THE MAG.COM PRESENTS:
ALL WORLD POWER RANKINGS

by Ted Bauer

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You're the man now, dog!

WHEN IT COMES TO THE BEST SPORTS VIDEO GAMES EVER, MADDEN GRABS THE CONTROLLER

Sports video games are an interesting concept: fairly divisive (everyone has an opinion on what's the best game ever) but also community-building at the core (think of key scenes from Swingers). Today, with the release of Madden '09 a little over a week away (clouded by this Favre reinstatement) and our own Madden package commencing, we thought we'd take a stab at ranking the best sports video games of all-time. It wasn't easy.

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	1 (4)	*MADDEN '08*	The most important, and successful, sports video game franchise of all-time. Madden 2003 might legitimately be the best version, but we'll take most recent at the top slot for innovation's sake.
	2 (649)	*NBA JAM*	Sociological experiment: go to any local park and watch kids ball. Whenever a guy hits three in a row, someone screams either "He's heating up!" or "He's on fire!" That's cultural relevance. Bonus: works exactly the same way if you observe a college beer pong game.
	3 (84)	*NHL '94*	The Boston Globe recently ranked this the best sports video game of all-time, and it's definitely close. Cool thing: as mentioned, featured in iconic film Swingers. Cool thing II: if you can successfully do a one-timer in that game, you're a golden god among your friends.
	4 (188)	*TECMO BOWL*	Testament to how hard it is to rank sports video games: no way Tecmo Bowl should really be this low. Coolest thing: Christian Okoye was never truly as good in real life as he was here, and it elevated him to a new level as a result. Random trivia: who's the only guy from Tecmo '91 still in the NFL? Read down to Honorable Mention for the answer.
	5 (912)	*MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH OUT*	Ask anyone between the ages of 22 and 36 currently who "Piston Honda" is, and chances are they know. That's pretty sweet.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	195 (517)	*TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER*	This is a fairly iconic—and good!—game. Need to give love to Tony Hawk, arguably the best—and coolest!—"fringe sport" athlete of the last two decades (sorry, S. White). Only reason it's not higher: doesn't it stand to reason most people who would be all about this game would rather just go outside and catch vert?
	213 (1,914)	*RBI BASEBALL*	Awesome game. Spawned this. One of our staffers once played this game religiously as the Texas Rangers. Why? No idea. Answer to that Tecmo Bowl question: Jeff Feagles.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT		WHAT
		*TRACK AND FIELD* (With the Olympics a few days away, it's time for a renaissance!)
		*DUCK HUNT* (Mostly cool because it came with Super Mario.)