Sports games have always been a staple of video games. Pong, commonly considered the first video game, was a tennis game. Pong was not actually the first video game, but the Magnavox Odyssey, which can claim to be the first electronic games console, also included a tennis game that pre-dated Pong. They've been around for a long time, and these days, they're quite a bit more detailed than Pong. Playing FIFA 23, you can see the beads of sweat on Jack Grealish's forehead as his long locks flutter behind him in the wind - a far cry from two slim paddles knocking a white square back and forth. But as games have evolved, they have lost a sense of attitude, and I miss it.
Of course, this attitude was not there from the start. Pong was just a weak facsimile of tennis. Over time graphics allowed for more detail, but it was usually still just cartoonish versions of the actual sport. In-game characters were given a sliver of personality, and as games increased in complexity, players were able to play with a little more bite. Games could be cheesed, tactics came into play, and there was a little more spice to the whole affair. In the '90s, that all changed.
The '90s were an extreme decade for youth culture, so extreme that the 'e' was often dropped as the world embraced the xtreme sports of the x-games. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and SSX came with punk soundtracks and punk attitudes, bringing a spiky attitude to sports games. These led to EA Sports BIG, which dealt in street sports and other xtreme things, where big, unrealistic, gravity defying tricks were dominant and fouls were never called. We even had BMX XXX, so xtreme it needed four Xs, which was basically Tony Hawk's Underground but on bikes and even cruder. It was not good, but I miss it all the same.
These games led to a birth of arcade titles, and while some of these were fluffy 'Mario does a sport' affairs, others at least pretended to be rougher and tougher, emphasising fouls and underhanded tactics to gain an advantage. This Is Football, an ostensibly realistic football sim in the style of FIFA, even allowed for deliberate fouls and deliberate dives. These days, we see elements of this spirit in places (Rollerdrome, the upcoming Bomb Rush Cyberfunk), but even the unrealistic sports games like Switch Sports and Olli Olli World are all about chill vibes and having a good time.
We don't see this arcade sensibility too much at all. While FIFA's reliance on pace and fast-flowing, high-scoring games isn't entirely realistic, the presentation of the game is entirely focussed on realism. The same goes for Madden and NBA 2K as well. eFootball could have taken a different route, but instead decided to be a terrible knock off of FIFA with an even greater focus on tactics and realism. All of them are attempting to perfectly recreate their respective sports, but they're taking off the sheen.
There is a sense that sport itself has become sanitised recently. Football seems to lack real characters. There are no Paul Gascoignes, no Roy Keanes playing today. But then, Gascoigne drank his talent away and beat his wife, while Keane deliberately set out to end careers. Do we really want to go back to the days of alcoholic thugs kicking lumps out of each other in the name of passion rather than the sublime skill of a highly tuned athlete like Kevin de Bruyne, even if de Bruyne is able to smile and laugh with rival Virgil van Dijk as they drop their kids off at the same school? Individual games can be better when there's a grudge on the line, but with the days of constant animosity behind us, the sport is better than it has ever been on a technical level.
This embrace of 'may the best man win' has been adopted by sporting titles, where video games have been scrubbed of any real edge. FIFA has even disabled 'toxic' celebrations when playing online to try to ensure everyone has some good, clean fun. As a sports fan, all things considered I think an increased focus on ability has improved the watching experience overall, and the highly competitive nature has ensured rivalries not only remain, but become more intense with the absence of constant anger every week. Sport is better for this, but sporting games have become worse. Bring back the deliberate foul button, please.