As your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Emulating Spider-Man....... It is my duty to swing by and give some top sports games to emulate.....


Madden NFL 2003 (2002 EA Sports) - Nintendo Gamecube - Sports (Football)



NHL 06 (2005 EA Sports) – Nintendo GameCube – Sports (Hockey)



Triple Play Baseball (2001 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)



NHL '94 (1993 EA Sports) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Hockey)



ESPN NFL 2k5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)



ESPN NHL 2k5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Hockey)



MVP Baseball 2005 (2005 EA Sports) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Baseball)



International Superstar Soccer 2000 (2000 Konami) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Soccer)



NFL Blitz (1998 Midway) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Football)



NBA Jam Tournament Edition (1995 Acclaim) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Basketball)



Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (2006 Konami) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Soccer)



Shane Warne Cricket '99 (1998 Codemasters) - Sony PlayStaion - Sports (Cricket)



Cricket 07 (2006 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Cricket)



NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona (2002 Infogrames) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Racing)

If you have a softmodded 3DS, check out Red Viper. It is, in my opinion, the best experience for Virtual Boy emulation, and an actually really neat use of the 3D slider that you almost certainly used for 10 minutes and kept off most of the time.

Despite being a miserable failure of a system, I figured out that it had quite a few pretty good titles in its (very miniscule) library.

Some games I'd recommend checking out are Jack Bros, Panic Bomber, Virtual Boy Wario Land, and Mario Clash.

I might recommend some other games as I think of them later, but I wanted to shout out Red Viper.

Last edited by pilk on 15 May 2024 at 12:19 am UTC

Arcade:

• Capcom vs. SNK 2: The Groove system is one of the coolest dynamics to tailor the game to your playstyle. Is it balanced? Hell no, but I love this game casually.


• The King of Fighters 2002: KOF fans will tell you either 98 or 02 were the absolute pinnacle. I side with 02 because it has Kula in it. Also note that 98 and 02 both have updated rereleases with an extended roster and rebalancing, but those are Windows-only.


• Puzzle Bobble 1/3: You've probably played some flash game clone of this. IMO I think 1 was best for its simplicity, I'm not as fond of the garbage patterns introduced in later titles in an effort to give characters some asymmetry. But PB1 does not have AI opponents, singleplayer is only the stage clear mode, so if you don't have a human to play with try PB3 for the next best thing.


• Soldam: The singleplayer modes are nothing to write home about, but it has one of the most unique versus modes I've seen in a puzzler. Shared piece queues are normally horrifying, but Soldam makes it work by giving P1 the objective to match red while P2 matches blue. So if you want to snipe pieces that are desirable to your opponent, that means taking pieces undesirable to yourself. Garbage is also based on how you clear lines, so crafting maximally disruptive garbage gets interesting. The catch, unfortunately, is that there is no AI. But if you can play this game with a human, do check it out.


• Tetris: The Grand Master 1/2/3: The only good Tetris, do not @ me. Start with TGM2's Novice Mode, then once you can clear that go back to TGM1.


• Vampire Savior: Aka Darkstalkers 3. This game is fast as hell and it's a blast. Like with any classic fighter, good luck keeping up with FightCade folks who really know what they're doing, but I love it casually.


• Waku Waku 7: This game's mechanics are honestly borderline kusoge, you can't even cancel normals into specials. But I love the design and atmosphere so much. Tesse is really fun to play even in spite of the system mechanics.

NES:

• Fire 'n Ice: A very rad little puzzle game.


• Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!: Just an absolute blast. I won't bother listing them seperately but also check out Super and Wii. Super's kinda the black sheep of the series, but it's still a good game, just not as good. Wii is an absolutely top-notch successor and I'm sad it didn't get any more sequels after that. The two arcade predecessors are honestly forgettable.

SNES:

• Chrono Trigger: I am hesitant to recommend most JRPGs from this era if you did not grow up on them, because many of them haven't aged so gracefully. Chrono Trigger is the exception, this game is a fine wine. You may want to check out one of the rereleases though, or at least a retranslation patch, because the original translation was made on a rushed deadline and bound by heavy technical limitations.


• Kirby Super Star: Definitely the peak of the series, giving every copy power an entire moveset is a blast. Has an updated rerelease on DS with added extras, I do highly recommend this version, but DS can feel awkward to emulate so SNES is fine.


• Wario's Woods: The NES version is more well known since it was the system's last first-party title, and for whatever reason it's the only version Nintendo ever rereleases. But the SNES version is a notable upgrade, biggest thing it has is AI to play versus mode against. Versus mode is wild as hell, so if you've never seen it please check out the SNES version.

N64:

• Dr. Mario 64: Best version, but can be notoriously difficult to emulate. If you have issues with it, SNES is a good alternative. Don't play NES.


• Mario Party 2: Still the best in the series.

Gamecube:

• F-Zero GX: It's been over 20 years since the GOAT dropped and all we've had to show for it is that damn 99 game. Go play this and weep that we'll never see another like it.


• Kirby Air Ride As a racing game, it's okay. But City Trial mode is one of the best damn party games ever made. Check out the hack pack for extended goodies.


• Nintendo Puzzle Collection: The best version of Panel de Pon, but SNES is a close second if you wanna play on a device that can't run Dolphin. GBC is also kinda noteworthy for having a unique singleplayer to work around platform limitations - opponents have a lifebar rather than a board. Just don't bother with 64.


• Tales of Symphonia: This game got a PS2 rerelease with some extra content, and the HD remasters are based on that version. But the catch is that they were downgraded to 30fps, and yes that includes the so-called remaster. So I still recommend playing the Gamecube original at 60.

Wii:

• Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary: The absolute pinnacle of the series (by which I mean it's all downhill from here, I will never forgive Sega for what came next ), crammed with a whopping 20 game modes. I really love the challenges where you have to chain under bizarre restrictions. I recommend the Wii version for its 480p assets, and it's the easiest to emulate, but if you care about story mode the translation patch only exists for DS.

GBC:

• Game & Watch Gallery 2: Holds a special place in my heart as the first game I ever owned. Has the best lineup out of all the collections, with 3 and 4 you can kinda tell they had used up all the heavy hitters.


• Mario Tennis: An incredible tennis RPG. And Mario doesn't even show up until the postgame as a bonus boss, which I find hilarious. Has connectivity with the N64 version if you can get that running, lets you transfer your RPG mode character and unlock more content on both titles.

GBA:

• Boktai series: These games were so near and dear to my childhood, especially 2. Really though you want the Solar Sensor hardware for the full experience, but I love these games too much not to plug them anyway. Emulating them is worth it over not playing them at all. And for the third game, you'd have to pick between original hardware or the translation patch anyway.


• Golden Sun: These games were way ahead of their time for how they designed a combat system that encourages you to use all of your tools and not just click basic Attack as if you gotta hoard your MP for a rainy day. Fantastic puzzles too.


• Mother 3: Surely you have already heard of this game and do not need me to tell you to go play it. Have you not played it by now? Why not?


• Rhythm Tengoku: A wonderful game about pressing the A button. Sometimes you press the d-pad too. Translation patch.


• Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1/2: If you've ever played the classic 2D Tales games, these are excellent spiritual successors to those. There's a third game that's JP-only, translation patch is being worked on but it's been stuck in development hell for years...

Romhacks:

• Celeste Mario's Zap & Dash (NES): SMB1 turned into a Metroidvania with Celeste mechanics ported in. I think what impresses me the most is that they got 4-directional scrolling into this engine.


• Super Metroid and A Link to the Past Crossover Randomizer (SNES): It's an absolutely incredible technical feat that this even works. SM and ALttP smashed together into a single ROM, with a few doors that take you from one game to the other, then the item pools are shuffled together so you have to go back and forth to find one game's items in the other. Unfortunately because ALttP is a much bigger game with a lot more items it kinda overshadows SM, you may not find this to be as replayable as the standalone randos. But I recommend trying it once because it's just so cool the first time.

Last edited by missingno on 16 May 2024 at 5:55 pm UTC

Its your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Emulating Spider-Man again....... Swinging by to give you even more top sports games to emulate.......


NHL Hitz 2003 (2002 Midway) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Hockey)



NFL GameDay 99 (1998 989 Sports) - Sony PlayStation - Sports (Football)



All-Star Baseball 2001 (2000 Acclaim) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Baseball)



NBA Live 98 (1997 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation - Sports (Basketball)



WWF Wrestlefest (1991 Technos) - Sports (wrestling)



ISS Pro Evolution 2 (2001 Konami) - Sony PlayStation - Sports (Soccer)



Tecmo Super Bowl (1991 Tecmo) - Nintendo Entertainment System - Sports (Football)



Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003 Tecmo) - Microsoft Xbox - Sports (Beach Volleyball)



NBA Give 'n Go (1995 Konami) - Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Sports (Basketball)



Mutant League Football (1993 Electronic Arts) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Football)



Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey (1996 Midway) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Hockey)



WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 (2006 THQ) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Wrestling)



NBA Courtside 2 Featuring Kobe Bryant (1999 Nintendo) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Basketball)



WWF No Mercy (2000 THQ) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Wrestling)



Rugby 08 (2007 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)

I have another little grab-bag of recommendations today!


Bomberman Hero (N64)
A 3D platformer that puts you down on Bomberman's level, as if you're tagging along on one of his missions, as he sets off to rescue Princess Millian from the Garaden Empire in a somewhat Star Wars-inspired adventure. Graphics, controls, atmosphere, and especially music are all on-point. There's no other game in the series like this one - even I loved it, and I usually don't enjoy 3D platformers at all.


Bubble Symphony (Arcade)
A well-balanced and creative sequel to Bubble Bobble, that's thankfully not as arduous as the iconic original. It offers multiple paths through the game, which adds replay-value, and contains loads of fun references to other Taito titles. The gameplay and presentation are top-notch, and if you're a fan of platformers, especially the single-screen arcade kind, you're sure to love it.


Bust-A-Groove (PSX)
A rhythm-game that apples a fighting-game-style GUI and structure to a series of dance-battles! Every character has their own theme-song ("I Luv Hamburgers", where Hamm sings about his love of burgers, is pretty funny) and stage where various things happen in the background throughout the course of the song, and there are several unlockable dancers and a two-player mode as well. You'll need good rhythm for this one!


Chippoke Ralph no Daibouken: The Adventure of Little Ralph (PSX)
More like a lost arcade title than a 1999 Japan-only PlayStation game, The Adventure of Little Ralph follows its title character as he's transformed from a brave hero into a helpless child by a demon, and has to go on a quest to restore his true form and rescue his girlfriend. It's a beautifully-presented, smoothly-animated linear platformer that's mostly in the Wonder Boy/Adventure Island sort of vein (with a couple of big bosses who get fought Street Fighter-style, which is a weird choice since it completely breaks up the flow of the game by shifting to an entirely different genre and control-style), with a focus on high-scores and speedrunning.


Cosmic Ark (Atari 2600)
An unusual little game where the objective is to rescue alien creatures from the planets of a dying solar-system. It's split into two phases - one where the directional controls are used to shoot at meteors coming at the titular Cosmic Ark from the four cardinal directions, and another where you manoeuvre a small Shuttleship out of the mothership and down to ground-level in order to beam up the creatures using the fire-button before the next meteor-shower begins, and without getting hit by the planetside security-systems. One of the earliest games where the idea was to rescue instead of destroy!


Darkwing Duck (NES)
A Capcom platformer based on the Disney TV-cartoon about the caped crime-crusher of St. Canard, this one plays like a "lost" Mega Man game, as it's based on the same engine with some new additions. Perhaps a bit too tough for a cartoon-licensed game, but still great fun, and the graphics, music, controls, and atmosphere are all spot-on, making it feel like a true extension of the TV-show.


DoReMi Fantasy: Milon no DokiDoki Daibouken (SNES)
An easygoing and incredibly charming late 16-bit era platformer where you must rescue a kidnapped fairy and retrieve a set of magical musical instruments that have been cursed by a demon. Lovely animations and music accompany fun stage-themes and level-designs, and the game is filled to the brim with personality - it's astonishing that it was never released outside of Japan, but luckily it doesn't really require any knowledge of Japanese. (A fan-translation does exist, but it adds a new ending that was made up by the team behind it, which doesn't fit the game at all, so I really can't recommend that.)


Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (Arcade)
Bright and breezy boss-rush game set in Capcom's Mega Man universe, and the properly-fleshed-out follow-up to Mega Man: The Power Battle. Pick a character and a set of bosses, and chase after high-scores and best times. There are several different characters and stories to choose from, and lots of great music and animations on offer - along with some hidden moves that pay homage to other Capcom games!


New Adventure Island (TG16)
A continuation of the Adventure Island platform-game series, which itself was originally a rebranded version of Wonder Boy, with all of the excellent gameplay and catchy music that you would expect. It's better-balanced than the earlier installments, which improves the overall experience considerably!


Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo (C64)
A short-but-tough console-style platformer, which sees Scrappy-Doo setting out to rescue his Uncle Scooby and Shaggy, who have been kidnapped. The game has a really cool original tune on the title-screen, and the in-game atmosphere captures the feel of the cartoon perfectly; Unlike the Amiga/Atari ST platformer of the same name, which was reworked from a cancelled game called "Stig the Rat", this version was clearly designed from the ground up to be based on the TV-show. This was the most popular of the Hanna-Barbera licensed home-microcomputer games released in the UK in the early 1990s. It's also my favourite Commodore 64 game of all time.


SegaSonic The Hedgehog (Arcade)
An action game where you must help a protagonist of your choice - Sonic The Hedgehog, Ray the Flying Squirrel, or Mighty the Armadillo - to escape from the trap-filled Eggman Island. Originally trackball-controlled, but maps fine onto a d-pad under emulation (my efforts to use an analogue stick kept causing the game to crash, so I gave up on that). Very charming and fun for a quick playthrough.


Spanky's Quest (SNES)
This one was released in Japan as an officially-licensed tie-in game for a famous performing monkey named Jiro, and then reframed as an original title for its worldwide release. It's an arcade-style platformer in the same sort of vein as Bubble Bobble and Liquid Kids, featuring a little monkey who uses magic bubbles to attack; Heading a bubble like a football causes it to grow and change colour - then when you press the attack button again, the bubble will burst into various kinds of sports-balls depending on how big it was. There are hat power-ups that can be worn to gain various effects, and a bunch of big bosses to fight, too!


Star Parodier (PCE CD)
A parody cute-'em-up in the Star Soldier series, with fun theming and plenty of great references for Hudson Soft fans. You get to choose from three different ships (a large anthropomorphic PC Engine console, a giant Bomberman-shaped mech, and the Paro-Caesar which is based on the Caesar ship from Star Soldier) and take on either the standard game which offers multiple difficulty settings, or the 2 and 5 minute "Caravan" high-score-chasing modes. Very charming and fun throughout, and a must if you like unusually-themed shoot-'em-ups!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderAs your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Emulating Spider-Man....... It is my duty to swing by and give some top sports games to emulate.....

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIts your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Emulating Spider-Man again....... Swinging by to give you even more top sports games to emulate.......

Thanks for these! I'm not a sports-game person myself, but I know that sports games have suffered quite a lot from microtransactions, complacency-induced bugs, and the like in more recent times, so these will definitely be useful to people.

Quoting: pilkSome games I'd recommend checking out are Jack Bros, Panic Bomber, Virtual Boy Wario Land, and Mario Clash.

My 3DS is no longer in service, so I can't try it out with Red Viper, but thanks so much for the reminder that I need to give Virtual Boy Wario Land a go!

It's a pity that the Virtual Boy only got Panic Bomber, and that the proposed mainline game, Virtual Bomberman, was cancelled, though...

Quoting: missingnoWaku Waku 7: This game's mechanics are honestly borderline kusoge, you can't even cancel normals into specials. But I love the design and atmosphere so much. Tesse is really fun to play even in spite of the system mechanics.

Yay! Another Tesse fan! Waku Waku 7 is so damn fun.

If you want a good place to buy (yes, buy) legitimate homebrew Intellivision ROMs, then I suggest Intellivision Collector as a really good source. I bought the Intellivision port of Castlevania (Intellivania, which isn't for sale anymore apparently), and I wanna get the port of Parsec for it. It uses the IntelliVoice module too! I also own the original on the TI-99/4A. 🚀

I recommend NINTV-DS as an emulator if you can play DS homebrew. It uses the bottom screen for the overlays! Overlays are a separate file that you put in with the ROM. Pretty cool use of the hardware. 🕹️

Nine Princes in Amber (C64). Playable in Vice.

Quoting: Linux_RocksI bought the Intellivision port of Castlevania (Intellivania, which isn't for sale anymore apparently)...

Here's a video of some gameplay of Intellivania.

My Spidy-Sense is tingling..... Must be time for your Friendly Neighbourhood Sports Emulating Spider-Man to swing by to give more great sports games to emulate.....



Triple Play 2002 (2002 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)



NCAA GameBreaker 2004 (2002 989 Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)



NHL 2002 (2001 EA Sports) – Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Hockey)



NBA Live 2003 (2002 EA Sports) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Basketball)



Shane Warne Cricket (1996 Codemasters) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Cricket)



PES 2014: Pro Evolution Soccer (2013 Konami) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Soccer)



Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (2003 EA Sports) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Golf)



NCAA Football 06 (2005 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)



Mutant League Hockey (1994 Electronic Arts) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Hockey)



Virtual Pool 64 (1998 UFO Interactive) - Nintendo 64 - Sports (Pool)



Knockout Kings 2003 (2002 EA Sports) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Boxing)



Virtua Tennis (2000 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Tennis)



Mario Superstar Baseball (2005 Nintendo) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Baseball)



Mario Power Tennis (2004 Nintendo) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Tennis)



Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003 Nintendo) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Golf)

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderShane Warne Cricket (1996 Codemasters) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Cricket)

I did not know that Cricket video games existed