3. Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings

Super Mega Baseball originally came out in 2014 and was quickly discovered as a fantastic hybrid of sim and arcade elements. So we're cheating a bit here by allowing it to be eligible again in 2015, but since it was released on Xbox One and PC this year in its Extra Innings form -- with added features and gameplay improvements -- we felt it deserved another chance to be nominated (and clearly so did the readers). SMB: Extra Innings retains its stylish look and realistic gameplay, and now you can even edit all the teams in the game, which is a big plus. The Metalhead developers have done a great job creating and finding a community for Super Mega Baseball, and I hope to see them take more cracks at the sports genre moving forward.

2. Out of the Park 2016

It's easy to say "duh" at this point when it comes to Out of the Park making this list, but sort of like The Show on PS4 (or Football Manager if you want to stay in the genre), OOTP just does the little things right. The formula OOTP has down at this point is so close to perfect that making sweeping changes would not really make sense. That being said, the "minor" changes the developers do make always seem to improve upon what was already there. OOTP 16 did a lot to streamline and improve the UI, and really why that's important is because -- holy crap -- the gameplay that's here is money as usual. Kudos as always goes out to the OOTP devs.

1. Rocket League

It had to be Rocket League, right? There's still some who will say "yeah but what sport is this?" and that's fine. If you don't want to accept Rocket League into your heart as a sports game -- or even want to get into the semantics of what a sports game is rather than just drink down this incredible concoction -- then more power to you. But for the rest of us, we'll be out here flying through the friggin' air and setting moving picks that explode cars down on the goal line. Simplistic yet deep, humbling and rewarding, Rocket League is sheer madness and yet technical as all hell. On some level, it's hard to really define why Rocket League is so great, but what it comes down to for me is the simple act of picking up a controller and boosting into oblivion is a damn good time. Rocket League is the Reader's Choice for Best Independent Sports Game of 2015.
 

Rocket League

I probably would have rigged the vote to ensure Rocket League won even if the staff hadn't made the "right" choice here. Whether you play Rocket League solo or with a team it can still lead to plenty of classic moments, but the best sports gaming moment I've had in 2015 involved eight-player Rocket League matches with the OS community. It involved moments where I giggled like a little school girl, and many others where I couldn't even put together words as I raged against the world for the injustice of a mistimed volley. The game is filled with tidbits of varying strategies as well. Whether it's waiting to time your boost to try and soar and make a save, or you're trying to clear drivers off their line so they can't launch towards the ball at the right moment, there's a ton of nuance tucked away in something that's easily understood after playing only a couple five-minute matches. But okay, I'll stop gushing now and award Rocket League the Staff's Choice for Best Independent Sports Game of 2015.