5-at-10: What are the top 5 best sports video games of all-time?

photo The cover of Madden NFL 09 features Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre on the cover. Players can download new rosters that feature Favre as a Jets quarterback.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Morning gang. From the Disney Studios 5-at-10 satellite office, let's make some Magic (Kingdom).

We have been blissfully/bashfully unattached to the sports world this week. So it goes in the land of the Mouse. Vegas and Disney are amazingly similar in that each operates in its own little world. Five-overtime historic basketball games, State of the Unions, you name it and unless it has ears or an appointment from brunch with the Princesses, well, it is just background noise.

For Friday, we want to try to pull off five quick top-fives, so send them below or at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com, and we'll make the magic happen.

Today, our top five reaches way back into our generation. After FE to the C mentioned Tecmo Bowl on Tuesday, that got us thinking about the best sports video games of all-time. We have long been an avid sports video game fan/junkie. Since we became a father, though, our video game habits have all but vanished. So it goes.

Here's our top five, feel free to share your favorites:

5) Baseball Stars - The Sir Isaac Newton of the field Baseball Stars was the first to allow you improve players' skills. Officially this is the Tim Duncan all-underrated all-star of sports video games.

4) Tecmo Bowl/RBI Baseball - Great fun to play and ahead of their time in that these were the first to use real player ratings and names/likenesses. Still very playable today, which is a great compliment considering the advancements in the field. These are the "Die Hard" of the genre.

3) EA sports college football - The yearly advancements on this franchise have become amazing. The recruiting aspect added a few years back was so cool, that the offseason stuff was more fun than the actual games. if you think back to the Bill Walsh College Football game on Sega, the comparisons and connection are almost unrecognizable.

2) Mike Tyson's punch out - The summer of 1988 was when we developed our sports video game habit/dependency. And Glass Joe and The Bull and the rest of the fighters to get to Tyson were the reason. We can remember the day we beat Tyson. It was awesome and awful, if that makes sense.

1) Modern-day Madden - Gang, what they are capable of doing with ratings, and drafts and franchise modes is awesome in its awesomeness. The capacity to improve players in training camp a few years ago was amazing. To compare where video games started with Pitfall and Space Invaders and see where they are is crazy.

We feel pretty sure we have left one or six off the list. Whatcha' got, and what top five do you want to see Friday?

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