I've never heard about this title, but it reminds me of the rather excellent modern game Rollerdrome, which is essentially a Tony Hawk game with guns. Recommended!
We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread

We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
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Air Master Burst
- Posts: 1118
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Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Truly excellent by shallow minigame collection standards. AM3 makes everything fun!
Pyre is hard to explain; it's basically a Persona-lite RPG where you travel around a weird fantasy afterlife world playing in a 3v3 basketball (sorta) league. Winning can get you returned to the real world, and with skill you can learn to win/lose different combinations of matches to get different characters returned in the end.
Great music, too.
It was the 80s, so basically all technology that wasn't the PC Engine was big and blocky. Nobody really started caring about making things smaller until the mid-late 90s.
King's Field IV is the best Souls game.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Rollerdrome was also heavily based on Rollerball 1975. The Matterhorn level is just a rollerball rink and the visual identity of Rollerdrome is very '70s.

Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Pyre is fascinating. Has a bit of a Valkyrie Profile thing going on with the whole return / reincarnation thing - forces you to choose between keeping useful / likeable players around, and giving them up so they can have their own little 'good ending'.
Shockingly well fleshed-out on the lore side too, if I recall - down to having links sprinkled throughout the dialogue that you can use to swot up on fantastical jargon mid-conversation.
Rather pleasing that it defies simple genre classification. It's got bits of all sorts, but despite that stands apart instead of falling into the mish-mash do-everything trap of less creative works.
Shockingly well fleshed-out on the lore side too, if I recall - down to having links sprinkled throughout the dialogue that you can use to swot up on fantastical jargon mid-conversation.
Rather pleasing that it defies simple genre classification. It's got bits of all sorts, but despite that stands apart instead of falling into the mish-mash do-everything trap of less creative works.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
AMD:
Oh! I meant "big & blocky technology" in fiction, sorry. Cyberpunk games, novels, etc. were all about these huge and bulky prosthetics that screamed "I am a cyborg, yes!". The fact that real-life technology might have been very blocky probably helped
Speaking of big and bulky prosthetics: I know Baseball 2020 and Fighting Soccer on the Neo Geo, but what other "cyber sports games" are there? I remember a volleyball game, too (Neo Geo, even?). I guess that most were on consoles.
Also, fun fact: Prince of Tennis is this lame shonen manga/anime with kids from a rich private junior high school regularly performing "super-moves", i.e. shots that the pros can perform once every ten matches (e.g. the bungee shot). The anime is "meh! Ackk Ackkk Tbptth!", to quote Bill the Cat. The PS2 games focusing on tennis, however, were loads of fun exactly because players could charge specials and then shoot all kinds of silly shots
Here is a list, which doesn't the games by genre. Quite a few should be dating sims
Oh! I meant "big & blocky technology" in fiction, sorry. Cyberpunk games, novels, etc. were all about these huge and bulky prosthetics that screamed "I am a cyborg, yes!". The fact that real-life technology might have been very blocky probably helped

Speaking of big and bulky prosthetics: I know Baseball 2020 and Fighting Soccer on the Neo Geo, but what other "cyber sports games" are there? I remember a volleyball game, too (Neo Geo, even?). I guess that most were on consoles.
Also, fun fact: Prince of Tennis is this lame shonen manga/anime with kids from a rich private junior high school regularly performing "super-moves", i.e. shots that the pros can perform once every ten matches (e.g. the bungee shot). The anime is "meh! Ackk Ackkk Tbptth!", to quote Bill the Cat. The PS2 games focusing on tennis, however, were loads of fun exactly because players could charge specials and then shoot all kinds of silly shots

Here is a list, which doesn't the games by genre. Quite a few should be dating sims

"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Atari's Cyberball is the first that springs to mind. You also have the legendarily titled Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball, the well regarded Speedball and Speedball 2 for the Amiga, and Rocketball for the C64. I'm sure there are many others.
The Neo Geo game you're thinking of is Power Spikes II, I believe?
One other future sports title I'd shout out is Data East's Heavy Smash — this plays like a horizontal Speedball but is substantially less cheap IMO. Pretty decent title.

We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
it290:
Yes, absolutely yes, to both titles. I cannot believe that I never played Heavy Smash before, given that I always loved Data East's catalogue in all of its glorious jankiness
I played a few credits of Heavy Smash and it is basically handball+super shots+prosthetics+random craziness, though rather intuitive in style and with a "rocking 1990s" Casiopeia-style OST. I am all in for the 1-CC, I swear. Better 31 years later than never, for sure. Power Spikes II is also great! I need to re-learn how to play the game, though. Thanks for these absolutely great suggestions
Yes, absolutely yes, to both titles. I cannot believe that I never played Heavy Smash before, given that I always loved Data East's catalogue in all of its glorious jankiness

I played a few credits of Heavy Smash and it is basically handball+super shots+prosthetics+random craziness, though rather intuitive in style and with a "rocking 1990s" Casiopeia-style OST. I am all in for the 1-CC, I swear. Better 31 years later than never, for sure. Power Spikes II is also great! I need to re-learn how to play the game, though. Thanks for these absolutely great suggestions

"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
I had a chance to pick up a couple of cheap sports games. MX vs ATV Untamed and Virtua Tennis 3. I need to look up the master list of backwards-compatible original xbox games, because the local shops near me have quite a few original xbox titles for cheap prices (couple dollars each, or not much more.)
MX vs ATV Untamed is a lot of fun. I like these older MX games from Rainbow. MX Unleashed is fun too. It's hard to describe what kind of game these are. They are arcade racing, but also they are not. Much of the focus is on precision and physics. The courses tend to be rather technical and top speeds are somewhat low, although the sensation of speed is great. Driving 40mph actually feels fast in these games. That's not so for many arcade racers.
Virtua Tennis I've played in the past. I don't know much about the series except that it's a sports game by Sega, therefore automatically goated.
I may pick up Hot Shots Golf 3 on my return trip to the local shops, if they still have it. Hot Shots Tennis on psp was a fun time, and the Everybody's Golf series are quite beloved.
MX vs ATV Untamed is a lot of fun. I like these older MX games from Rainbow. MX Unleashed is fun too. It's hard to describe what kind of game these are. They are arcade racing, but also they are not. Much of the focus is on precision and physics. The courses tend to be rather technical and top speeds are somewhat low, although the sensation of speed is great. Driving 40mph actually feels fast in these games. That's not so for many arcade racers.
Virtua Tennis I've played in the past. I don't know much about the series except that it's a sports game by Sega, therefore automatically goated.
I may pick up Hot Shots Golf 3 on my return trip to the local shops, if they still have it. Hot Shots Tennis on psp was a fun time, and the Everybody's Golf series are quite beloved.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Virtua Tennis 3 is possibly the best one in the series in terms of the quality of minigames on offer.

We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Indeed.
Super Sidekicks 2 is still my favorite football game-- with just enough faux realism to sell the package. Plays very well both single player and against an opponent. The presentation is top notch; they managed to capture some of the spectacle and excitement of a rollicking stadium.
We apologise for the inconvenience
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
+10 for Virtua Tennis. I played this on XBox360 when the waifu and I had one. The arcade made is arcade bliss, and the RPG/campaign mode lets you build skills for your own custom player and enter tournaments, thus weaving RPG-like training practice with a more variegated version of the arcade games (i.e. you start from weaker adversaries and work your career path to reach Roger Federer and the likes). Sega perfection, I dare say.
Orange808:
Ah yes, now I remember. I had friends who were Neo Geo zealots and (typical) football fans, so they played each title in the series to no end, including Ultimate 11 (right title? The unofficial fourth game). I admit that looking at them having tons of fun in VS match was a great way to wait my/our turn to play some KOF. My uncle solved the problem by getting a second multi-selection cab, anyway.
I don't remember if the titles offered the possibility to add some random violence, but there was Taito's Hat Trick Hero series for that. I know that some may frown thinking about having violence on games about "the beautiful game", but Italian Serie A players until the late 1990s were often quite well-versed in underhanded tactics. Simply put, I had a different idea of "football realism" at the time
Orange808:
Ah yes, now I remember. I had friends who were Neo Geo zealots and (typical) football fans, so they played each title in the series to no end, including Ultimate 11 (right title? The unofficial fourth game). I admit that looking at them having tons of fun in VS match was a great way to wait my/our turn to play some KOF. My uncle solved the problem by getting a second multi-selection cab, anyway.
I don't remember if the titles offered the possibility to add some random violence, but there was Taito's Hat Trick Hero series for that. I know that some may frown thinking about having violence on games about "the beautiful game", but Italian Serie A players until the late 1990s were often quite well-versed in underhanded tactics. Simply put, I had a different idea of "football realism" at the time

Last edited by Randorama on Tue Feb 25, 2025 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Please forgive me for the double-post and necro-bump, but I have released a squib for Kick and Run, an "old glory" arcade football game from Taito (1986). I hope that everyone will enjoy the reading and re-visit this thread for further inspiration. If you do, please be sure to post any new sport-based games you may have discovered and enjoyed, since the last time you visited this thread.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Super Dodge Ball (Technos, 1987)
Time for another bump, folks.
We come full circle because we finally have a squib about Kunio-kun's Super Dodge Ball, one of the two games that inspired the thread; the other is Kick and Run, of course.
Now, please raise your hand if you would like something like "Rando's mini-reviews" about arcade sports games, especially if old and obscure. I believe that games like Tecmo World Cup are hardly classics, but they nevertheless had an interesting role on this strange sub-genre. Writing a squib about each of them would be overkill, but a paragraph or two over the weekend is an interesting proposition, especially if I can ruminate on several titles at once (e.g. Tecmo produced four games for four football world cups, blimey!).
C'mon folks, don't be shy and let me see those hands up
We come full circle because we finally have a squib about Kunio-kun's Super Dodge Ball, one of the two games that inspired the thread; the other is Kick and Run, of course.
Now, please raise your hand if you would like something like "Rando's mini-reviews" about arcade sports games, especially if old and obscure. I believe that games like Tecmo World Cup are hardly classics, but they nevertheless had an interesting role on this strange sub-genre. Writing a squib about each of them would be overkill, but a paragraph or two over the weekend is an interesting proposition, especially if I can ruminate on several titles at once (e.g. Tecmo produced four games for four football world cups, blimey!).
C'mon folks, don't be shy and let me see those hands up

"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Speaking of Super Dodge Ball, Arc System Works just dropped a trailer for Double Dragon Dodgeball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q

We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
Super Dodge Ball (Technos, 1987)
Oh, thanks a lot! This sounds like a dream come true, indeed. Still waiting for someone to raise their hands, though 

"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Forgot to post about it in this thread, but I recently got addicted to Sega's Beach Spikers. This is basically the volleyball equivalent of Virtua Tennis and it is crazy amounts of fun, but somehow is criminally obscure compared to its counterpart. Eventually it gets a little tiresome against the CPU because at the highest levels its reaction times are much faster than a mere human's, meaning you have to rely on your own overpowered CPU partner to pick up the slack, but it takes a while to get there and you'll have a blast doing so. I'm sure this is an amazing experience in 4-player mode as well.

We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5-PS3DDWPMDFR sports thread
Rando-sensei can this pls be Official Thread BGM m(_ _)m

光あふれる 未来もとめて, whoa~oh ♫
[THE MIRAGE OF MIND] Metal Black ST [THE JUSTICE MASSACRE] Gun.Smoke ST [STAB & STOMP]
Beach Spikers (Sega, 2002)+Rawk powah!
It290: thanks for the heads up. I briefly tried this during a beach holiday back in 2002 or 2003 and found it great, like all Sega sports games. I remember that it is possible to 1-CC the game once you learn how to manipulate the CPU player into receiving all spikes, indeed. This is a very Sega-ish design concept, in the sense that their sports games usually become too difficult to be 1-CC'ed if the player does not learn "teamwork" with the CPU. Absolutely brilliant atmosphere and design, and I remember playing this with mates while also gulping cocktails at some beach resort with cabs. Glorious times indeed, and for those of you who want a brilliant longform on the topic, please read here!
Birru-kun, I cannot open the link unless I access it from the device with VPN (Middle Kingdom etc.), but if it is hawt rawk, I approve wholeheartedly
I am now quite tempted to prepare a "shortform" on Tecmo and football games. The lads were possibly the first ones to create an arcade football game (or maybe Data East?), when they were "Tehkan", and then released quite a few more titles come the World Cup time. Alternatively, I may save it for 2026 and for when Hamster will certainly release one of these classic games 
Birru-kun, I cannot open the link unless I access it from the device with VPN (Middle Kingdom etc.), but if it is hawt rawk, I approve wholeheartedly


"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Death Brade (Data, 1991) & Arcade Wrestling Games
I decided to copy and paste some information about wrestling (arcade) games from my squib thread and add some more information on the topic in this thread. Let us just pretend that wrestling is a sport (hey, wrestlers are generally ultra-fit!), so games on this topic would qualify for this thread, wouldn't they? Here is the passage, and here you can read the fully entry. The relevant paragraph is:
Aside these games, I would add Sega/Human's Blazing Tornado (1994), Capcom's Slam Masters' series (featuring Mike J. Haggar and design by Tetsuo Hara!), and SNK's 3 Count Bout, plus Midway's WWE Wrestlemania. The third chapter in Capcom's SM has a *fantastic* funk/rock/psychedelia soundtrack (listen here), Midway's entry is actually a mix of Mortal Kombat and a "proper" wrestling game, and Blazing Tornado and 3 Count Bout are quite good fun, from the little details I can remember. I don't think that I ever watched WWF/da wresslin' after 12 or something, but the few arcade games in this genre were good stuff, I think. Please be sure to point titles I overlooked, by the way. Freebie: be sure to discover the Tiger Mask manga/anime franchise, especially its first legendary iteration.
The context in which the game appears may not be obvious, at first glance of the year of release. 1991 was the year of Capcom’s Street Fighter II, so the presence of other fighting games on the market might have appeared irrelevant to most players. However, during the 1980s, a few wrestling games appeared in arcade that tried to offer the feeling of Japanese and/or American wrestling in some early form. Technōs released Mat Mania in 1985, as a rudimentary though interesting game focusing on JWA-style characters. Konami and Taito offered their attempts in 1988 and 1989 with The Main Event and Champion Wrestler, respectively. Technōs released two titles on a WWFlicense, WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest; SNK released the two King of the Monsters titles. Wrestling was an interesting micro-genre in sports/arcade games; fantasy was also a trendy videogame setting, in this period (cf. the Cadash squib).
Aside these games, I would add Sega/Human's Blazing Tornado (1994), Capcom's Slam Masters' series (featuring Mike J. Haggar and design by Tetsuo Hara!), and SNK's 3 Count Bout, plus Midway's WWE Wrestlemania. The third chapter in Capcom's SM has a *fantastic* funk/rock/psychedelia soundtrack (listen here), Midway's entry is actually a mix of Mortal Kombat and a "proper" wrestling game, and Blazing Tornado and 3 Count Bout are quite good fun, from the little details I can remember. I don't think that I ever watched WWF/da wresslin' after 12 or something, but the few arcade games in this genre were good stuff, I think. Please be sure to point titles I overlooked, by the way. Freebie: be sure to discover the Tiger Mask manga/anime franchise, especially its first legendary iteration.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Re: We are the champions! The 2.5DWPMDFR sports thread
Fun game, but I don't know what Culture Brain was thinking with that localized name when the Japanese name, Choujin Ultra Baseball (Superhero Ultra Baseball), fits much better.
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Sengoku Strider
- Posts: 2500
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Re: We are the champions! The 2.5DWPMDFR sports thread
Yeah, the game deserved clearer marketing. So many people who would have loved it missed out on it because it seemed drier than it was. I only knew because Nintendo Power to their credit gave it the right type of praise.
Punk Shot (Konami, 1990)
For those who are interested, this is a link to my squib dedicated to Konami's Punk Shot. The late 1980s/early 1990s "sports meet mass brawling" games were a highlight of the period, I daresay.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Capcom Sports Club (Capcom, 1990)
We now have an updated revision of Capcom Sports Club in the RRR squibs thread. This version adds more considerations on context of release, music, games' difficulty and personal experiences. Please enjoy.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).