I have 2 picks:
PES (yeah it was big in Latin America and Asia but never truly beat FIFA popularity worldwide except in the early 2000s), if I had to pick a specific version, is either PES 2010 or 2013, 2016 was also great.
FIFA street 1: Almost 2 decades later and still think it’s the best FIFA game ever, not even the street sequels were able to surpass it. FIFA 11 and 13 were good too but those aren’t underrated in any way.
NFL Blitz 2000!
With a crap ton of random cheats enabled, of course. Really this game is the only good thing to come out of football or the NFL.
It’s so good it oughta be illegal!
Mutant League Football on the Genesis. The then-current Madden engine, but all the players are pulled from some sort of sci-fi horror comedy, while still somehow very tuned in to the history of the NFL.
Bribe ref to stall your opponent’s drive.
Murder ref to get things back on track.
Avoid those land mines!
NES - Blades of Steel
EDIT: Come to think of it, that other hockey game on NES that might be more obscure. I don’t remember the title, but basically each team had four players, and before the match you could choose how fat they were. Skinny = fast, but falls down from the slightest bump. Sometimes they even fell for no reason. Fat = Slow but sturdy. Then there was something in the middle. Pretty fun game that allowed for a variety of strategies depending on the physique of your team.
Nhl would benefit from only losers get a penalty for fights
That was just called Ice Hockey. That’s the one I played most on NES.
I’m not sure if it’s underrated but Mario Tennis Advance for the Game Boy Advance is a gigantic standout for the series.
It’s an action RPG from the same company that made the Golden Sun games for the GBA. The usual fun power hits and tennis mechanics with some of the tightest controls in the series with quality world building and the kind of RPG satisfaction you’d get from a company like Camelot.
NHL hitz with bobble head mode.
Cyberball. Football, but with robots.
I liked Basewars on the NES. Wiki says it got a B- but I liked the fighting and the fact that you could blow up the robots.
The arcade version of Cyberball has very clean gameplay with a wry sense of humour.
Side-by-side play is excellent on a Cyberball 2072 cabinet.
The spiritual predecessor, 10 Yard Fight, is pretty fun too(shake joystick to break tackles)
I love Ten Yard Fight. It’s like the dev team in Japan had one guy who “totally knows American football!” and he explained it to the rest of them while they were all out drinking, and then the next day they were provided with 5 minutes of footage from the Burt Reynolds version of The Longest Yard.
But all in the best way.
The backyard series of sports games that had a handful of pro players with other random kids.
On the NES, I always enjoyed Base Wars. It was baseball, except not boring. Instead of a player being “out” when you got the ball to the base ahead of him, you fought for the base.
When PES came out and it seemed to do better that FIFA I looked it up and I was amazed to find out it was from the same publisher as the football game I loved in the early 2000 and nobody else played (ISS Pro)
Well FM still goes unnoticed by anyone but the nerds like me
I loved PES, had it for ps2. Never got to use the network play though
I feel like it was a smash hit for it’s time though.
I’m counting Discs of Tron as a sport.
Very fun disc battles.
Blitz the league 2.
Was a departure from og blitz but was my childhood. Violent football with emphasis on injury and dirty play
Fun if a bit cringy story looking back. Having to pop your players leg into place with mini games and getting a sniper elite level cam when you injured someone.
Does Supergiant Games’ Pyre count?
Ha, I came here to post Pyre, and I love no two people have the same way to describe it.
My favorite is Darren’s “Wizard Basketball Plus Reading”.
I call it by two names, depending on how cheeky I’m feeling that day
Cheeky one is “hashtag-Basketball4Freedom”
Non-cheeky one is “one of three video game stories that made me legitimately cry, like straight up bawling – With a fantastical version of NBA Jam bolted on the side”
