10 Most Mourned Sports Video Games Franchises

One criticism of modern football (in particular FIFA games), is that they are almost too slick, too uniform and too clean. This is not a charge that can be levelled at This Is Football. The highly entertaining games had a successful run in the early 2000s, before fading into obscurity on the PSP. The games played much like the FIFA and PES games of the same era, but also embraced the dark arts of football, with players incentivised to try to deceive the referee and the ability to take an opposition player out of the game with a flying horror challenge.

This Is Football 2005 would be the last home console release, with the core gameplay unable to keep pace with the evolution of EA and Konami’s games as the Xbox 360 and PS3 came onto the market. A special mention should also go to 2002’s RedCard, which was even more gratuitously violent and cartoonish. Sadly even US cover star Brian McBride (who was amongst the best 4 American players at Fulham during his time there) did not provide enough star power to secure any kind of sequel.