Operation Sports's video: Top 5 Launch Titles in Sports Video Game History

In this video, Matt breaks down the 5 biggest launch titles in sports video game history. The PS 5 and Xbox Series whatever is finally here -- which is clearly the most important news item in the world right now. So what better time than this to look back at the best launch titles in the history of the Sports Game Genre. By "Launch Titles", we mean video games that came out at the same time as a brand-new video game system. After all, gaming consoles are only as good as the games they support. If you can't play any good games on the thing, what's the point of paying $900 for it? We're Operation Sports, I'm Matt Ederer, and these are the Top 5 Sports Game Launch Titles of all-time. 5 - Excitebike - NES Released to the United States on October 18th 1985, and to Europe on September 1st 1986, Excitebike nudges out NES Baseball for the Nintendo Launch Title Belt, and the spot on our list today. What Excitebike lacks in smooth controls and graphical depth. It makes up for in excite..ment. Not only is it fun and addictive to this day, but the course design mode was sort of revolutionary for its time. The ability to create and instantly generate your own courses added a replayability to this game that a lot of NES titles didn't have. This isn't the greatest racing game of all time, although I'm willing to hear an argument that dirtbike games achieved perfection with either Excitebike or Road Rash. A classic example of a video game that is easy to play, but hard to master. 4 - NFL BLitz 2000 - Sega Dreamcast Released in North America on September 9th 1999, NFL 2k edges out NFL Blitz 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast Launch Title Belt, and the spot on our list. If this were a ranking of "which game holds up better, Blitz or NFL 2k" I would go Blitz 100/100. NFL Blitz 2000 is still pretty much the same game today as it was in 2000. NFL 2k does not hold up nearly as well. But that's not really what we're doing here today. NFL 2k was groundbreaking at the time, with visuals and presentation that not only matched, but far exceeded what Madden was offering at the time. NFL 2k peaked as a series with NFL 2k5, a game that is beloved to this day, and still argubaly the GOAT football game. But NFL 2k was one of the all-time great launch titles, a game that really made you feel as though we had advanced and broken into a greater plane of sports gaming. 3 - Madden 2001 - PS2 Released in North America on October 26th, 2000, Madden NFL 2001 is the one with Eddie George on the cover! Responding to the challenge of 2k's impressive NFL 2k series, EA Sports blessed PS2 users with Madden 2001 at launch, one of the great sports titles of its day. Seriously, go back and read the reviews for this game, it's almost adorable. Gamespot = "The level The level of detail in the game's presentation and feel is so dramatically superior to previous football games, it's unbelievable." The Cincinnati Enquirer "The PS2 version of Madden looks deceptively close to broadcast TV quality.". Wow. Hot take from the Cincy Enquirer. But to be fair, it's been a long time since the city of Cincinnati has seen quality football. BAM! 2 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - Gamecube Tough game to rank here. You could talk me into it not belonging on the list at all, because it was originally released for the N64, PS2 and PS1 a month before the Gamecube, on October 28th, 2001. The Gamecube version, released November 18th 2001 is noticeably worse than the PS2 version, both because of the graphical limitations of the GameCube, and because PS2 TH3 offered online capability, something that I'm sure almost nobody used, but hey, it was there. Having said all that, you could also talk me into ranking this game number one. I think this is probably the best pure video game on our list today, and it added numerous gameplay tweaks to the Tony Hawk universe that we're still enoying 20 years later on PS4's Tony Hawk 1+2 remake. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 also introduced Bam Margera into the mix, which was a lot cooler in 2001. 1 - Wii Sports - Wii It might not be perfect, and there might not be a lot of depth to it, but it is impossible to hate on the success of Wii Sports. Released in North America on November 19th, 2006, Wii Sports is the 4th highest-selling video game of all time, at 82,900,000 copies sold at present time. Only Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto 5, and the mobile version of Tetris have sold more. It is be far the highest-selling sports game of all time, almost doubling the next highest, which is Wii Fit at 43,800,000 copies sold. For the record, Wii Sports Resort is the 3rd highest selling sports game of all time at 33,140,000 copies sold. The highest-selling non-Nintendo sports game of all time is Fifa 18, at 24M copies sold. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to Operation Sports. Also, check out https://www.operationsports.com/