25 Best PS1 Sports Games

Triple Play 2000 sold itself as power baseball, with full control hitting and a Home Run Challenge. It also packed in multiple fielding cameras, real-time lighting and detailed facial animations, which is a lot of show for a baseball game from 1999, and the PlayStation version got favourable reviews. It is also the only Triple Play game that reached the Nintendo 64 in North America, and the first version to support Internet play on the PC.

Players mostly remember how easily it could be broken, from home runs that came far too often to a knuckleball the computer could never hit. A game that exploitable is basically asking to be abused. It made the list anyway, so the exploits cost it surprisingly few fans.

Cool Boarders was the first dedicated snowboarding game on the PlayStation, and Next Generation called it a great deal of fun with a challenge like nothing else on the system. Its own blurb promises a most awesome and excellent challenge: out-shred the best boarders on the pro circuit. It came out in Japan in August 1996 and internationally in January 1997, and it led the way for much more popular extreme sports games. Its developer, UEP Systems, shut down in 2001.

Players like it, but they keep steering you toward the sequel. They say Cool Boarders 2 is the one worth your time, and that the later games made by other developers never matched it.

FIFA 2000 came out for Windows and PlayStation, and in the UK English release the commentary comes from the BBC television voices John Motson and Mark Lawrenson. Critics praised the level of detail in the graphics and the commentary and gave it a 7/10. In one GamePro review, The Freshman said that EA Sports knows football, both American and otherwise. A Game Boy Color version was developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by THQ.

It is one of only two FIFA games in the top 25, and the other one sits much higher. Its fans are firm about it all the same. Players who name it do so with real conviction, and some put it right next to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 or SmackDown 2.

Adidas Power Soccer is the first game in a series sponsored by the German sportswear company, and it spawned two sequels, Adidas Power Soccer International 97 and Adidas Power Soccer 98. You can play a shortened season or an official full-length one, and your team and its opponents come from all over Europe and beyond. It uses motion-captured animation for real players from three different national leagues. GameSpot gave it 7/10 and said it rises high above the standard soccer fare, while Next Generation called it more than worth the purchase if you want some far-out arcade action. A Sega Saturn version was reportedly finished before it was cancelled.

Players say it was awesome fun, and they still talk about its overpowered Predator shot. The two sequels suggest plenty of people agreed.

NHL Rock the Rink is three-on-three arcade hockey that uses the licence granted by the NHL and its players' association. It is built to be lightning fast, as opposed to the more nuanced side of an NHL simulation, so there is very little standing around waiting for a line change. With only three skaters a side, the ice is wide open and goals come fast. Next Generation called it one of the rare extreme sports parodies that offers as much depth as laughs. GamePro called it a fast and nasty hockey slam that should satisfy gamers who just want to hit and score.

Most players who bring it up call it great arcade hockey, a game you could rent again and again until buying it would have been cheaper.

ISS Pro Evolution 2 was developed exclusively for the PlayStation by Konami, and it never came out in North America, where ESPN MLS GameNight took its place. It was the first ISS Pro game with proper licences, so some of the players finally had real names. In Japan it was World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 2000: U-23 Medal he no Chousen, and it sold 362,989 units there by the end of 2000. It won the BAFTA award for Best Sports Game in 2001 and was nominated for Game of the Year by Edge, though it lost to Halo.

The Japanese version also adds the under-23 national teams that qualified for the Sydney Olympics. Players who name it rate it very highly.

Cool Boarders 2 added a split screen Vs mode where two human players can race each other, and a one person race against up to six CPU players. It was unveiled at the April 1997 Tokyo Game Show and drew large crowds despite the developer's small booth. The first Cool Boarders had been a sleeper success despite mixed reviews, and UEP Systems began work on a sequel to take advantage of that. Critics received its new half-pipe mode with great enthusiasm, and the PAL version later became one of the 20 games on the PlayStation Classic.

Players agree it is the best of the series, and some say the later games, made by different developers, never matched it.

This is Football is the first game in its series, developed by Team Soho, a studio under Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and it was only released in Europe. It played a good game of footy on the PlayStation and took on EA's mammoth with some style and flair. Motion capture was done at the facilities of Aston Villa FC, and ITV's Clive Tyldesley does the commentary. Official UK PlayStation Magazine gave it 7 out of 10, praising the presentation and the quality of the animation, but noted that with FIFA and ISS Pro on offer, it only scrapes into third place.

Its fans talk about it with real affection, often in the same breath as Konami's football games.

International Superstar Soccer Pro 98 is the football game Konami made for the PlayStation in 1997. Its Cup Mode copies the 1998 FIFA World Cup, real group draw included, and there is an All Star Match between the World Stars and the European Stars. It shares its cover art and North American release date with a Nintendo 64 game that has almost the same name, even though the two are from different series.

The Japanese version came back in late 1998 as Winning Eleven 3: Final Version with a wider camera option, and a version with only J-League clubs followed in December 1998. That is the line that became Pro Evolution Soccer, since Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is a port of Winning Eleven 6.

Triple Play 2001 added classic players you can take control of, and it skipped the Nintendo 64, which the previous game had reached. Its frame rate was the problem. EA Sports had managed a full 30 FPS the year before, and this game fell short and got heavy criticism for taking a step back. That is a rough note for a game whose big feature was supposed to be smooth swings. One review put it kindly: take the extraneous stuff out, build up a few features and you could have a classic.

Players who pick it call it a personal favourite, and the Home Run Derby gets most of the credit.

WCW Nitro puts you in arenas from WCW's biggest events, including Monday Nitro and Starrcade, and it hides secret arenas and run-in characters. Reviews were mixed, with many critics concluding that it was flawed but better than most of the few wrestling games out at the time. They praised its dead-on WCW atmosphere and large roster, and some complained about frame rate drops when more than two wrestlers shared the screen.

Players admit the flaws, and plenty say they still learned to love it. A game that sticks with you because it was the only one you owned counts as an achievement of a sort.

ISS Pro Evolution is the third game in Konami's ISS series, and in Japan it was Winning Eleven 4. The engine was rebuilt with new player movements and animations. For the first time in the series it included club teams, 16 of them including FC Barcelona, but they could only be played in the new Master League unless you exported a team to your memory card. In the Master League a win earns 8 points and a draw 4, and you spend them on transfers.

Players call it the king of football on the PlayStation, and many say the series was much better than FIFA.

The Simpsons Wrestling is the only Simpsons game released for the PlayStation. There are 20 playable characters, all voiced by the show's regular cast, and each has their own moves and power moves. It is loosely based on wrestling games but closer to a beat 'em up. Critics were not kind: it was widely panned and has since been called one of the worst video games of all time, although the audio track was praised.

Game Informer's Andrew Reiner did not think it held any wrestling qualities at all. Another critic thought the graphics looked choppy. Players still named it, which is its own kind of achievement.

WWF Attitude is the sequel to War Zone and the last WWF game that Acclaim published. It added full superstar entrances, a Create-A-Stable mode and a Pay-Per-View mode where you set up your own event. The console versions were also the first WWF game with several active female wrestlers, including Sable and Chyna, though all of them had to be unlocked. A slightly enhanced port went to the Dreamcast, and the Game Boy Color version uses passwords to save your progress. One reviewer called the PlayStation version a decent game with an incredible array of options but with a sore lack of any real personality.

For plenty of players it was the first wrestling game they ever played, and the affection from that is real.

NHL 98 has faster, more refined gameplay, with four action keys instead of two so you no longer double tap to pull off some moves. Marc Crawford, then manager of the Colorado Avalanche, developed its in-the-fly tactics, and Jim Hughson and Darryl Reaugh recorded new commentary lines. Critics slammed the Saturn port as a slipshod conversion, which lacks the elements that made the PlayStation and PC versions so highly regarded. It was also the last NHL game on the older Nintendo and Sega consoles.

Players remember it as a big jump over NHL 97 that felt close to real hockey, with a soundtrack to match.

ECW Hardcore Revolution was the first wrestling game based on ECW, and the first professional wrestling video game to get a Mature rating from the ESRB. It debuted over 40 hardcore ECW stars such as Rob Van Dam and Sabu, with real gutter-mouth crowd chants and commentary from Joey Styles. One review said that for anybody who liked WWF Attitude and wanted an ECW game, this was designed for you. Career mode starts with a challenge for the fictional Acclaim Championship, then moves up to the ECW Television Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Acclaim followed it with a sequel, ECW Anarchy Rulz, in August 2000.

Critics were harder on the engine than on the roster. One called it difficult and bland, and said it was showing its age.

NHL 2001 is the tenth NHL game and the last one released on the PlayStation, and it was also the first on the PlayStation 2. It has five main game modes, including a season mode where you act as the team's general manager and a shootout mode. GamePro said it took that year's PlayStation Championship, but it was a tight seven game showdown, and another reviewer called it the only game in town for the hockey hardcore. A third warned that if you are not a huge hockey fan, it is similar enough to the 2000 edition that you may be content with that one.

Players still play it and say it is a very good game.

WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role became the best-selling combat sports game on a single format, with 3.2 million units sold on the PlayStation. Yuke's built it straight onto the engine of the first game and added the Create-A-Moveset and Create-A-Stable features that had been cut for time. The season ran as a living calendar with every wrestler competing in the background. developers put a large padding file, a tutorial video from another Yuke's game called Evil Zone, at the start of the disc, which pushed essential files like character models and ring textures toward the outer edge.

Among wrestling fans it is the favourite, and plenty call it the best wrestling game ever made. So why only #8? Its fans are loud, but WCW vs. the World was named by more players.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater came out for the PlayStation on September 29, 1999. Activision first gave the job to another studio before Neversoft took it on. Hawk liked the early build and lent his name, then turned down a one-time buyout in favour of a royalty on every copy sold. He even sent advance copies to friends who owned modchipped PlayStations, and went back and forth with them on the changes.

It was met with critical acclaim and is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made. It produced eight annualized sequels, and it is credited with introducing skateboarding to a more mainstream global audience.

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 was the only interactive soccer product to carry the official World Cup 98 licence. It was the first FIFA game with an in-game player and team editor, it added a five-a-side indoor mode, and for the first time in a FIFA game the offside rule was properly implemented. Blur's Song 2 was the theme music, and David Ginola did the motion capture. One magazine thought playability improved over earlier FIFA games, but criticized a decline in graphics and player animation and the ease of scoring through individual runs.

For plenty of players it will always be FIFA 98, and they say it was so much fun. Konami's fans disagree, and they insist the ISS Pro games were far better.

NHL 99 came out in September 1998 as the successor to NHL 98. Its feature list promised coaching strategies from Stanley Cup winner Marc Crawford and commentary by Bill Clement. The roster was updated for 1998 and included the expansion Nashville Predators. There are five game modes and 18 top international teams to choose from. The PlayStation version boasted higher-resolution graphics than NHL 98, but its framerate and unresponsive controls hurt the playability. Daryl Reaugh left the series as colour commentator after this one.

Players remember it as a childhood favourite, and the fighting and body checking come up a lot. A hockey game where the main plan is to hit each other is probably working as intended.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is the PlayStation port of World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6, which Japan also knew as Winning Eleven 2002. It has 54 international and 16 club teams, plus seven hidden ones, and you can build your own players with personal stats and put them in any team. There are legendary sides too, such as Brazil with Pelé or Argentina with Maradona, and a vast choice of customisable tournaments, from friendship games to the World Cup. In North America it was World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 International. SPORTbible writer Jack Kenmare called it one of the greatest and most influential football games in recent memory.

Players put it among the best football games ever made.

WWF War Zone was the first graphical 3D game based on the WWF, with Vince McMahon and Jim Ross on commentary. Development began in 1997, so it still has wrestlers who had already left by the summer 1998 release, most notably Bret Hart. You can create and save up to 30 custom wrestlers, and there are over 300 motion captured maneuvers. Three of Mick Foley's personas are in, although Cactus Jack and Dude Love had to be unlocked.

Moves work through grappling: you press a series of directions on the d-pad and then a button. It also adds specialized matches, such as the Steel Cage Match, and four player action.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 uses the same engine as the first game but improves the graphics and gameplay, most notably by introducing manuals and cash rewards. Manuals link combos into longer scoring runs, and the cash buys new levels and characters. There is also a level editor for building custom parks. It was critically acclaimed and is the highest-rated sports video game. The levels are three-dimensional urban spaces with a punk rock and hip-hop soundtrack, and the game was still being ported to phones as late as 2010, when it reached iPhone OS devices.

Only one game beat it, and that one is a wrestling game. One player says it is "the sole reason I know anything or anyone involved with Skateboarding."

WCW vs. the World has 60 wrestlers from 6 different organizations, and only 15 of them are from WCW. Each one gets 30 to 40 moves. It is an American localization of the Japanese game Virtual Pro Wrestling, and it was the first WCW video game released during the Monday Night War. Some of its wrestlers are renamed counterparts of real Japanese stars that could not be represented because of licensing restrictions. It was the first game by The Man Breeze to be released outside Japan, and it has over 10 3-D arenas.

Players see it as the closest the PS1 came to the great N64 wrestling games, and some call it the forerunner of WrestleMania 2000.