Top 10 Fictional Sports in Video Games

Brought to us by Rooster Teeth Productions of the Halo-based Red vs. Blue series, Grifball was conceived by series character Sarge's hatred for Red team member, Grif. In Grifball, a player in possession of a bomb is tasked with bringing it to the rival team's side. Meanwhile the carrier's teammates move in to fend off defending team players who are trying to blitz their way towards the bomber with gravity hammers. Should the carrier successfully reach their goal? Have a look. Simple? Sure. Fun? Oh yeah! So fun that Halo developer, Bungie, included the sport as an official playable format in the succeeding Halo 3.

An underrated original Xbox exclusive, the gem known as "Deathrow", is a futuristic mash-up of basketball, hockey, and American football. In other words: violent as f...frisbee. Set in the 23rd century, Blitz has you rushing and maneuvering through a field to get a hovering disk into an opposing team’s goal. Sound boring? That's fine. Instead, ditch the disk and just go beat up the other team. Foul? Ha. Ha. Ha. What foul? That's right, in this sport, not only is the brawling endorsed, but it's actually a part of the game's scoring system and at times is just plain necessary. Or just plain fun!

You know how most sports frown down upon the use of steroids? Well, in Hyperblade, it's not only perfectly legal, but downright required - if you hope to play another day. Meshing together sci-fi and hockey, the idea of Hyperblade is to boot-up in a pair of skates with a goal of scoring a ball towards a, you guessed it, goal. The distinction? Well, instead of an arena, athletes play inside an egg-shaped dome armed with a blade that is used to slash their way through opponents while defying gravity and dodging pre-placed booby traps along the way. And you thought hockey was physically demanding, eh?

Its name deriving from the entertainment show set within universe, the premise behind Terror Is Reality is pretty straightforward - kill zombies for others' entertainment pleasure. Featuring a variety sports in the form of mini-games, athletes compete in a series of American Gladiators style contests cheered on by a rapturous surrounding audience with special kills replayed in slow-motion on the arena’s jumbotron. Doing everything from the vanilla sniping heads off, to launching bowling balls, to driving through hordes with slicecycles, , there's no shortage of zombie-killing creativity or fun here. Inhumane? Oh come on! They're zombies - they wanna eat you!

Much like many of the sports we've seen so far, this one involves the standard ball-into-a-goal setup, but with guns. Drawing inspiration from Grifball, Bombing Runs operate precisely how they sound - a player in possession of a bomb tries to outmaneuver their way past an opposing team to score a goal. What makes Bombing Run more flavorful is its use of ranged weaponry and other combat equipment, and unlike in most other community-based video-game sports, permits you to pass the bomb to teammates much like you would in most real-lifesports, except, the ball you pass around isn't a bomb, at least we hope not.

Ever fantasized about ramming that one car that cut you off on the freeway, but didn't wanna dent on yours? Well, not to worry, as the Twisted Metal franchise is here to satisfy all your road rage urges. First released in 1995, this PlayStation exclusive title became an instant success, spawning three sequels with the original console, two PS2 releases, three spin-offs, and eventually a long-awaited masterful remake on the PS3. In this destructive world, the real-life motor-sport of demolition derby is elevated to the extreme, giving drivers access to ballistics, bombs, and even nuclear weapons to engage in all-out vehicular slaughtering madness battle-royale style!

Serving as not only the franchise's first PS2 title, but as well as its transition into a full 3-dimensional landscape, Final Fantasy X was the must-own JRPG of the early 2000s and its inclusion of this ultra-fantastical sport helped solidify that claim. With the game protagonist's background identified as a Blitzball star, there was no way developer Square, Inc. could get away with completing the game without at least one level featuring the sport. Though its mechanics are a little too simple, we'll never forget the awe-inspiring dome, the colorful characters, and fun music that made us forget this was essentially basketball meets rugby underwater.

A parody of American football, this high-fantasy sport is set in the fictional realm of the tabletop miniature wargame: Warhammer Fantasy. In these stadiums, players assemble teams of classic fantasy archetypes, including dwarves, elves, orcs, and trolls, engaging in a violent-er version of the sport, bashing, slashing, and killing their way towards touchdown. With two different renditions released in 1995 and 2009, and a new turn-based sequel in 2015, it's clear that the only thing that would be more fun than dashing 120 yards past professional athletes would be gladiator-ing your way past warlocks, goblins, and giant rats. That and our second and first picks.

Yeah, we know what some of you are thinking - wasn't Pokémon a t.v. show first? Actually, no. The Games came first. Part of the series biggest aspect is capturing Pokemon in the wild to do battle for you; either against other Trainers in public, or taking them to the Pokemon league. Best showcased in Pokemon Stadium, each Pokemon Tournament would pit 2 trainers against each other with 3 or 6 Pokemon they’ve raised fighting it out until their Pokemon pass out. One could call this cock fighting because … it kind of is. But don’t worry it’s not real, so no one gets hurt.

Before we put on our uniforms and play our #1 pick, let's take a look at a few honorable mentions:

Speedball
"Speedball" franchise (1988 -)

Cyberball
"Cyberball" / "Tournament Cyberball 2072" (1988-89)

Mario Football
"Mario Strikers Charged!" (2007)

Originally featured in Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, developer Psyonix thought it appropriate to make life easier for gamers trying to promote the sport with not only a shorter title, but with higher resolution graphics and added variety. Arguably the most original idea for a fictional sport or video game in ages, Rocket League has drivers controlling demolition derby-ing rocket-powered cars playing soccer. While that might register as silly on paper, it's a surprisingly fun exercise on execution and after about five minutes with the controller will easily make you wish that this sport was playable in real life. Um...please don't experiment with that idea. Also unlike most of the other entries on the list, the event is just as fun to watch as it is to play, check how the first official grand final ended if you don’t believe us.

Do you agree with our list? Which fictional sport from video games would have you shooting for the big leagues? For more adrenaline Top 10's published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com