Right now across the country and all around you a new holiday is struggling to gain popular acceptance. It started out as joke; a webcomic’s idea to bridge the gap between the crush of December holidays and Valentine’s Day.

But three years after it was created, “Wintereenmas” has become a bit of a phenomenon. Every year, at this time, tens of thousands of geeks across the globe (like myself) begin writing letters and cards to computer programmers, hang up old console controllers like mistletoe, play tricks on each other like “Zerg rush’s” and “camping deaths”, exchange small gifts…all to celebrate that most entertaining diversion from the painful doldrums of life, video games.

The celebration lasts from seven to ten days and a couple weeks ago I got an e-mail from a college friend of mine insisting that we celebrate the holiday this year. His plan: To hold a seven-night marathon next week where we do nothing but eat, drink, and beat the ever loving crap out of each other’s digital selves.

Needless to say, I jumped at the idea.

“Does this mean we’re going to have a drunken Tetris tournament?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, “I have a different idea. One that’s not as evil.”

His idea called for the seven nights of gaming to be themed – each night would focus on a different genre of game. For example, night three might be nothing but “First Person Shooters”, night four, nothing but “Fighting games” (“Street Fighter II” and its clones), etc. The final night would be devoted to “Sports games”, he said.

“Why the last night?” I asked.

The reason, he explained, was that (for all his game knowledge), he wasn’t really a “sports game” type of player. I understood what he meant right away (I’m not a big fan of RPG’s) and when he asked for suggestions of good sports games to play, I sent him a list of what I considered to be some of the best and most fun I’d ever encountered.

Looking at the list I got to thinking about Moodspins. Video games is something the site doesn’t touch on that often and so, in the spirit of “Wintereenmas”, I decided to add some comments to my list and present it to you all…so pop in an early Blues Traveler album, put on your “Skidz” pants and get ready. Even if you’re not a sports-minded person, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy:

Scott C’s list of the Best Sports-themed Video Games!

The best way to look at this genre is to break it into sub-genres, based on what sport is [generally] being played. And that’s what I’ve done. We start with one of the first sports to be translated into video games – baseball!

Base Wars (NES) – I’ve spoken about this game in a past Moodspins column, but let me reiterate that this is my favorite baseball video game of all time, hands down. Technically, it’s more “cyborg baseball” than straight-forward MLB action, but who really cares when you solve a squeeze play but cutting off your opponent’s head with a “laser sword”? I’m not sure if that’s why I like it so much or if it’s because I don’t know of another game where I can win with a score of 138-4 without a cheat code being used.

Baseball Stars (NES) – SNK, not EA, holds the title for pioneering “franchise mode” with this solid game. Most baseball games at the time gave you a set roster you couldn’t change, but “Baseball Stars” allowed us to have custom players, custom teams – and money woes. The highpoint of the game was its built-in economy. The amount of money you earned to buy better players with depended on how many tickets you “sold” for attendance. In other words, bigger stars = more people at game = more money = even bigger stars. It’s one of those few games that you’ll still find people playing to this very day.

Ken Griffey’s MLB (SNES) – About the time this game was released, I stopped playing baseball specific games as I just don’t care for the sport. Yet I remember this game did have its plusses: Over thirty stadiums to play in (all based on their real-life counterparts), a home run derby option, and it was one of the first games to not take its self seriously. Players would break their bats, yell at the umpire when they struck out, get into fights with crowd members…Ok I made that last one up. Let’s move on.

Next, we tackle the sport of the asphalt kings – basketball!

NBA Jam (Arcade/SNES/Genesis) – One of the most fun, if not realistic, games ever invented. “NBA Jam” made the phrases “he’s on fire” (or “en fuego”) and “turbo mode” household terms. Also, to date, it’s the only basketball game that allowed for half and/or full-court buzzer shots. When playing it, the only real drawback I can think of is that Dick Vitale’s commentary got really annoying after a short time. Both in real life and in the game.

NCAA Basketball (SNES, PSX) – All I can really recall about this game was that it was nice to have one devoted to college basketball, that it had a nice learning curve on it and that when I played the PSX version, I was drunk…and learned that that doesn’t go well with 3D rotation…I still get woozy thinking about that night…

From the hardwood to the gridiron – it’s football time!

Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)/Super Tecmo Bowl (SNES) – Possibly one of two games to rival Base Wars for the title of my favorite NES game, Tecmo Super Bowl was football stripped down, then made easy-to-play, realistic and silly. There’s no way to put it, no review I could write, beyond “what a crapload of fun” – what with it’s simple AI patterns (if you play a number of games you can tell what the computer will do – and it never deviates from it) and the ability to launch a 90-yard TD pass…Like “Baseball Stars”, this game still gets a lot of play from today’s gamers and I know that because I’ve seen customized, updated versions that allow you to play the 2002 NFL and 2003 NCAA seasons.

NFL2k, 2k1, 2k2 (Dreamcast) – If I were to buy a Dreamcast, it would be only for this game. Allowing for the user to create custom players/teams, it also had some of the best “color commentary” I’ve ever heard. Very well executed game and I praise Sega for putting it together. NOTE: If you ever play this game, and have a good QB on your team, use the [pass] play called “Comeback” and throw down the center. Ninety-percent of the time I used it against the computer it equaled a touchdown.

Madden 2004/2005 (Every platform except “arcade”) – Let’s do some math: The average game of Madden takes 30-40 minutes to play (in one sitting). There are between 17 and 25 games per Madden season. There are 30 seasons in Madden’s “Franchise” mode…even skipping a third of the games, I figured I played about 400 games of “Madden ‘04” after I bought it. That’s a whole lot of time to play a single game – but there’s a good reason: Madden gets into your system, literally. The game’s wealth of options make it tough to learn (if you don’t know much about football) but with it’s level of customizing, the “Franchise” mode gets a hold of you and it quickly becomes more of an RPG than an all-inclusive football game. Picture creating a rookie wide receiver based on yourself and then guiding them their whole career until they reach the “Hall of Fame” – then watching as they return to the sport and become one of your coaching staff…that’s what sucks you in, the storyline. Although I think 2004 was better than 2005 (’05 removed some cool options) and despite their claims, EA hasn’t put EVERYTHING that’s in the game “in the game”…its well worth spending a couple of bucks each year to buy the previous year’s edition.

Either it just got really cold in here or I smell the smell of – hockey!

Blades of Steel (NES) – This game is summed up in two words: “Penalty shot.” God how I want a .WAV file of that to put on my computer. Anybody know where I can find it?

NHL Stanley Cup (SNES) – One of the, if not the, first SNES games to feature 3D rotational graphics (I know it was before the first StarFox game). Smooth game play and nice little touches such as decent sound effects and all skaters leaving a trail of scraped ice (that was zambonied after every period) made this game a very entertaining one. This was the game that started my torrid love affair with the Montreal Canadians in high school…but the less said about that, the better. Some nights I still ay awake, weeping over their breakup with me…

NHL 2002 (PSX, PC) – Without a doubt the best hockey video game I’ve ever played. The graphics are smooth as butter, the sound is clear and strong, and it has the very nice added feature of a card system (earn points to buy cards, all of which either boost your players stats or unlock cheat modes and Easter eggs). However, the one feature that really gets me is the “color commentary” of the game. Any game where the announcer, in between periods of play, says things like “I have a message for a spy in our audience: Don’t trust the smiling penguin. That message again: ‘Don’t trust the smiling penguin.’ Good luck, Mr. Spy”…well, that’ll get my vote any day. However, I must point out that it has MAJOR drawback (and this is shared with NFL 2k1) – if you create a “custom team”, you can only play it in exhibition mode.

Rev up your engines – its racing time!

Night Driver (Atari 2600, 5200) – Simple, rectangular graphics and no real “racing” involved…it’s like…um…driving to an unknown place in the night, except…less so…

Pole Position II (Arcade, Atari 7800) – I can still vividly remember dropping quarters into this game as a kid. I used to be very good at it, but the years have passed and I no longer have the “mad PP2 skillz” I used to p0wn other kids with…Ok, you can hurt me for that comment, I’ll allow it.

Excitebike (NES) – Say what you will about the NES, but you can’t argue the value of this game. Everyone who played it when it came out or on an emulator can agree that this is a game that holds a candle to some of the more flashy modern ones. Why? The answer is simple: It has one of the best “make your own track” functions ever put into a game. And before you ask, no, Excitebike 64 (N64) doesn’t match its predecessor. Sorry, but flashy graphics and sounds don’t equal a great game – content does.

Rock n’ Roll Racing (SNES) – In the days before MP3s and even before MODs, there was MIDI music. RnR racing was one of the best games at utilizing this way of making music on computers and, for the time, its soundtrack could not be beat. Faithful reproductions of hits by Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and “The theme to Peter Gunn” along with the option to load rockets and mines onto your car and blow the crap out of your competitors have long kept it close to my heart.

Super Mario Kart (SNES)/Mario Kart 64 (N64) – If there is one racing game in my life that has stood out more than any other it must be Super Mario Kart. Outside of fighting games (which in and of themselves could get dull after a while), S.M.K. was probably the best multiplayer game of its day. I give credit to the N64 version as well. It was a nice touch up in graphics game play, but the basics remained the same: No carnage, just clean, good (silly) fun.

Last but not least, there are some sports games that are just two damn cool and that don’t really fit into the first five catagories – it’s time for the roundup section!

Super Punch Out (Boxing, SNES) – If Mike Tyson’s Punch Out was the best boxing game for the NES, Super Punch Out took home the title for the Super NES. Sure the graphics got better, but all games are like that. What made S.P.O. so good was the amount of combatants one could face, plus additions like how fast you could knock out a guy just “upped your fun factor”.

Mega Man Soccer (Soccer, SNES) – Forget the “Mario” sports games of recent years (Mario: Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Soccer, Skeet Shooting…) it was “Mega Man Soccer” that took the initiative in taking an established franchise and making it athletic – using Mega Man and a whole cadre of his arch villains as your players. I’d consider it much a much better game if the way the tournament feature worked was changed. I remember it being a pain in the tuckus, so the game was best played in “exhibition” mode…

Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (Card game, GBA) – I had to stick this on here somewhere. I know its Pokemon, and I know it’s kind of sappy, but long ago, one of my passions was Magic: The Gathering. I’ve tried all of the video game versions of that card game when they came out and, to be frank, all of them have sucked donkey dung. It was Pokemon who got the Collectable Card Game-Video Game transition right – the cards were easy to collect, decks were simple to build, and there was no fumbling around for a lost counter bead on the floor. Also, this game was highly addictive. Not “MADDENing”, but close.

That’s going to do it for now and it is with bloodshot eyes and cripple thumbs that I say to you: Happy Wintereenmas!

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