Play a new iteration of Madden and you're likely to see a realistic representation of a NFL player getting injured. It'll almost make you as queasy to watch digital Megatron crumple after a hit as it would to watch real life Calvin Johnson tear as an ACL. Almost.
But the violence of most sports games in 2012 is based on a need to resemble reality (and comply with the rules of the leagues that gave their licenses to the game companies). The games of the past didn't have the technology we have today, but they did have imagination and easy-to-sign celebrity endorsers, which combined to make some of the weirdest, most violent games of all-time, sports or otherwise. They're each enough to make a sports commissioner shudder with fear, and to delight gamers who think this lost genre is due for a return.
These are The 15 Most Violent Sports Video Games.
Written by David Matthews (@_dmatthews)