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The four best sports games on NES Classic (and six it left out)
Punch-Out!! is back in all its glory... sans Mike Tyson, though. Nintendo

The four best sports games on NES Classic (and six it left out)

This little $60 box is primed to bring 8-bit sports gaming back. (Photo via Nintendo)Have you preordered your version of the NES Classic Edition yet? If not, you might be out of luck in advance of the console's November 11th launch. It appears to be sold out online and in-store at most retailers, so it's safe to say that there's a demand.

For those of you who don't know, the NES Classic Edition is Nintendo's love letter to those of us who grew up with that little grey box sitting below our TVs. It comes packed with 30 classic titles, from Final Fantasy to The Legend of Zelda, to Metroid, to (of course) Super Mario Bros. 1 through 3. It's super-portable, and meant to bring classic NES titles back to the people that grew up with them while introducing them to a newer, younger audience. The really nice thing is that Nintendo has seen fit to include some of the console's classic sports games as well. If you're on the fence about picking the NES Classic Edition up (at least, when it's back in stock), allow us to keep you informed by giving you the run-down of the four best sports games on the console.

Tecmo Bowl

This one goes without saying, doesn't it? Though the game admittedly doesn't have the updated rosters that the series's devoted fanbase keeps creating year after year over at TecmoBowl.org, the game is, without a doubt, one of the granddaddies of football games.

Interestingly enough, Tecmo Bowl for the NES was actually the first console video game to include player names and (admittedly heavily pixelated) likenesses, paving the way for more league licensing in the future. Make sure you pick up a second controller for your friends who have never played the game before, then just run the ball with Bo Jackson. It's as fun now as it was back in the late '80s.

Punch-Out!!

So, bad news first. No, this isn't the version with Iron Mike Tyson. The licensing agreement with Tyson expired a while back, and Nintendo didn't renew it for a variety of reasons, both inside and outside of the ring.

The good news is that Punch Out!! remains one of the best twitch-reaction sports games ever made. Sure, Punch-Out!! can be brutal at times -- it definitely has that classic NES difficulty to it -- it never seems unfair. It's always just frustrating enough to keep you coming back for more, as you try to learn your opponent's tells and perfect your timing. It's one of the few games that really perfects that feeling of being in the zone, in a completely focused state, reacting to the game as quickly as you can. It's super unique, and really holds up almost 30 years later.

Excitebike

Like Punch-Out!!, Excitebike is a twitch reaction game that is incredibly unforgiving. The motocross game came along relatively early in the NES's lifespan, back in 1984. Though it's simple -- all you do is control your motorcycle and its speed -- it's challenging to put everything together. In order to score a good time, you'll not only have to maintain a high speed, but you'll also have to keep from overheating and control your bike as you launch off jumps.

Unfortunately, this version of the game isn't the Vs. Excitebike edition that allowed multiplayer play, but it does come complete with a track creation mode, just like the original did. This was actually the first track creator or level editor that was baked into a console game itself, so in addition to being a great game, Excitebike is a historic one as well.

Ice Climber

Hey, climbing is a sport too!

Ice Climber is a simple, addictive arcade-style game that sees the player controlling two alpine adventurers, Popo and Nana (A+ naming, Nintendo), as they ascend a mountain infested with vegetable-stealing condors and polar bears wearing pink shorts and sunglasses. The goal of the game, ostensibly, is to summit 32 peaks to recover all of the vegetables that the condors have stolen. Just like real mountain climbers!

The game was a big hit when it launched in 1985, mixing puzzle and action game elements. It also didn't hurt that the game was included in an NES bundle in many countries across the world.

Six That Didn't Make The Cut

Now, unless we're counting Balloon Fight as a jousting game, which we totally could, those are the four best sports games on the NES Classic -- though if you're reading in Japan, you're going to be getting a golf game as well. Unfortunately, there are a few games that didn't make the cut.

R.B.I. Baseball

This classic baseball game was likely left off of the NES Classic Edition due to licensing issues -- the series has actually seen a resurgence in recent years with re-releases on the Xbox One and PS4. That doesn't change the fact that R.B.I. Baseball was historic. It was the first ever baseball game to be officially licensed by the MLBPA, and actually featured a variety of statistics for each player that affected contact hitting, power hitting, pitch control, and baserunning. It's understandable that the game hasn't been included, but that doesn't mean it's not a shame.

Double Dribble

Though Double Dribble was not licensed by the NBA, it provided gamers with one of the more realistic basketball simulations of the 8-bit era. Much like Tecmo Bowl, the game cut away at certain moments for dunks or shots, which added a nice cinematic quality. It wasn't without its flaws -- or charms, depending on how you feel about them. Three-point runners from the baseline would go in pretty much every single time, while slam dunks would often clang off of the rim. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but come on, it was the NES.

Blades of Steel

Unfortunately, there isn't a single ice hockey game on the NES Classic Edition, not Ice Hockey, and not Blades of Steel. This game came from Konami, the studio behind Contra, Gradius, and a whole host of other great arcade games, and their foray into sports was no different.

Notably, the game did feature some differences from NHL hockey. One of the most glaring of these is that instead of offsetting majors for fighting, in Blades of Steel the penalty only goes to the person who loses the fight, which I'm sure we could all agree would make hockey much better, were the rule implemented in the NHL.

California Games

California Games was everywhere during the late '80s. It was on DOS computers, the Commodore 64, multiple Atari systems, the Sega Master system, and a whole host of others. This might be why the game wasn't included on the NES Classic Edition, despite relatively good reception upon release.

California Games was a collection of sports events, all loosely based around the theme of "activities people in California do". Mini-games included a skateboard half-pipe, rollerskating, frisbee, and uh, "foot bag", which is apparently what Californians call Hacky Sack.

This game hasn't aged as well as the others on this list -- the controls are a bit complicated, and the game doesn't really give you much of an indication of how to play or whether or not you're doing well, but there's no denying that it really is a classic NES sports game that is missed on the console.

Skate or Die!

It really is a shame that neither Skate or Die 1 or 2 made the jump to the NES Classic Edition, since it really is one of the classics of the extreme sports genre. Sure, it's a relic of its time, with cheesy "radical" graphics, and characters with purple mohawks and green flat-tops, but the games itself stand up. Skate or Die! is challenging, and offers a whole bunch of different game modes, from downhill raing to a weird jousting event that takes place in a pool -- some of them even supported 2 players. The Skate or Die! games aren't just snubs from a sports games perspective, they're snubs from a general gaming standpoint.

Honorable Mention: Base Wars

Finally, allow me to make my case for Base Wars. Base Wars was not included in the NES Classic Edition, but it should have been for one specific reason: Base Wars is a game where robots play baseball in space. It is one of the best sports games ever made almost by default.

The NES Classic Edition launches on November 11th -- be sure to let us know what you think about it on Twitter either at @Yardbarker or to me directly @SamGreszeseses!

Can you name every opponent in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!?
SCORE:
0/11
TIME:
3:00
1
Glass Joe
2
Von Kaiser
3
Piston Honda
4
Don Flamenco
5
King Hippo
6
Great Tiger
7
Bald Bull
8
Soda Popinski
9
Mr. Sandman
10
Super Macho Man
11
Mike Tyson

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