Michael Abbott has an interesting post up positing that sports games are a neglected niche of gaming criticism.  Frankly, I think he overestimates the extent to which sports titles change from year to year, and though he argues that the notion that sports games require less imaginative design is a “flawed” premise, I don’t really see much evidence that this is the case.

Gaming critics, in general, are interested in the most creative forms of gaming development (story, art, mechanics, themes).  Simulations, when done correctly, simply can’t lend themselves to as much creativity as other genres.  This is because simulations must mimic their real-life counterparts as effectively as possible in order to be valuable as simulations themselves.  Consider Madden ‘08, which recently came under fire because the results that it presented were simply unrealistic - how much more criticism would it have encountered had its players been cell-shaded and cheered on by Donkey Kong?  Although alternative control schemes, like Madden Wii, may add some additional immsersion to the mix, they’re fundamentally covering the same game and mechanics.

Let me suggest a final problem with sports criticism: that no sports game is able to transcend its own boundaries; if you don’t like soccer, you’ll never like FIFA, no matter how well it’s presented.  Although challenging, I’d suggest that some games can do this; Braid had plenty of detractors, but many people admired it despite not really liking it, because parts of the experience were so different and new.  I suspect the same is not true of MLB ‘XX. 

For example: Abbott makes a valiant effort to find something to say about MLB ‘09, and notes a bit about their immersiveness and ability to self-generate a story.  Unfortunately, I don’t think these comments are actionable.  They can’t be generalized beyond a sports game; several titles have explored the idea of a player-generated story as a concept, but as a whole, the fully-open ended concept is restricted to simulations, where the process and experience are more significant than the goal per se.  I have a hard time seeing what the sports angle in particular lends itself to that many other titles do not.

And there’s the rub - there’s no reason to go out of one’s way to write about these games specifically, unless you already have an interest in those games as sports games, because the lessons which can be generalized are readily available elsewhere.  I happen to love Madden, FIFA, and various baseball games - but I don’t know that I can write much of substance about them.