Arcade Games: Where Art Thou?

[RaychelSnr]

Some of the best reviewed and best remembered sports games of the past two generations have been of the arcade variety. In fact, these titles were once a staple of the genre. I’ve spent the same amount of time playing NBA Street, NFL Street, the Midway titles, and The Bigs as I have their AAA counterparts. (For this article, I’m purposefully leaving out extreme sports and racing games, which often intentionally straddle the line between sim and arcade).

What makes these titles shine is their ability to capture what we like about sports -- gameplay, player ability, roster management, etc. -- in quick, hard-hitting doses. When playing an arcade title, I don’t care about slider adjustments or statistical realism; I just want to see how the next play unfolds and ultimately affects the scoreboard. In some ways, these games are the purest representations of sports available.

But yet, these titles continue to disappear from the marketplace. Why is this?

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[SHAKYR]

I hope arcade game make a comeback because I'm tired of getting hybrid sports games with arcade and sim mixed into the main gameplay instead of having to separate styles in one. I don't see arcade making a major comeback unless you give those fans full character customization and options to keep them interested.

[Irishwhiskey119]

The only games that are not Arcade to me are The Show and NBA 2k14.

Madden and NCAA are close to sim but still just lack the realism. I mean 5 minute quarters are the default so it's still a joke.

Games are getting closer and closer to pleasing realistic simulation but in the end the game studios always do the stupid thing and try to make their games for the ADD kids of the world. Therefor they become arcade games.

[HunterK13]

I miss the NBA and NFL Street games. I played NFL Street 2 more than Madden, and I love Madden. They kind of lost me with NFL Street 3 with the control changes. And NBA Street Homecourt was bad compared to the previous 3 entries in that series. But honestly those games were awesome because you get the fun of pick-up with the ability of the best athletes in the world. Can we get NFL Street 2 and NBA Street Vol. 2 remastered?

[Gramps91]

I'm more of a sim gamer, but I really miss the NBA Street series.

[scottyp180]

This is a question I asl myself from time to time. Nfl blitz, nhl hitz, and nba street are some of my favorite and I thinl most fun sports titlea of all time. I love sim games but its nice to have a quick easy to play title that you can play with your friends and not have to put much thought into. I think these titles are necessary to contrast the sim titles. I think of it like the movie industry. Everyone loves a movie with a great story that involves some thinking for the viewer (consider this a sim sports game) but sometimes you just want to watch a movie that involves minimal thinking but is a fun movie to watch, typically a comedy or straight up action movie (consider this arcade sports titles). I hope that sports companies will find a new love for such titles because I miss the days of nba street, nfl blitz, nhl hitz, mlb slugfest, the bigs, etc

[jhartman01]

I do agree that EA may have more luck re-doing the NBA Street series than trying to push a sim NBA product. In fact, an NBA Street game would probably outsell NBA Live. I can picture it now, NBA Street game with a mode where you could create your own streetball player and play games like you do at the Park in 2K. Now that would be interesting...with servers that actually work. LOL

[TheBadazz]

I miss NBA Street and NFL Street. I wouldn't mind a update to NBA Jam! I have a Vita and those games would be sweet on that. EA missed out on some easy cash. Mindless fun without buying this and unlocking that.