3. Madden Draft Champions

Draft Champions is easy to spot as an innovation because what it does is on some level so simple, yet it changes the way you think about "card collecting" modes in sports games. It gives you the appeal and excitement of a fantasy draft, but it removes your stupid, unprepared friends who take the full two minutes each time to make their own pick. It takes the same rush of adrenaline you get from doing a similar type of drafting in Hearthstone's Arena Mode and replicates it in a sports game environment. You're a GM who has to put the "best player available" mantra up against the "best fit" mantra and decide which should win out. Then after you make your picks, you get to immediately head out on the field and play with your squad. And the best part is the developers know drafting is the main appeal, and so one loss is all it takes until you're back in your draft war room doing it all again. All in all, this is why the readers have selected Madden Draft Champions as a reader's choice pick for most innovative feature.

2. Rocket League (The sport/concept)

"It's soccer with cars" would be the way you might describe the game to the uninitiated, and that's fine because Rocket League doesn't need much more explanation than that. Its simplicity is one of its best attributes, and if we're not going to get as many sports games in the style of NBA Jam or The Bigs anymore due to licensing fees and low sales, then Rocket League really is the perfect way to add new experiences to the sports genre. It includes everything that makes sports games great: it's highly competitive, perfectly balanced, has great controls, and it's truly impossible to master while still being easy to pick up. Rocket League is a great selection here, and the readers have made it the runner-up in the most innovative feature category.

1. NBA 2K16's Team Relocation/Branding

Look, people are starved for College Hoops 2K, and they're starved for ways to create their own unique worlds inside these sports games. The promise of something like an Owner Mode isn't hot dog prices, that is just boring busywork. Instead, the promise of an Owner Mode is creating something you're proud of and want to show off. What truly matters is the ability to put a stamp on the team you've built, and what better way to do that than put Michael Jordan's crying face on your center court logo and putting Shia LaBeouf screaming "JUST DO IT" on one of your ad boards? That NBA 2K gives you valid and realistic outcomes when trying to move your team is fantastic, but creating your own jersey, stadium and brand is the biggest draw here. All of these perks are enhanced by being easy to customize and very easy to share. Team re-branding or relocation is a perfect way to keep your single-player franchise interesting, and it's a feature that has a use as well in myTeam and 2K Pro-Am. All in all, it's no shock NBA 2K16's Team Relocation and Re-Branding is the Reader's Choice for Most Innovative Feature.
 

Draft Champions (Madden NFL 16)



Again, the staff was mostly in line with our audience in terms of voting, we just had a slightly different order. We felt Draft Champions should win out as it's something unique in the sports genre, and we can almost predict with certainty that some form of Draft Champions will end up in every other sports game around. I've already talked about what makes Draft Champions great in the reader's choice section, but again, Draft Champions is great because it removes the hassle of a real-life fantasy draft while still allowing you to make all the fun and tough decisions of a fantasy draft. On top of that, as someone who doesn't play much Madden Ultimate Team, this is a perfect way to still enjoy playing with a fantasy squad in a balanced environment while avoiding getting worked over by all the super teams you'll inevitably run into if you only sparingly play Madden Ultimate Team. With that in mind, we dub Draft Champions as the Staff's Choice for Most Innovative Feature of 2015.