This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
So I love me some video games just like the next guy… okay you might say a lot more than the next guy. I play a lot of games in all different genres and try really hard to give every game I try a chance before I give up and move onto something else. One genre I feel I have always failed at fully enjoying though are sports games. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved playing simple sports games back on the NES like Baseball and Ice Hockey, but once they got more complicated and the dedication required to fully understand the intricacies of the gameplay grew more and more complex, I vetoed any sports game and moved on to blasting aliens or solving puzzles in something else. It doesn’t help that every year when the new iterations roll around for each franchise (ie. Madden 11, NBA 2k11, MLB The Show 11), I think to myself that this is the year I will finally try one of these!.. but then as I read preview and review coverage everything is tailored to fans of the franchise looking to purchase the new iteration. This adds to my feeling of being lost and then I just end up giving up and skipping it. I know that I will have fun with it, I love watching these sports and would love playing a game as my favorite Chicago players that I know so well… but I can never take that next step and plunk down $60. Little did I know though, I was looking in the wrong place to get my sports game fix – instead of looking in retail stores, I should have been looking in my pocket.
The ability to purchase sports games like Madden, NBA Jam, and even NASCAR so that I could play them whenever and wherever I wanted sealed the deal for me. It takes about 5 minutes to complete a full game of football or basketball on my iPod Touch and just a few minutes longer to finish an entire baseball game. This timing is perfect for a quick car ride, a doctor’s office wait, or yes even an extended bathroom visit. The price is great too – thanks to reoccurring deals and sales, I have yet to pay more than $1 for any sports game on my iPod. While I know most sports games can be found a few years later for pennies at used game stores, for a person who actually follows sports pretty closely it would be really hard for me to be playing something with outdated rosters.
If anyone out there has been as weary of sports games as I have in the past, I strongly encourage you to pick up a mobile version. Most are made exceptionally well and play very similar, and simpler, to their console versions. Even though they might not look quite as pretty, they still look dang good to me. And maybe, just maybe, one might be a gateway game and convince me to pick up the bigger console version next year. Maybe.