For people who are die-hard fans of sports games, this is probably a good thing but for me it is something that more often than not disqualifies me from ever getting interested in them. I was a big fan of sports games on NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, and to a certain degree this extended to the PS1. As controllers got more advanced and started to have more and more buttons, I feel as though features were added to the games that only people who have been fans since the particular franchises evolved can really wrap their heads around them.
Perhaps it is because while I am a dedicated player, I work and do other things in my life and therefore I have a difficult time remembering the controls if I walk away from a game for even a couple of days. I think this is the reason why I tend to enjoy platformers and RPG games because these games rarely have the sort of setup that is going to require you to use the upwards of 17 buttons that is on a PS4 controller.
I really enjoyed the days of the classics, and I am probably going to date myself a bit but lets look at a few sports games that I really enjoyed in the days of yore.
One of my favorite sports games of all time is the Lakers vs Celtics and later Lakers vs Bulls games that were on Sega Genesis. You may recall that the Genesis only had 3 buttons, and while I can handle a few more than this, it made it possible for me to become a bit of a "master" of the game.
Joe Montana Football on the Genesis was also a fantastic game in my mind. I played the hell out of this title and myself and my friends all had a blast playing this even though defense was a little difficult since you couldn't really see a great deal of the field away from the ball.
The early NHL games on PS1 also appealed to me because the top buttons on the controller were used, but mostly for optional moves. It was one of the first games that I played that utilized most of the buttons but the PS1 controller only had 8 buttons and maybe it has something to do with my intelligence but that is about as many buttons as I can handle.
These days, I don't know if developers feel compelled to use all the buttons but it seems as though they do. Not that long ago, I bought NBA 2K21 and by the time I finished the tutorial, took a break to eat lunch or something and then came back to the game, I couldn't remember what the hell the buttons do.
So these days, whenever a new sports' game comes out, I recall that there is a lot of pressure on the producers of the game to add new features which means that they are going to add a bunch of button combinations that for players like me just are just too much to remember. I suppose they have to do this because EA in particular have been taking a lot of heat for basically re-releasing the same game but with updated rosters in the interest of making more money and fans feel duped.
So the answer for me is to basically stay away from all sports games on PS4 since as far as genres are concerned, sports titles are near the bottom of my list.
There was a time though that I really enjoyed sports games but as controllers get increasingly complicated they tend to be titles that I don't have much to do with, even when I end up getting the games for "free" on PS Plus.
What say you? Am I being a whiney bitch or do you also think that the latest sports games are overly complicated?