Top 10 Worst Sports Video Games of All Time

Michael Phelps put on an impressive performance for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but did that really merit his own video game? The answer should have been a deafening “NO”. The mere fact that this was a Kinect game should be enough to tell you just how awful the controls were, and yet, the headshaking quality doesn’t stop there. “Push the Limit” was WAY too hard, and considering how this game required physical performance, you can only imagine how exhausted players were just after ONE level. Needless to say, “Push the Limit” didn’t take home a gold, silver or bronze.

Okay, the whole thing with EA and the FIFA 18 loot crates? Downright insulting. Even so, after looking across the entire franchise, we have to say that “FIFA 15” remains the absolute worst. While console players were having little to no troubles, PC players were facing multiple technical issues. There was rarely a moment where the game wasn’t lagging or stuttering, and the game quickly got annoying with the audio bugs and lighting issues. Basically, PC gamers paid sixty dollars for a game that was barely functional.

The “Mario Tennis” games have been astoundingly consistent in terms of quality, which is what made “Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash” so extremely disappointing. How do you make a Mario game so incredibly boring?! “Ultra Smash” felt like a game that had been amputated, as its lack of unique game modes and overly-simplistic gameplay proved. It was so bland that it felt like someone modded Mario characters in “Virtual Tennis” or “Top Spin”. As for the roster, we couldn’t shake off the strange feeling that some characters were missing. In hindsight, this was probably Nintendo saying they were giving up on the Wii U.

The fate of “Tony Hawk: RIDE” was sealed the moment we saw the peripheral. But then we got to try it for ourselves... and it proved to be even more of a disaster than we could have imagined. Advertised as a way for gamers to “put down the controller” and “step on the board”, “RIDE” included a skateboard peripheral that would sense your weight distribution and when you pedaled. As you'd expect, it was unresponsive the majority of the time, which frustrated just about anyone who played it. Did we mention that Activision wanted $120 for the game and board? You’d be safe to assume that retailers were left with full shelves.

For every good wrestling game we’ve played, there’s a dozen bad ones to make us really appreciate it. Even against steep competition, “WCW Backstage Assault” remains a notably bad standout. Controls were way too stiff, and the same goes for its animations. Just to make things worse, the sound design was appalling. Really, when does slamming someone on asphalt sound like hitting a plastic bag? Couple that with a weak roster of wrestling stars and repetitive gameplay, and you’ve got one seriously lacklustre title. Between the game and a Flair chop across the chest… we’d take the Flair chop.

Just when we thought the “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” series couldn’t sink any lower, Activision proved us wrong. “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5” failed to capture what made the series so enjoyable, leaving out many features from previous titles. To make matters worse, the game was nearly unplayable due to multiple technical issues such as frame rate drops, stutters, and crashing. “Pro Skater 5” tried so hard to bring the party back, but in the end, it suffered a worse fate than getting popsicled!

If we had to choose any game to play on this list, we’d choose “Slam City with Scottie Pippen”, but not for the right reasons. “Slam City” aimed to excel in immersion, but forgot to make anything else fun. The end result was a game that relied entirely on laughably bad FMV sequences. Seriously, when you see Scottie Pippen dancing around a PNG file for the first time, it’s something else. Oh, and we can’t forget about that ludicrous Superman dunk! On paper, the game sounds great, but this was merely a child’s fantasy made up of crappy cutscenes and a lot of Scottie Pippen smack-talk.

“Backstage Assault” may have been bland and mediocre, but at least it wasn’t frustrating to the nth degree! “The Simpsons Wrestling” is one of the most aggravating games you’ll ever play. In addition to the god awful controls and animation, the game has some of the most broken and unbalanced gameplay imaginable. Characters can cheese you easily, and you’ll end up wanting to smash your controller rather than your opponent’s face. “The Simpsons” doesn’t exactly have a flawless track record when it comes to video games, but most can agree that “The Simpsons Wrestling”, in particular, can eat our shorts.

The worst mistake you can make in video games is releasing your game for the sake of coinciding with an event. Like a number of movie tie-ins, “Rugby World Cup 2015” would suffer this fate. The game was plagued with several bugs and glitches, and the AI was some of the dumbest we’ve ever had the distinct displeasure of playing against. Still not irritated? Well, the controls will certainly get to you. From the abysmal overall quality, it’s easy to tell that the game was rushed out to line up with the 2015 Rugby Tournament.



Before we reveal our worst pick, here are a few Dishonorable Mentions…



“BMX XXX” (2002)



“Gaelic Games: Football” (2005)



“NBA Live 14” (2013)

Now this is what you call a trainwreck. We wish we could say “Ashes Cricket 2013” was awful in just graphics, bugs, and sound, but that would be an understatement. No, it was literally everything. The game ran as if it had just come out of pre-alpha, and you could easily tell it was in a severely unfinished state. Reviews were scathing, and the game was pulled only four days after launch. But they didn’t stop there. Social media accounts related to the game were deleted, and all future ports of “Ashes Cricket 2013” were swiftly cancelled. On top of that, 505 Games put out a public apology and immediately began refunding players. Ouch!