Summary
Varsity sports gamesare in a bit of a pickle due to issues regarding college sports athletes' likeliness. However, with EA reviving its college football series withEA Sports College Football 25, the time seems right for college sports video games to come back. Although games about professional sports never stopped coming out, games that let players have a college sports career are simply a different beast.
College sports fans often say they enjoy college sports due to their developmental aspect. Fans want to see stars before they become stars or second-tier players blossom into elite talents. Whether theyplay as armchair GMsor the athletes themselves, the concept of developing these would-be pros in a gamified sense is pretty appealing, and is something these games attempt to capture.
American football
Platforms
Bill Walsh College Footballis one of the earliest varsity sports games to appearing in the industry. The game is also known as a precursor to EA Sports' laudedNCAA Footballseries, but to fans, it was known as a champ among sports games during the Sega Mega Drive era.
This 1993 release didn’t have licensing rights for NCAA teams, something that the developers eventually accomplished in the sequel, but they did have a ton of knock-off teams to choose from instead. Players choose one of these teams to guide through a 16-team playoff with detailed formations. Timeouts and breaks between plays allow players to switch between offensive and defensive options depicted by graphs that hardcore football fansmight be surprisedto find in an early Mega Drive game.
The Northeastern Huskies, as an example, award bonusesfor finishinganddefense or rebounds.Shooting-focused playersmay fare better with the Villanova Wildcats,whereas playmakerswill shine with the Michigan State Spartans. Team-specific bonuses aside, badge points are also awarded to players who win the NCAA Championship before declaring for the NBA Draft.
Sports management simulator
Perhaps one of the more realisticsports management gamesout there,Athletic Director Simulator 4000allows gamers to understand what their college’s athletic director may have been thinking with all their trades and moves. Through fun text adventure-style screens, players must manage press relations, budgets and fundraising, broadcast rights, facility improvement, personnel management, and even student players' parents.
Rather than being a coach,ADS4000makes players think about what goes into the administrative decisions of running college sports departments. As such, the game is primarily targeted towards students who want a deeper understanding of varsity sports management, as well as sports management instructors who want an easier way ofvisualizing scenarios for their classes.
What’s remarkable aboutMVP 06 NCAA Baseballis its readiness to change its gameplay to reflectcurrent standardsin collegiate baseball at the time of its development. EA Canada also made the extra effort to license more than 100 NCAA Division I teams, giving this game some serious replay value. Stunningly deep player, team, and stadium editors available in-game made it possible to create even more teams from scratch.
Gameplay was enhanced by the Load and Fire batting minigame, which allowed precise player control of batters, and precision throw control, a counterpart system for pitchers. In terms of sports simulation, Dynasty Mode forces players to put their thinking cap on and learn the best ways to woo high school prospects to their varsity sports team.
Bring upCollege Hoops 2K8to anyone, and the first thing they will mention is its Legacy Mode.College Hoops 2K8still has a cult following of dedicated players who swear by this engaging management sim. Recruiting, in particular, was changed for the better when compared to its2K7iteration.
Players have an incentive to play through some of the exhibition games in the amateur basketball league where 1,500 recruitable high school players will compete. Instead of learning about prospects through interviews and game tapes, they can assess a player’s worth by watching them on the court, in addition to earning some sweet recruit points. Not to mention that2K8’sgameplay was improved to feel more natural when running offensive and defensive sets, which makes all these exhibition games fun to run through.
The possible return of varsity sports video games wis being heralded byEA Sports College Football 25, the first NCAA-licensed game in years. Student athletes received payouts, along with their universities, after the NCAA allowed athletes to benefit from their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) back in 2021. The NCAA deal is also great for fans, who no longer have to painstakingly update their old go-to college football game rosters every year.
Overall reactions to the upcoming college football gameare, so far, positive. Running the ball is smooth, tackling and blocking are incredibly fun, passing and kicking are different from other football games, and playing defense is a test of skills. Managing player health through the new Wear and Tear system is mandatory, as too many big hits will put even the best players out of commission.
Asfor Dynasty mode, players have 30 years to play as the head coach or either the defensive or offensive coordinator of their team. Recruitment and scouting are narrowed down to several hours a week, but expanded to over 4,000 prospects to fill a 35-player roster. While there’s more to this mode, and to Road of Glory, details are sparse until EA reveals more information closer to the game’s July 2024 launch.
