Top 10 Sports Games - with Tom Vasel

[@rogerrigby7943]

Subbuteo, the iconic (English) football game. Great simulation of the game. Been around for years and still to be bettered.

[@nelbr]

Subutteo is fine, but at least in Brazil it is surpassed by the 80+ year old Futebol de Botão, button football or table football as it is called nowadays. Crazyly popular, with regional, national and even international leagues, take a look at this video for some beautiful images and the best use of dice in a game this side from D&D. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5PQlH6MgrGIp9k (sorry its in Portuguese, but still worth watching)

[@CrossCCB777]

Roger Rigby totally agree an awesome game.

[@pawsoft7]

Totally agree. Subbuteo is the finest simulation of association football the world has ever seen!....though it was only available in Europe I believe.

[@miketests]

Guild Ball - Kickoff! deserves a spot here. It's a great board-game/miniatures game crossover, and offers a lot of depth as a sports game

[@ScorpusFlexSlotCarRacing]

Hey Tom. Have you heard of MBA jam fantasy basketball board game?

[@Rewslaun]

Blood Bowl should be #1

[@TexasToyReviews]

How did Circa Baseball not make this list??? It’s a dexterity pinballish game that replicates baseball perfectly in board game form, especially if you keep track of bases and scores.

[@Zombiewski]

Very happy to see MLB Clix on here. The game definitely needs more love.

[@keithtextor3323]

Thanks for the shout out for Harry's Grand Slam.

[@tyrinkuper3218]

need to try Tech No Bowl Tom, its an amazing Football board game that replicates the game SO well.

[@nickvandam1214]

I picked up BattleBall, and wow is it fun. Thanks for the recommendation Tom!

[@GamingWithGeo]

I think Techno Bowl really should've made it on the list. I don't particularly care for football but that one is really fun.

[@isdochwayne]

for fussball (soccer) i really like the card game "hat-trick"

[@Tablassus]

Nice review!! Does anyone think that one day will be a card or board game based on a sport that is capable of captivating the audience (perhaps with a similar strategy level and popularity like Star Realms, Blue Moon Legends, Elysium) ? Or like Tom said the nature of sports is hard to emulate on a board/card game? What are game designers missing here?

[@ryanheckel37]

First his beard was green, and now bright purple. Please Thomas tell us this isn't some kind of middle life crisis 😂

[@bradymccann]

Ryan Heckel why is this actually happening?? Haha I’m confused

[@ryanheckel37]

I'm not sure, I'm just glad other people see it, I thought it was just me 😂

[@TechVick]

Mardi Gras!

[@LivinZLife350]

No tudor game choices?? Electric football is great!

[@345345asdasd]

DUDE!!! I wish some of these boardgame reviewers would talk about that game! Electric football the best fucking boardgame IMO

[@brad1987]

Solid list but I would add NHL Icebreakers, Football Strategy, Paydirt, Street Soccer, and March Madness

[@TrOuTster5]

I agree about Subbuteo, below, another winner is Tipp Kick.

[@miistercrayon]

Purple beard!! I think this one is cooler (the green looked like a shadow on your set up).

[@frankelee]

Tom calls Blood Bowl too chaotic, but it's not clear what that means. I assume since he's not a miniature gamer he's referring to all the team building, roster keeping, and upgrading with dozens of skills that take it beyond what you're required to do with a regular board game.

[@thedicetower]

No, I mean that despite all that careful planning crazy plays can and will happen.

[@Ugluck67]

Have you had the chance to play Fliip Football? I really dig this one and I think you might like it as well.

[@Power-Mad]

After years of being number 11 or number 101, Baseball Highlights 2045 finally gets put on a list!

[@CaptainGamer347]

What about Kaosball? I thought it would have made the top 10.

[@StaunchWolf]

I thought so too

[@josetaylor7354]

love the purple!

[@ryusorata]

Wow, so many underground games. You could put adrenaline as a laser tag sport game kind of sort of :)

[@420BilboSwaggins]

Have you gotten a chance to play Techno Bowl yet?

[@420BilboSwaggins]

Yes. It is easily my favorite sports game. It is the only one so far that feels like a borderline simulation while still being very simple and accessible.

[@numbersix9468]

Scratches that football itch that the games included on this list just dont

[@natelinhart114]

Why have I not heard of Basket Boss until now!!!

[@keithtextor3323]

Nate Linhart ditto

[@MarianGabrielAlfons]

Take a look at Epic Soccer Chess. The game is an enormous project and combines dice and cards in a unique way.

[@ericbrock876]

Tech No Bowl!

[@JobraKai]

There was a recent con (last couple years) where a developer mentioned a new nhl licensed game in the works but no news since.. anyone know what it is? IMHO there are no good nhl board games..

[@matthewsumski8992]

Joe Campbell Have you tried NHL Power Play? Pretty decent deck builder although certainly hard to simulate an actual hockey game.

[@JobraKai]

Matthew Sumski I haven’t tried that one I got nhl icebreaker and it was teeeerrible.. some of the old stat games look ok but was hoping someone would remember what company was developing a new nhl game so I can keep an eye on it.

[@GamingWithGeo]

I agree that there need to be better hockey games. Of all the ones made to date Hockey Blast, and Big League Hockey Manager are the only ones I find enjoyable.

[@ZaarIvo]

Well, obviously Blood Bowl should be number one.

[@jedihq1]

Tom Vasel is the shizzle!

[@Barney5G]

This is the best colour yet. I suspect Tom lost a bet or something.

[@vexingarcanix95]

Paydirt is the best American Football game I have ever played

[@rhino2340]

Test match is my favorite as a kid

[@TabletopBaseballPlus]

For the best in sports simulation games check out Tabletop Baseball Plus. Thanks

[@professormayhem3080]

Dude! The purple looks awesome!

[@bwah9481]

woah Tom's facial hair is purple.

[@rogerrigby7943]

Hey Tom, you’ve been eating too many grapes and drinking too much grape juice again.

[@kevinlester2592]

It was a freak communion accident. It took alot of shot glasses of welch's.

[@KabukiKid]

The only sports-related game I own is Baseball Highlights 2045. Great game. Otherwise, I don't really have interest in sports games.

[@silverfang6668]

Dribbel Fever!

[@numbersix9468]

Techno Bowl is the king of football games.

[@undersci]

"Blood Bowl is too chaotic to make my top 10". I love Tom, but this is perhaps the dumbest thing he's ever said in his decades of talking about games. Blood Bowl has more control and less chaos than almost all the games on this list, and is far more of a skill game than casual players realize. Almost chesslike in how skill based the positioning and play are - if you think it's just about dice rolls, then you just don't know the game well enough.

[@IndyGamerMike]

It is all about mitigating the chance of the die rolls. When to try something risky vs safe. Blood Bowl left out of a sporting game top 10 is crazy.

[@suckpipe7193]

blood bowl = bleech bowl slow, random and tedious

[@undersci]

You can like it or not, but calling it 'random' is absurd.

[@alrith72]

Bloodbowl is the best game that GW have ever made, great game and a travesty that it's not on the list.

[@nickp3177]

You know, I'm not the best blood bowl player, but I guarantee that I could beat someone who accused it of being completely random about 9 out of 10 times (and the tenth one will probably be when they start realizing it has strategy). And I play the team that relies on die rolls and "Elf Bullshit" probably more than any other (Pro Elves). Blood Bowl is fantastic. Yes, occasionally a roll will go nutty at the worst possible time, but if you are playing with a lot of forethought, that one roll isn't going to lose you a game.

[@LandLordMBlitz]

Wtf? The beard

[@elrodrigo6188]

*points* PURPLE PIRATES ARE TAKING OVER! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

[@Traumtheater0]

Wow! Ugly cap!