"Ew sports games" is a fairly widely echoed sentiment, be in playing them, seeing them litter the shelves, boxes and whatnot of second hand game shops and places you might find old games for cheap and the like (though can be a useful source of case replacements).
That said there are sure to be some sports you resonate with at some level. Whether it is because they had their day in the sun, because modern games are expensive (or at least they tell me they are) or for reasons unknown to mortal man then you might have got one or two games during the PS1, PS2 and maybe a bit of the PS3 era but they stopped being made or stopped being made well (miss you xbox era MX vs ATV). We might not even get handheld versions any more (though cash grab mobile phone games could still be in play, there is a reason we can ignore them in this though).
I am also counting offshoots in this so if you were a Fifa street fan then despite the mainline fifa (and to a lesser extent pro evo) still being around then it is in play, and if you prefer sports management sims then also count in this if straight simulation is still littering charity shop shelves to this day. Try to make it that kind of difference though rather than "I was a fan of college American football but now only have big leagues".
So then most likely format to do any good is sport in question, game you think set the benchmark, last game you might have played that sort of worked and if different anything vaguely like a modern attempt.
Friends of mine don't go in for skateboards (though they are suffering a bit since the demise of Skate, Tony Hawk's throwback was not bad when I gave it a spin but... eh) but do go in for BMX, and skateparks are still full of them whenever I go to them. BMX games were once considerable in scope, Dave Mirra (Acclaim had a bit of a footing in this world with motocross/supercross, ATV, roller blading/inline skates a bit later) and Mat Hoffman (same "line" and engine base as Tony Hawk of the era, various amounts of cross pollination between the games as well). Few indy attempts have been made, fairly experimental (if comparing to skateboard games then stuff like Session and skater XL) but the last was probably either the PSP game (Dave Mirra BMX Challenge) in 2007 or its Wii port a few months later. The PSP one took a while to click but I did actually quite like it.
Covering releases over the years I have seen things like Aussie rules football (though a quick search says they are making these again), various forms of American motorsports get one off titles (Nascar kart racing could count as an offshoot, though stuff like World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, which even managed to get a physical PAL release albeit in Australia,).
That said there are sure to be some sports you resonate with at some level. Whether it is because they had their day in the sun, because modern games are expensive (or at least they tell me they are) or for reasons unknown to mortal man then you might have got one or two games during the PS1, PS2 and maybe a bit of the PS3 era but they stopped being made or stopped being made well (miss you xbox era MX vs ATV). We might not even get handheld versions any more (though cash grab mobile phone games could still be in play, there is a reason we can ignore them in this though).
I am also counting offshoots in this so if you were a Fifa street fan then despite the mainline fifa (and to a lesser extent pro evo) still being around then it is in play, and if you prefer sports management sims then also count in this if straight simulation is still littering charity shop shelves to this day. Try to make it that kind of difference though rather than "I was a fan of college American football but now only have big leagues".
So then most likely format to do any good is sport in question, game you think set the benchmark, last game you might have played that sort of worked and if different anything vaguely like a modern attempt.
Friends of mine don't go in for skateboards (though they are suffering a bit since the demise of Skate, Tony Hawk's throwback was not bad when I gave it a spin but... eh) but do go in for BMX, and skateparks are still full of them whenever I go to them. BMX games were once considerable in scope, Dave Mirra (Acclaim had a bit of a footing in this world with motocross/supercross, ATV, roller blading/inline skates a bit later) and Mat Hoffman (same "line" and engine base as Tony Hawk of the era, various amounts of cross pollination between the games as well). Few indy attempts have been made, fairly experimental (if comparing to skateboard games then stuff like Session and skater XL) but the last was probably either the PSP game (Dave Mirra BMX Challenge) in 2007 or its Wii port a few months later. The PSP one took a while to click but I did actually quite like it.
Covering releases over the years I have seen things like Aussie rules football (though a quick search says they are making these again), various forms of American motorsports get one off titles (Nascar kart racing could count as an offshoot, though stuff like World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, which even managed to get a physical PAL release albeit in Australia,).