Kids and parents love to watch sports. Therefore, it is no surprise that one of the most popular genres in the videogame industry is sports. It’s a category that the whole family can enjoy; mothers and sons everywhere can compete against each other in a friendly game of baseball or a quick match of volleyball. Plus, sports video games have a twofold benefit for the concerned parent: While playing the video game, the chances of your child becoming injured are slim, and children can learn more about the rules and regulations of the sport to help them make better decisions during their physical activities. Now, we're not suggesting that you replace sports with video games, but they can be just as much fun.
NHL Rival 2004
In addition to the more widely accepted sport types—such as football, baseball, hockey, and basketball—there are also extreme sporting games such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and rollerblading, as well as the less aggressive sports such as tennis, golf, and billiards. Most of the sports titles available are rated E for Everyone, however, some sports are by nature quite violent, but nothing more than you would expect if you were attending the real life sporting activity. Keep in mind that the experiences encountered while playing Xbox Live titles may change based on who your children play with, so monitor your child's online gaming closely.
We're not going to bore you by telling you that a football title is about football, so let’s get straight to the fun stuff. Here are some of Xbox Solution's top picks in the sports genre.
Get on the ice! NHL Rivals 2004 is a perfect pick for hockey fans and offers the first authentic hockey experience on the Xbox console. Unique players with special moves and abilities create a hockey fan's dream come true. Players can choose their favorite team and battle it out on the ice against their real world rival teams in one of the most realistic hockey games we've seen to date.
Amped® 2
Top Spin™ is a top-notch tennis game that allows the player to begin a career in the likeness of one of today's tennis superstars like Anna Kournikova or Martina Hingis, or create your very own player in your image. Not only is the 3-D character modeling at the top of the class, so is the game. The motions are fluid. and the games are fast paced.
Golf anyone? Links® 2004 offers the best golfing experience available on the Xbox; you'll be amazed at how exhilarating a game of Linkscan be. Links 2004 has been completely reworked from the PC version and supports Xbox Live gameplay as well as tournaments through the XSN Sports service. The courses are wonderfully detailed and take you everywhere from New South Wales to the Four Seasons Resort Aviara; the subtle touches are shocking.
Freestyle snowboarding has never been so cool! Amped® 2 delivers everything a pro snowboarder could want and more. Amazing landscapes, fresh soft snow, and plenty of wide open real world mountain slopes to get your groove on. Let the action intensify over Xbox Live by smacking out insane combos! Careful with this one though; the controls are easily learned, but mastery will take time.
Links® 2004
So you wanna be a THUG? Tony Hawk's Underground puts you at the bottom of the barrel and let's you work your way up the ranks to become the most successful skateboarder. The Tony Hawk skateboarding titles have always been among the cream of the crop, and this is no different. However, now you can even take the action off the board and into the streets on foot. Pretty innovative for a boarding title, if we do say so ourselves!
We could list games all day long, but you get the point. It's hard to go wrong with sports titles on the Xbox! Most of the titles use motion-captured physics, so the realism factor is exceptional. It boils down to what type of sports you and your children enjoy and getting the biggest bang for your buck. If you're an XboxLive subscriber, we strongly recommend sticking with the Xbox Live enabled titles to dramatically increase the replay value.
