The 15 Most Violent Sports Video Games

Wherein "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" is exactly how you win.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

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)

15. SSX

Not Available Interstitial

14. Red Card Soccer

Not Available Interstitial

13. Deathrow

Not Available Interstitial

12. Bases Loaded

Not Available Interstitial

11. Blood Bowl

Not Available Interstitial

10. Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball

Not Available Interstitial

9. Base Wars

Not Available Interstitial

8. Blast Lacrosse

Not Available Interstitial

7. Ninja Golf

Not Available Interstitial

6. Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl

Not Available Interstitial

5. Mutant Football League

Not Available Interstitial

4. NHL '94

Not Available Interstitial

3. Arch Rivals

Not Available Interstitial

2. Hit the Ice and Blades of Steel (Tie)

Not Available Interstitial

1. Blitz: The League

Not Available Interstitial

Latest in Pop Culture