportsBeat

Tecmo Bowl was the first sports game I remember playing (unless you count excite bike). Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was in that same era for me. Super Tecmo Bowl was even better because it was the first sports game the I knew that kept stats and could do season mode. NBA Live was the game of choice on the Super Nintendo in the mid ’90s. That was the first sports game I remember playing with four or more paddles. Madden Football and EA Sports College Football stole waaaaaay too many hours of my time in college. Those were the first games I ever played with Dynasty Mode. After winning back to back Super Bowls in Denver I moved the Broncos to Mexico City for a handful of seasons before moving them to Utah and finishing out my dynasty there. 

But, the all-time greatest sports game in the history of video games is none other than Mario Kart! End of discussion!

Alex Kirry, KSL Unrivaled

I love all the NCAA football franchise but Blades of Steel on NES is my jam.  I’m not even a hockey guy but the fights were the best. My older brother always dominated.

Jeremy Mauss, KSL Unrivaled Producer

I gotta go with the arcade game Super Off Road. It is so fun and easy to play and anytime I see it I play it for a while and usually at the nickel arcades with my kids. I load up and nitro and just smash it to victory more often than not.

Mitch Harper, Cougar Tracks Podcast

NCAA Football 2004 on PlayStation 2. The best college football game ever made.

From mascot mode to 30-plus year dynasty’s, this was college football’s finest hour in the video game industry before Ed O’Bannon had to ruin it for everyone.

Also, what made NCAA 2004 so sweet was reliving classic games. Who else spent hours trying to recreate the 1980 Holiday Bowl between BYU and SMU?

Tom Hackett, It’s Utah’s World Podcast

FIFA! The world game, the beautiful game. Whatever you want to call it. It is the most popular sport in the world and EA Sports has put more time and money into creating the most realistic soccer game known to mankind. The players run, move, kick, and react just like they would in real life. It cannot be beaten.

Trevor Allen, Crimson Corner Podcast

I have always been a fan of NBA 2K since the early 2000s. I would buy the new game every year. When I started to get into college football, I played the NCAA Football. The Heisman mode was always fun. I still play NCAA Football 14 on my Xbox 360.

Matt Glade, The Scotsman Podcast

NHL 95 on Sega Genesis. The action moves top to bottom, not left to right. The ability to charge a slap-shot off the pass is unparalleled. Superb body-checking. And the organ player in every arena is the MVP.

Zak Hicken, SportsBeat Afterhours Podcast

There’s one correct answer: MVP Baseball 2005.

That game was perfect, great dynasty mode, amazing soundtrack (that I still listen to), the mini-games were awesome, the create-a-player mode was revolutionary. Plus, it featured the greatest sports athlete of all-time: Jon Dowd. He was a stand-in for Barry Bonds because Binds wasn’t a member of the MLB Players’ Union and couldn’t have his likeness used.

I spent hundreds of hours playing this game growing up. I sold my copy of the game and my GameCube a few years back, and it’s one of my biggest regrets in life.

Matt Baiamonte, Cougar Sports Saturday

Without a doubt it’s the NCAA football series. I would stay up late the night before and buy it from Walmart as soon as it was midnight. It became a yearly holiday for me. I would manually input some rosters and check out the new features. No video game has been able to capture my heart as NCAA football did. 

Kyle Ireland, Digital Sports Producer

I’ve been a fan of a number of sports video games over the years. Some of my favorites included:

• Tony Hawk Pro Skater
• NBA Jam
• NBA2K series
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour series
• NFL Blitz 2000
• Tecmo Super NBA Basketball
• MLB: The Show series

But my favorite sports video game of all-time is definitely NCAA Football 06. I played this game for countless hours with my brothers in our parent’s basement.

My family is full of Michigan Wolverines football fans and so having Desmond Howard striking the Heisman pose on the cover was the cherry on top for what a great game this was.

NCAA Football 06 introduced a new “Race for the Heisman” mode that was super fun. You started out as a high school player trying to land a scholarship with a college football team. I loved playing the game starting with that mode and running it all the way through a college career and into “Dynasty Mode.” Fun times.

Nate Dowdle, KSL Sports Director

RBI Baseball on the original NES. I know, I’m dating myself with this one, but it’s a classic that brings back so many great nostalgic memories of my childhood that I can’t resist putting it as my favorite. That and I don’t think I’ve ever lost – EVER. Gimme the AL all-stars with McGwire on the bench and in my 8-year-old mind, I’ll take on anyone!

Jared Turner, KSL Sports Director of Digital Content

NBA Jam is my jam. 

You can’t go wrong with all the high jumps, elbow throws, shoving players on the other team, sweet acrobatic dunks, and secret player codes – including Warren Moon, Bill Clinton, and the Charlotte Hornets’ mascot.

It made my senior year of high school. My buddy and I would get Subway sandwiches (at a discount because his girlfriend worked there), grab a 6-pack of Country Time Lemonade, and play for hours. NBA Jam was awesome at the arcade, in the basement at home – and it’s awesome now on the iPad. 

It’s a well-documented fact that NBA Jam was Alicia Keys’ inspiration for the hook, “This girl is on fire.” Where else would it have come from than the same classic arcade game that gave us pop-culture totems like “He’s heating up,” “He’s on fire,” and “BOOMSHAKALAKA!”

Back in the day when everyone wanted to “Be like Mike,” and Michael Jordan became synonymous with Nike, NBA Jam’s voice man, Tim Kitzrow, asked the same question we all wanted to know. “Is it the shoes?”

There are a lot of amazing sports video games out there. The best is NBA Jam. Prove me otherwise. You can’t.

I have spoken.