By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 05 May 2022
Edit Thread
SanAndreasX said:
Soundwave said:

The SNES had tons of sports games though, it basically had from 1992 onwards everything the Genesis did EA wise (Madden, NHL, NBA Live, FIFA were big staples on the SNES for lots of people) but there were also some pretty darn good Nintendo published sports games like Super Tennis, NCAA Basketball (this is actually really the modern precursor to games like NBA 2K as it was basically like 3D basketball), and the Ken Griffey Jr. MLB baseball games were very popular on the SNES also. 

There were other decent 3rd party sports titles too like Tecmo NBA Basketball and Konami's soccer/football games. The SNES was actually probably the last Nintendo system that got basically all the main line up to date installments of major sports titles, sadly since then it hasn't been that way. NBA Jam (huge during the 16-bit era) was also better on the SNES (higher color pallette for better arcade ports). 

For sports games, I think the SNES is the best Nintendo system probably quite easily. Sadly on Switch you have wholesale IP like Madden NFL and NHL that aren't even on the system for one lousy installment. 

EA never really got along with Nintendo, in part because they couldn't control Nintendo the way they did with Sega. I read an interview a long time ago, with Bing Gordon, who was an EA executive in the early 90s, about how they more or less twisted Sega's arms into giving EA a special licensing deal with Madden 92, which is why EA Genesis games came on those big cartridges with the yellow tabs. They basically threatened to release Madden 92 as an unlicensed Genesis game and show it independently at CES 91 if Sega refused their terms. Gordon also mentioned that if Sega had really wanted to, they could have sabotaged an unlicensed Madden 92. 

These days, it's kind of funny to see the Switch version of MLB The Show 22 with a PlayStation logo on the front cover.

But most EA titles were on the SNES, which is really actually the last time that happened. 

I believe SNES got FIFA later (in 1994) whereas Genesis got it in very late 1993, but both systems had FIFA 95 for example. The SNES got Bulls Vs. Blazers 

I played a shit ton of NBA Live 95 and 96 on my SNES, same with various NHL games (NHL '94, NHL '95, etc.). 

If anything it's actually kinda funny that Sony aped the Ken Griffey Jr. endorsement for MLB The Show, because the Ken Griffey Jr. games were synonmous with Nintendo systems in the 90s.