MMR: Hating Madden Has Become a Sport
July 10, 2006 08:31
Sports Games Aren't Doing It For Me
No news is good news, except when you're a journalist. For some reason, the technology world slows down during the summer months, especially around the Fourth of July here. There is nothing really going on except sports - World Cup soccer, er, football, and Major League Baseball.
Sports. I'm a fanatic. I have no problem admitting it. I suppose I'm a typical red-blooded American male in that respect. Obsession, thy name is the Boston Red Sox. The New England Patriots (and their splendid dynasty) aren't far behind. College basketball has a tight grip on me during the winter months, too; I'm one of the few people I know that engages in an NCAA basketball fantasy league. For me, March Madness is the most beautiful time of the year. The Boston Celtics' glory days are two decades gone, but they still find a way to suck me in.
So, if I'm such a sports nut, then why, despite my best efforts, do I have so little passion for sports games? Outside of RBI Baseball for NES back in the 1980s, I can't ever remember owning and playing a sports title with any consistency (I eventually got tired of playing that one because my younger brother would beat me every time out with the Houston Astros and Mike Scott, who was basically un-hittable for some strange reason). Back then, sports games were pretty popular amongst us teenagers. It seemed like everyone I knew was obsessed with getting Little Mac to the title bout in Mike Tyson's Punchout! And if that wasn't the case, people were frothing at the mouth to see all the different cut-scene dunks in Double Dribble. From there, sports games evolved in the 1990s and football became the rage with Tecmo Bowl and the even more popular Madden NFL, which has become the definitive sports franchise in the video game industry (more on that later).
RBI Baseball
Don't get me wrong. I'm not completely averse to sports video games. For example, if I see a Golden Tee arcade unit at a bar, I'm all there. But I never got into these epic football games that became so big amongst my friends, colleagues and associates. Pole Position never got my engine going, nor did any other racing game for that matter. I can't figure out why so many critics rave about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. So what if EA's MVP Baseball has a nice little replica of Fenway Park? It still doesn't make the games enjoyable for me.
For whatever reasons, I never really got on board with sports games. There was one exception during college - and it was a huge exception at that.
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