PC Engine Hucard sport games (a list and hopefully some discussion)

[Winniez]

I have been for some time now interested in PC-Engine Hucard sportgames. Hucards because thats what I collect and play and sports games because they tend to get overlooked and can be very cheap, and some of them are really good fun.
Since sport games can be bit obscure and the library can be overwhelming I made a list of Hucard sport games for myself in order to get a better understanding of the library. I thought why not share it here, maybe someone can get some use from it. These are only Japanese PC-Engine releases. I'm sure there are games I have overlooked so feel free to fill in the blanks.

Baseball:
Kore Ga Pro Yakiou 89/Intec
Kore Ga Pro Yakiou 90/Intec
Naxat Stadium/Naxat
Power League/Hudson
Power League 2/Hudson
Power League 3/Hudson
Power League 4/Hudson
Power League 5/Hudson
Power League '93/Hudson
World Stadium/Namcot
World Stadium '91/Namcot

Dodgeball:
Cyber Dodge/Tonkin House
Hono Dodge Danpei/Hudson
Nekketsu Dodgeball/Naxat

Football:
Formation Soccer 90/Human
Formation Soccer on J-League/Human
J-League Greatest Eleven/Nihon Bussan
Nekketsu Soccer/Naxat
Power Eleven/Hudson

Golf:
Ganbare! Golf Boys/NCS
Jack Nicklaus Championship Golf/Victor Musical Instruments
Naxat Open/Naxat
Power Golf/Hudson
Winning Shot/DECO

Tennis:
Final Match Tennis/Human
Power Tennis/Hudson
World Court Tennis/Namcot
 
Wrestling:
Champion Wrestler/Taito
Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout/Human
Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Legend Bout/Human
Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag/Human
Maniac Pro Wrestling/Hudson
Monster Pro Wrestling/ASK Kodansha

Other Sports:
Appare! Gate Ball/Hudson (Croquet)
Ballistix/Coconuts Japan (Futuristic ball game)
Break In/Naxat (Pool)
Bullfight/Cream Co (Boxing)
Digital Champ/Naxat (Boxing)
Hit The Ice/Taito (Hockey)
Kick Ball/NCS (Baseball/Dodgeball)
Power Sports/Hudson (Olympics)
Super Volleyball/Video System (Volleyball)
Tsuppari Dai Sumo/Naxat (Sumo Wrestling)
TV Sports Basketball/Victor Musical Instruments (Basketball)
TV Sports Football/Victor Musical Instrument (American Football)
TV Sports Hockey/Victor Musical Instruments (Hockey)
USA Pro Basketball/Aicom (Basketball)
World Beach Volley/ICS (Volleyball)
World Jockey/Namcot (Horse Racing)

[Gypsy]

Nice list. There are also some pretty fun ones on CD.

I've been getting into the baseball and golf titles recently. After that I do plan to try some wrestling titles. I'm still waiting on most of this stuff to arrive from Japan so I can't comment too much yet.

[CrackTiger]

Wallaby!!
Ballistix
Battle Royale
Champions Forever Boxing

[Winniez]

Battle Royal and Champion Forever Boxing are US exclusives. Wallaby looks more like a gambling simulator (haven't played it) and Ballistix is pretty futuristic but I'll add it to the list anyway.

[Keith Courage]

Great list except all those football games are not football. They are Soccer!

All joking aside I am a big fan of the power league series, Power sports, TV Sports games, Super Volleyball, and hit the ice.

I know this is a hu card list but the J-League tremendous soccer 94 Super CD is fantastic!

[Winniez]

Great list except all those football games are not football. They are Soccer!

All joking aside I am a big fan of the power league series, Power sports, TV Sports games, Super Volleyball, and hit the ice.

I know this is a hu card list but the J-League tremendous soccer 94 Super CD is fantastic!

Well I thought Football is more international, besides I'm from Europe so its only natural
I was suprised how much fun I had with the Hit The Ice. I have only played it on emulator since I haven't been able to find a cheap copy. Power league games are great, I haven't really been brought up with baseball but I have grown to like arcadey games of that genre. And I don't mind the actual sport anymore, quite like it actually.

[esteban]

Hany on the Road

[SignOfZeta]

I like Power Golf a lot.

[shubibiman]

Great list except all those football games are not football. They are Soccer!

No, they are football. How much do american football players use their feet ? Almost never.

I don't know if this word is used in the US but american football is sometimes called gridiron in the UK or in other Commonwealth countries, which sounds much cooler .

[TheClash603]

I never knew there was a croquet game, has anyone ever played?  I am a big fan of the actual game and now am curious to give it a try.

Great list except all those football games are not football. They are Soccer!

No, they are football. How much do american football players use their feet ? Almost never.

I don't know if this word is used in the US but american football is sometimes called gridiron in the UK or in other Commonwealth countries, which sounds much cooler .

Let me see you try to start a game of FOOTBALL without kicking the ball.  I have watched a lot of games in my day and it always seems to need feet.

The only thing worse than the sport of soccer is the people who watch it.

[Winniez]

I actually have it, got it part of a lot. I haven't played much of it but it feels kind of underwhelming, maybe it needs little more time. Croquet game I think is a great idea on paper, unlike in golf you have to always think about the next gate and being able to continue after a succesful gate creates nice streaks.
I too love the actual game, a great way to spend a summer day, build a makeshift course in park and have few beers with mates. And doesn't cost a penny (except a cheap croque set in the beginning)

[shubibiman]

I never knew there was a croquet game, has anyone ever played?  I am a big fan of the actual game and now am curious to give it a try.

Great list except all those football games are not football. They are Soccer!

I mean, in real football, you only use your feet, not just to kick the game off.

No, they are football. How much do american football players use their feet ? Almost never.

I don't know if this word is used in the US but american football is sometimes called gridiron in the UK or in other Commonwealth countries, which sounds much cooler .

Let me see you try to start a game of FOOTBALL without kicking the ball.  I have watched a lot of games in my day and it always seems to need feet.

The only thing worse than the sport of soccer is the people who watch it.

Football :

American football (or hand football, or Gridiron) :

Anyway, my favourite kind of football is rugby footba ll:

But there's no rugby simulation on the PCE, which is a shame.

[Winniez]

To be fair to Americans most of the PC-Engine football games have "soccer" in their names
I think the Japanese name for the sport comes from soccer.

[NecroPhile]

To be fair to Americans most of the PC-Engine football games have "soccer" in their names

Exactly; and if it's not in the title, I bet it's in the manual.

[majors]

Driving is not a sport? No F1's? And here I thought you was a European...or maybe formula is not a sport, it's a lifestyle!

[Winniez]

Driving is not a sport? No F1's? And here I thought you was a European...or maybe formula is not a sport, it's a lifestyle!

I'm from Finland so motorsport is practically the national sport here. I intentionally left out driving because its hard to define what costitutes to a motorsport game. Outrun doesn't feel like a sport, Motoroader doesn't, Final Lap Twin maybe etc. Maybe I should add them nevertheless?

Final Match Tennis feels pretty good, as does the Power Tennis. Tennis games have that nice pick and play quality in them.

[Gypsy]

Driving is not a sport? No F1's? And here I thought you was a European...or maybe formula is not a sport, it's a lifestyle!

I'm from Finland so motorsport is practically the national sport here. I intentionally left out driving because its hard to define what costitutes to a motorsport game. Outrun doesn't feel like a sport, Motoroader doesn't, Final Lap Twin maybe etc. Maybe I should add them nevertheless?

Final Match Tennis feels pretty good, as does the Power Tennis. Tennis games have that nice pick and play quality in them.

Best metal country. \m/ \m/

[Winniez]

I don't know about the best but I do know we have the hightest amount of them per capita in the world.

[Gypsy]

I don't know about the best but I do know we have the hightest amount of them per capita in the world.

Seems to be the national hobby, form a metal band. There are even metal bands for children. 

I like the output of Germany and Sweden too, but for my money, I like Finland the best.

[shubibiman]

Children of Bodom !

A little bit off topic though ^^;

Driving sports simulation were rare back in the time as it was I think too difficult to render the sensations.

F1 Circus series are great games.

Anyway, even most of the football games have a more arcadish gameplay.

[_Paul]

I never knew there was a croquet game, has anyone ever played?  I am a big fan of the actual game and now am curious to give it a try.

Don't. It's bloody terrible.

[Psycho Punch]

A man can dream

[shubibiman]

You don't need this game when you've got the huge Formation Soccer 95. To me, this game is better than ISS and FIFA.

[Psycho Punch]

You don't need this game when you've got the huge Formation Soccer 95. To me, this game is better than ISS and FIFA.

You're talking about the italian cup one right? Nah dude, ISSD has, for me, the perfect gameplay scheme, and that includes the graphics and the camera's perspective. It has the perfect blend of arcade + simulation. I dislike FIFA because the gameplay isn't all that good and goes towards the simulation side of things, and Formation Soccer because everything is too fast and loose, too arcadey for my taste. I also hate bird's eye perspective in soccer games.

That's only my nostalgia tainted personal opinion, of course.

PS: Allejo > Janco Tianno.

[TheClash603]

I never knew there was a croquet game, has anyone ever played?  I am a big fan of the actual game and now am curious to give it a try.

Don't. It's bloody terrible.

I just bought a real set last week instead, my old one was falling apart.

[Winniez]

Early FIFA games were really underwhelming in my opinnion. Especially when compared against the EA's own brilliant NHL series.
I played quite lot of the early FIFA games on PC and I would say the first good one was 96. Not sure about 95, that was SEGA exclusive but looks similar to the first FIFA.
I too vouch for ISSD being the best football game of its time, and NHL being the best sport game series.

[shubibiman]

Opps, didn't remember that it was a thread about Hucard games only ^^;

[Gypsy]

Power League IV is pretty damn good. I like that they separated auto and manual for fielding and base running. Base running is annoying to manage but I do like fielding myself.

[goldenband]

Tennis games: World Court Tennis is quite good, even if the English localization is a hilarious disaster -- among the worst I've seen. The underlying engine is excellent, though, as it's basically a carbon copy of the terrific Famicom release Family Tennis. It'd be nice if the original Japanese release, Pro Tennis: World Court, got a fresh fan translation.

I've heard great things about Final Match Tennis but have only played it briefly. Davis Cup Tennis wasn't released in Japan, and anyway it's much better on the Genesis/Mega Drive -- the TG-16 version is stiff and controls poorly. Not sure if I've played Power Tennis.

Hit the Ice may be the best version of the three home console ports; it's certainly better than the horrible SNES port, but the Genesis version has some nice perks like a password system (the TG-16 game goes on far too long).

I found Sonic Spike Volleyball (aka World Beach Volley) very frustrating.

[shubibiman]

Davis Cup was released in Japan but as a SCD. It plays much like the computer versions.

FMT is probably the best tennis sim ever :

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/117765304

[Gredler]

Tv sports hockey is the best of the bunch. Followed by hit the ice

[Gypsy]

Tv sports hockey is the best of the bunch. Followed by hit the ice

Trololololololol.

[Gredler]

I troll you not. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and hockey is fundamentally more fun than any other sport, so inherently it makes for better videogames. The others sports start at a distadvantage.

[Gypsy]

Damn Canadians. 

[Psycho Punch]

I'm not buying the cat game if there's a hockey minigame in it. I MEAN IT!

[esteban]

I'm not buying the cat game if there's a hockey minigame in it. I MEAN IT!

This would actually be the *only* reason to support Catastrophy—a hockey mini-game with cat-goalie and/or FelinePowerPlay is needed and necessary, IMHO.

[pixeljunkie]

This thread needs more Power Golf 2!

Honestly, I couldn't get into much other sports games. I do remember putting in some obscene time with the TV sports games when I was much younger*






*stupid

[Winniez]

Still digging Power Eleven and Formation Soccer series. Cheap thrills but kind of strange to think that they were priced similarily to the top tier games when new. Hmm Formation Soccer J League or Soldier Blade, nah gotta go with the J League.

[esteban]

Still digging Power Eleven and Formation Soccer series. Cheap thrills but kind of strange to think that they were priced similarily to the top tier games when new. Hmm Formation Soccer J League or Soldier Blade, nah gotta go with the J League.

That's funny, I never thought about the price of new sports titles. Obviously, it would have been a worthwhile purchase for sports fans.

But, damn, it's a rare sports game that is worthy...

[shubibiman]

Why should sport games prices be lower ? They're not cheaper to develop.

[turboswimbz]

Speaking of sports games Meta: 

It always interests me that World court tennis featured a RPG aspect... a game which was a spin off of earlier titles. (And that the base of the game was literally reused for Final lap Twin a strange RPG spin off version of Final Lap. ) Personally I think it's kinda a stroke of genius by Namco compared to words on a menu select between games and actually gives you a story to your rise of greatness.  I can't think of a sports game since that gave you as much of a  story.  I think modern games might be able to  do something similar and bridge the gap between RPG players and sport game Players.  No one has really done it sense, and probably for good reasons, but i think it is something that would be really neat to see done.  Too often video games have bad story telling in favor of graphics. Stories are what we all do all the time, we create them, we collect them, we watch then, we tell them. 

TLDR:
RPG sports mash up games are cool: PCE had 2
I'd like to see more games like this in the future
Story telling is important, many games have bad storytelling.

P.S. Gredler is crazy Hit the Ice >>>>>>TV sports Hockey

[Winniez]

Why should sport games prices be lower ? They're not cheaper to develop.

They shouldn't and I didn't mean to imply so.
However I don't think the complexity, quality or effort put into the game influenced that much to the MSRP price (atleast in Japan). It was mainly the ROM size and possible additional chips.

[CrackTiger]

Why should sport games prices be lower ? They're not cheaper to develop.

They are when you release the same game each year, only updating stats and sometimes changing a few variables. That's why almost all sports games released for North America are worthless within a year and clog up used game bins, even when priced as low as <$1.

[shubibiman]

Yeah I know that. But aren' we talking about early 1990's games ? Sports games were not released each year back then.

[wildfruit]

Early FIFA games were really underwhelming in my opinnion. Especially when compared against the EA's own brilliant NHL series.
I played quite lot of the early FIFA games on PC and I would say the first good one was 96. Not sure about 95, that was SEGA exclusive but looks similar to the first FIFA.
I too vouch for ISSD being the best football game of its time, and NHL being the best sport game series.

FIFA 95 is quite nice. Has quite good graphics and sound. It controls well. It's fun up to a point, there's a bug that if you just run down the touch line and shoot near the end the opposing goalie will just dive straight up in the air and you will score every time.

[esteban]

Early FIFA games were really underwhelming in my opinnion. Especially when compared against the EA's own brilliant NHL series.
I played quite lot of the early FIFA games on PC and I would say the first good one was 96. Not sure about 95, that was SEGA exclusive but looks similar to the first FIFA.
I too vouch for ISSD being the best football game of its time, and NHL being the best sport game series.

FIFA 95 is quite nice. Has quite good graphics and sound. It controls well. It's fun up to a point, there's a bug that if you just run down the touch line and shoot near the end the opposing goalie will just dive straight up in the air and you will score every time.

That's quite a bug...it would be fun to watch a compilation video of Old vs. New FIFA bugs.

And I am not a sports fan, especially futbol.

[CrackTiger]

Yeah I know that. But aren' we talking about early 1990's games ? Sports games were not released each year back then.

They were over here, these are the first years of EA's stat updating franchises for Sega Genesis:

Madden 1990
NHL 1991
NBA Live 1991
Fifa 1993

This new model tainted sports games in general, as they became the games that sports fans had to know and often unlicensed one-off games were seen as cheap loser games by comparison. Having real names and stats in games became more important than gameplay or enjoyment. It evolved to the point where peopke began paying real money each year for the latest Xbox 360 dashboard skins of their favorite team(s).

[Psycho Punch]

This new model tainted sports games in general, as they became the games that sports fans had to know and often unlicensed one-off games were seen as cheap loser games by comparison. Having real names and stats in games became more important than gameplay or enjoyment.

Exactly! Nowadays every sports game without licensing is seen as a cheap, budget game that presumably no one plays. Back in the 8/16 bit era there was a big variety of soccer/basketball/etc. games on the market with comparable quality and people were capable of having fun with them. Nowadays everything is monopolized by few gaming companies and you don't hear of independent sports games, only EA Sports games and the odd Konami one in the mix (Pro Evolution Soccer).

[esteban]

This new model tainted sports games in general, as they became the games that sports fans had to know and often unlicensed one-off games were seen as cheap loser games by comparison. Having real names and stats in games became more importanthe  than gameplay or enjoyment.

Exactly! Nowadays every sports game without licensing is seen as a cheap, budget game that presumably no one plays. Back in the 8/16 bit era there was a big variety of soccer/basketball/etc. games on the market with comparable quality and people were capable of having fun with them. Nowadays everything is monopolized by few gaming companies and you don't hear of independent sports games, only EA Sports games and the odd Konami one in the mix (Pro Evolution Soccer).

Amen.

Mutant League Hockey/Football

...and all the more "arcade action" games...

[CrackTiger]

In my high schools, one of the things that any guy who wanted to be cool had to do is play the NHL hockey games.

I remember how shocked I was when one of the hockey guys in my class admitted to trying TV Sports Hockey and said that he thought it wasn't that bad.