This week, we celebrate the sports video games that you may have rented once, played it for an hour, knew it was horrible, and took it back.  Some other unlucky ones among us may have actually purchased the atrocious game, most of the time out of desperation for any game for that particular sport. 

Still others may not have stood the test of time; you may have pulled out the game in the last few years and wondered how in the world you played it for so long.  Whatever the case, some of these are just pure garbage, and here they are.

7. Jordan vs. Bird
This one falls into the “how in the world did I used to play this?” category.  The players are impossible to move.  The graphics are horrible.  The computer is simple to beat.  And, it’s just not fun.  It’s like writing a paper.  Ever not even feel like playing a game, but you really want to finish your season so you do?  That’s what this game is like all the time.

6. Ten Yard Fight
This was another football game that tried to become the industry leader before Tecmo and Madden ended up saving us all.

5. Baseball
Good God was this game terrible.  I’m cutting them a little slack here because it was literally one of the first Nintendo games ever made.  Therefore, they get a pass for it basically being a handheld game transferred to cartridge.

4. Ghostbusters
No, ghost-hunting is not a sport, though ghost-running is part of one (and a science to figure out at that).  But I had to include this simply because it is the worst video game of all-time.  It was impossible to figure out how to play and even get past the first screen.  I hate this game.

3. WWF WrestleMania
Perhaps no other video games made more of a turnaround than WWF games.  This one was so bad that a generically-titled wrestling game was a hundred times as popular.  That’s like the local YMCA wrestling pay-per-view having a better buyrate than the Royal Rumble.  In subsequent years, WWF games became unbelievably addicting, much like their actual product.

2. Final Four Basketball
This one came later (it was for Playstation), but it’s unplayable.  The guys moved slowly.  A shot would take about 17 seconds to go from the player’s hand to the rim.  If I write much more about it I may get upset, so I’m going to stop.  I actually purchased this crap.

1. Major League Baseball
Where to start with this one.  They advertised it as “official” Major League Baseball, and then all you got were the players’ numbers instead of names.  It took like 20 minutes to get the game to start because you had to figure out how to organize your lineup.  You could bunt, and if no fielder would touch it, the ball would go all the way to the wall.  To top it off, I heard some prick from Kay-Bee Toys tell someone that it was “the most realistic game that has ever been made.”  Is Kay-Bee still around?  They should be sued.

Edit: according to answers.com, the MLB Players Association failed to endorse (for whatever reason) the game, hence no real names were used. 

The Top7 is written by Jason Major.  He's playing RC Pro Am right now.  Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com

The Daily Memo --> The "best" sports games as told by Jason Major.

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