Summary
The last decade in gaming has seen a significant shift in some aspects, and has remained entirely the same in others. Sports gaming, comprising of the major franchises Madden, NBA 2K, and MLB The Show (among others) have felt these changes as much as any other franchise.
Debate rages on whether sports games, especially ones released in the last decade, have become nothing more than glorified roster updates. Critics of the genre frequently do point to how little the in-game features change from year to year, while others point out the increasing reliance of in-game transactions. But through it all, these games have stood above the rest for their quality.
9MLB The Show 19
Play Ball!
MLB The Showas of late has seen the series make the jump to the Xbox and Nintendo families of consoles. The 2019 edition of the San Diego Studios series, released just before this jump, remains heralded as perhaps the best the series has to offer.
The game’s standard offerings of Road to the Show, Diamond Dynasty, and Franchise are all here, and new to the series was the March to October game mode. March to October allows you to streamline the experience of going from Opening Day to the World Series without the need to sit and grind through the entirety of a 162-game baseball season; the mode has remained the most recent entries, a testament to its staying power with fans of the series.
8Pro Evolution Soccer 2019
Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA are the only games in the soccer (football, for the rest of the world) gaming genre. Konami (yes, the same developers as the vaunted Silent Hill franchise) have bravely stood toe-to-toe with EA Sports in the genre and their efforts resulted in Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 being one of the best in the series.
Several new leagues populate the experience, from Denmark’s Superliga to Portugal’s Liga NOS, as the game supplied new animations for players to be only further immersed in the experience, while the fatigue system also became a part of building realism. Finally, transfer negotiations and the Pre-Season Tournament led the way for the improvements to the game’s offline modes.
7Mario Tennis Aces
The Mushroom Kingdom’s Finest Tennis Tournament
Mario Tennis Acesis, as of this moment, the most recent game to have been released in the series. The Mario Sports series has remained a constant in the world of gaming for decades, from the Italian Plumber’s exploits in Baseball to Tennis.
Take on up to seven of the game’s AI opponents in the game’s eight-player tournament mode, or engage in the game’s adventure mode, where Mario and friends race against time to save the Mushroom Kingdom from a mysterious possessed tennis racket named Lucien. The online play will also test your mettle with up to three other players in matches.
6Assetto Corsa
Heavy Focus on Realism
Assetto Corsacan be played on consoles, but the racing sim is best experienced on PC; launched in 2013 for the PC, and having only just raced its way onto consoles in 2020, sim racing enthusiasts have rejoiced in racing at hundreds of unique tracks. Enthusiasts have similarly gotten immersed in choosing between several different classes and specs of vehicles to hit the track with.
Customize your experience in as many different ways as you want to tackle the racing, from assists to getting under the hood to make your car faster and outrun your competition. There’s a career mode here, but it is decidedly less immersive and more repetitive than most other offerings in the genre–but then again, racing is, in some form, inherently repetitive.
5NASCAR Heat 4
The NASCAR Series' Modern Peak
NASCARgaming has been in a weird state since the release of this game, and Motorsport Games, primed to take the property to the next level, unequivocally failedin their lone entry.While IRacing is set to bring the brand back to some respectability finally, the last game before the license was acquired by MSG has arguably been the modern peak of NASCAR gaming.
NASCAR Heat 4 features all ninety-two national series races run between the then Monster Energy (now just Cup) Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Truck Series, along with (nearly) every driver that ran races in the 2019 campaign. The career mode adds in the (fictional) Xtreme Dirt Tour series as one step of your wider journey to NASCAR stardom.
4NCAA Football 14
A Classic Series Soon To Be Revived
NCAA Football 14 may have been released in 2013, but its impact on the sports gaming scene has remained prevalent even a decade later. The impact of this game has been so strong, that EA is finally moving to revive the series with a target release date of College Football 25 this summer.
Tackle Road to Glory mode, where you start from zero as a recruit on any of the then-126 FBS squads and rise to the top of College Football, or become the coach of any one of these same schools as you build up a small school into a national powerhouse. Ultimate Team was here, too, but it had yet to truly become the plague of gaming that the mode and its counterparts across other games have become.
3Rocket League
Racing To The Goal
Rocket Leaguehas spent nearly a decade in service and thus has remained a popular choice for both soccer (known as football to most of the rest of the world) and racing enthusiasts alike. The basic gameplay flow has remained as simple as it ever has: drive your cars around the arena to score goals, and Psyonix’s title has since spread from its initial release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 systems to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles.
The roster of cars has expanded from the original ten bodies to over 100 as of 2024. Along the way, the game has seen multiple promotions from bothNASCARandFormula Oneamong other major racing leagues across the world, so Rocket League is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon, considering the expansive roster of cars and the game’s vibrant esports scene.
2F1 2020
Racing Around The World
2020 was Formula 1’s 70th season; while the season was truncated due to complications presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 2020 was a slam-dunk hit for Formula 1 fans and racing game enthusiasts alike. Many believe that this was the last truly good game in this series, especially after EA Sports bought into Codemasters in 2021.
The defining feature that has stuck around the Codemasters series since this title has been the MyTeam Career Mode; here, you’re just starting as the new owner of Formula 1’s 11th team (which in real life as of this writing, Andretti is attempting to become) with the twist that you’re also driving for the team. The game was also the final game to feature Classic Cars, allowing you to drive a wide range of Classic Entires like the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 up to the 2010 Red Bull RB6.
1NBA 2K23
A Sports Game That Spans Eras
NBA 2K23 sought to change the game with its offline modes while maintaining the online experience; the MyCareer Mode, while remaining as prevalent as ever, took a step back further with this entry in the series. The MyNBA Eras mode took center stage and has set a new standard for what a franchise mode for games should be.
Taking on one of four distinct eras, you can jump right in and alter the very course of NBA history or re-live it from any one of four points in history (in 2K24, that number jumped to five.) Change NBA rules from having ever happened, block re-locations (meaning yes, the SuperSonics can never leave Seattle in your MyNBA save), and re-draft every Hall-of-Famer and key player that has ever graced the NBA over the past four decades of play.
