It’s Time To Bring Back Video Games Based On Niche Sports

The virtual world of video gaming has something for everyone. It’s a beautiful medium that lets you experience stuff you can’t do in real life. From going on grand-scale adventures to getting to drive the most exotic cars, the sky’s the limit. Of course, there’s plenty here for sports fans as well. Remember all those times you shouted at the screen, telling the players what not to do, and they couldn’t hear you? Well, now you can control them.

Sports fans have many reasons to enjoy video games, whether it’s collecting their favorite players, building dream teams, or being part of the experience. Unfortunately, big games are only available for a select few sports. What about all the other, lesser-known yet impressive sports? Look at Drift Racing, where accomplished driver Amanda Sorensen continues to inspire; there are role models and popular players in every sport. Let’s see how we can bring them to games.

The “Same Old” Is Getting Tiresome

The evolution of sports games is fascinating to study. From the early days of Pong variants to the arcade era’s primitive sports titles, we’ve reached a point where home consoles offer a riveting sports experience. Now, in the present, things have stabilized or become stale. Sports video games have undergone significant changes, but this current era has to be my least favorite.

Sports games were just obviously better back in the day
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We’re in an era where sports franchises have become big-name brands, and they continue to thrive despite a lack of innovation. This is why companies are content to copy-paste the same content every year and still get by just fine. They’re making good money, so why go the extra mile?

On top of that, it’s essentially a monopoly of a select few franchises, based on big leagues and events. Football, American football, basketball, wrestling, golf, arcade and simulation racing, and to some extent baseball; these are the sports you see in big games, and that too from the same old companies and franchises we’ve been seeing for over a decade now.

There’s no innovation, no mechanical changes, no creative liberties, nothing. You know for a fact that the next FIFA or NBA will be just like the last one, with minimal changes. There comes a point when you just get tired and look for other genres, even though you love sports games. Props to Nintendo for keeping the sports section alive with creative works, but that’s about it.

Bring Back Niche Sports

Sports games have become too much of a business, even more than gaming as a whole. We get these big titles every year, they consistently get stable reviews, have a steady player base, and things just keep going as they are. At this point, you know full well what you’re getting: more of the same. I miss the time when sports games were about fun and innovation, and having a blast with a couple of friends.

I had one hell of a time with Wii Sports, especially the enhanced remaster. Really polished my non-existent archery skills with that one. And that’s not all. We had the whole Olympics as games back then. Even boxing was so intricate and hard; I couldn’t for the life of me beat Punch-Out. Sports games weren’t just limited to one franchise and one company back then; everyone was doing it.

There is literally no reason to buy new sports games (NBA, 2k, etc)
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Besides, football, wrestling, and basketball aren’t the only sports teams out there. We can have big games based on tennis, drift and dirt racing, gymnastics, snowboarding, hockey, paintball, archery, swimming, or any other sports you and I may have enjoyed. Sports is a vast term, and so is gaming. We can’t put the two together and bring about games based on the most hectic and bizarre sports. People enjoy this sort of thing.

Innovation Is The Need Of The Hour

That is the sort of variety and creativity sports games need today. If you go out digging, you’ll find plenty of games based on niche sports, and a lot of them are pretty fun, but they’re small in scope and very unknown, which is a travesty. Sometimes, the future can learn from the good stuff in the past and try to replicate it. Those glory days were glorious for a reason.

All I want to say is that I’m getting tired of the monopoly of the same old series presenting the same rehashed sports games, and no one batting an eye. We haven’t “perfected” sports games; there’s always room for change and improvement. Adaptations of more varied sports, or other developers trying their hand at popular sports but mixing things work, whatever gets me more excited about sports games, I’m all up for it.