This was the first time I've ever requested a response to a column. And man, did you guys ever respond. There were so many responses to the question that I hired Arthur Anderson to tally the results. Although 651,978 responses seems a little far-fetched, I trust their practices and am confident that the numbers are correct. And let me also say that diversity is NOT dead, because the answers were extremely varied in choice and reasoning.
There was Doua Thao's ambiguously sexual reasoning that the original Atari's \Track and Field"" was the best because of its joystick technique, known as the ""palm technique."" That involved cupping your hand over the joystick; with the middle of your palm directly controlling the joystick you generate power (how fast your runner moved in the game) by furiously moving the joystick back and forth, left and right.
Marshall Bussen's answer was even more interesting: ""Not many people know this, but the game of 'Contra' was actually based on paintball (which is a sport inasmuch as NASCAR racing and golfing are sports, right?). Plus, killing aliens is cool."" Well said, Marshall.
Kyle Moen responded with Sega Genesis' ""NHL 1995"" for nostalgic reasons: ""Pee-wee hockey players across the country would lock themselves indoors for hours practicing the 'wrap around' with the Great One.""
I would be remiss if I didn't mention ""Blades of Steel."" Justified by the impeccable logic of Alan Kobussen, ""C'mon they even let you fight-and only the loser goes to the penalty box.""
Some evoked memories of games I hadn't even remembered, like NES's ""Baseball Stars."" John Payne praises its innovation, ""It was the first game ever in which you could create your own teams and players, and power them up with money earned from beating other teams. You could play long seasons (as many as 125 games), and keep track of stats and league leaders, also a feature available for the first time.""
Steven Leschisin cited the dramatic storyline and the ultimate challenge of ""Mike Tyson's Punchout"" as the reason why it's the best sports game. ""The Rocky-like storyline is just realistic enough to make you actually want to beat the game just for Little Mac. Each fighter has his tendencies, and once you master these, they start dropping like flies. However, once you get to a certain point, you need to go off sheer talent. Mike doesn't take a fall for just anybody.""
And the most creative response came from Eric Groskreutz, who expressed his love of ""NBA Jam"" in modified four-line haiku form:
""From downtown! No good!
Intercepted! He's on fire! (technically eight syllables, but who cares?)
Turbo use makes sneakers glow!
Boomshakalaka!""
But the winner is, hands down, ""Super Tecmo Bowl."" Sure, there were other football games mentioned. Andy Seibel chose N64's ""NFL Blitz"" because, ""no game created more yelling and upset losers."" And Brian Temke pleaded for the original ""Tecmo Bowl"" because, ""the high-five after the touchdown, the ease of which Bo Jackson broke tackles, it was heaven on earth, or at least my friend's couch.""
But ""STB"" is the best for the sheer memories it evoked. ""Everyone has their own story beating Tampa Bay 77-0,"" said Mike Cavey. Lucus Schneider wrote, ""With Bo Jackson, my roommate Tyler got 1,419 yards in one game."" ""The make-your-own-Pro-Bowl teams, complete seasons with stat tracking,"" wrote Christian Stilp. Everyone had more to say, but hey, I only have 600 words.
So there you are-the winner is ""Super Tecmo Bowl"" in a walk. But it doesn't really matter which game was the best. Quite honestly, it was all about growing up and learning some of life's most important lessons through video gaming: violence is cool and losers have no worth.
