Sports games come in two shapes and the annual simulations are only one of them. The other — arcade sport — throws out the rulebook, keeps the shape of the game, and is where almost all of the memorable ones live.
Whether it is fun for someone who does not follow the sport. The arcade ones pass that test; the simulations mostly do not, and that is fine because they are not trying to.
No fouls, no substitutions, and something on fire. Best with someone next to you.
One opponent, a pattern to read, and no ambiguity about whether you got it right.
The sports games that are really about the vehicle.
NBA Jam, Rocket League and Mario Strikers all work without knowing a single rule, because none of them use the real ones.
Usually not. The on-pitch changes are small, and last year's version is a fraction of the price. The exception is if you play the online team modes, where the population moves across.
The licences got expensive and the simulations got profitable. A few survive — Rocket League, Mario Strikers, Windjammers 2 — and they are the ones people still play years later.
Start from something specific rather than from the genre:
Or by the machine you own:
Or start from a game you already love — every title we cover has a page of hand-written recommendations, and the best-games lists cut the same library by era, audience and mood.