Sports video games are big business, but that doesn’t mean all of them are good. In fact, many of them are pretty darned awful. They often reuse assets and gameplay mechanics and are seemingly content with charging full price for a new roster. Of course, this doesn’t seem to bother many sports fans, seeing as howFIFAsells about five billion copies every single year. Clearly those updated rosters mean a lot!
But those shamelessly recycled games are masterpieces compared to these atrocities.
These are the ten worst sports games of the decade, according to Metacritic.
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Dino Dini’s Kick Off Revival -31
TheKick Offseries spans all the way back 1989, whenKick Offwas published for the Atari ST. It was programmed by a man named Dino Dini, and you better believe that he didn’t leave his series in the 90s. No, he got to work appropriately titledKick Off Revival, which was released exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in 2016. As you can see, it was…not well received. Many critics felt their childhoods shatter as they played the game, and many called it a failed nostalgia cash grab that utterly failed at everything which made the originalKick Offsuch a classic. It should have stayed in the 90s…
ESPN Sports Connection -31
Leave it to ESPN to utterly fail at producing a video game. They don’t do much right, after all. This horrible title was released for the Wii U back in 2012, and it proudly advertised that you could “play six of the most popular sports -soccer, football, baseball, tennis, golf, and karting.” Are we seriously considering “karting” as one of the top six most popular sports? Not, like, hockey or something? Either way, the game was total failure in near every respect. Not only was it a technical disaster, but EVERYTHING in the game was done better inWii Sports. You know, that game that was released in 2006!
Tennis -28
Say what you will aboutESPN Sports Connection, but at least it had the self-respect to be NAMED. This is not the case withTennis.Tennisis a little game released for the Switch in January 2018. Never heard of it? That’s probably because A) it was horrible, and B) it was calledTennis! How does one even go about Googling that? It wasn’t reviewed by very many critics due to its status as a cheap arcade title, but those who did take a look didn’t find much to like. Yes, it was only $8, but you could have bought a fast food meal for that price and had way more fun.
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DECA Sports Freedom -26
DECA Sports Freedomwas originally released for the Xbox 360 in November 2010, just barely squeezing itself into the decade. It was meant to take advantage of the Kinect. You all remember the Kinect? No? That motion-based piece of crap that Microsoft DESPERATELY wanted to make a thing? Yeah, you remember. Of course, it was an utter failure thanks to a variety of factors, including poor quality games likeDECA Sports Freedom. It’s games like this that make us appreciate Nintendo. MakingWii Sportsgood clearly wasn’t as easy as it looked…
Hulk Hogan’s Main Event -26
We thought the whole “celebrity names a video game after themselves” thing was left behind in the 90s where it belongs, but clearly not. We give youHulk Hogan’s Main Event, a God awful wrestling game released for the Xbox 360 in 2011. To be honest, we didn’t think anyone cared about Hulk Hogan anymore, but clearly we were wrong! It played, looked, and sounded like a low-budget indie title meant for the Arcade, but nope, this was actually a fully-priced game released for the Kinect. Hmmm, another terrible Kinect game. Imagine that.
Rugby World Cup 2015 -25
With a name likeRugby World Cup 2015, you would expect a bit of professionalism and polish. You WOULD expect. But expectations are not meant to be met. As you may see, it was not particularly well-received, as many critics considered it a broken, unplayable mess filled with atrocious artificial intelligence. To make matters worse, this was actually a full-price retail game released for the PS4. This was definitely the decade of Sony exclusives. But this was not one of them. This was the disappointing child they all kind of hid away and never talked about.
Fighter Within -23
Oh hey look, another abysmal Kinect title! We rememberFighter Withinbeing advertised quite heavily, as it was both a launch title for the Xbox One and a hopeful redeemer of the Kinect. Well, it did not redeem the Kinect, and the Xbox One came out of the gate falling flat on its face. Actually, it didn’t even make it out of the gate. This was one of those guys who slam into the gate because it failed to open. Like all Kinect games,Fighter Withinwas just…bad. We could go into detail, but that would require even more effort than this game put in, so we’re not going to bother.
RELATED:Here’s Why Microsoft Killed Kinect
Winter Sports 2012: Feel The Spirit -22
Let us ask you this - is there a worse title in the history of video games thanWinter Sports 2012: Feel the Spirit? It sounds more like a corny advertising campaign than a legitimate game, but legitimate game it was. It was released for the PC and 3DS in 2011, and it offered “50 challenges” based around various winter sports. Of course, every single one of them was plagued with a horrible (and laughable) physics engine that completely ruined any sense of immersion or, you know, fun.
Self-Defense Training Camp -21
So you want to learn self-defense. What do you do? Take an actual class with certified professionals who can give you hands-on tips and offer personal advice? Or buy a Kinect game? Obviously you buy the game! Who actually wants to talk to people? Not us! However, as you can probably imagine, the game wascompletely irredeemable. Not only was it poorly and cheaply made (by Ubisoft no less!), but it literally has no reason to exist. Seriously, just go to a real gym and hire a real trainer if you want to learn about self-defense! We could maybe forgive the game’s existence if it was actually fun, but, you know…
Rugby 15 -19
We know what you’re thinking - isn’tRugby 15the same thing asRugby World Cup 2015? Well, yeah, kind of. They were made by the same developer - HB Studios - and if there’s one thing we’ve learned here today, it’s that HB Studios should be shut down immediately. This game is somehow EVEN worse thanWorld Cup 2015, and that’s saying something. Many critics called it not only the worst sports game ever made, but arguably one of the worst games ever made, period. Now that is quite the distinction to carry! Well done,Rugby 15!
NEXT:The 5 Best And 5 Worst Boxing Games (According To Metacritic)
