10 Video Game Mechanics We Can't Believe Were Left To Die

3. Overblown Arcade Versions Of Sports

Seen in: Def Jam, Redcard, WWE All-Stars

Another point that goes alongside uber tricks, showing off and studios like EA BIG being household names, games like Def Jam: Vendetta, Fight for New York and WWE All-Stars proved there was a market for more "cartoonified" approaches to specific sports.

This idea predated Def Jam, too. Nintendo had given us Super Punch-Out and Mario Tennis, and Midway's NBA Jam was legend, predating NBA Street. Things like Facebreaker and Ready 2 Rumble applied this mentality to boxing, and even the older WWE Smackdown! games were suitably ridiculous, letting you drop an elbow from 50 feet onto your opponent.

Across the 2010s though, all this went away.

As mentioned earlier, the nearest you'll get to an arcade racer is Forza Horizon, the Def Jam series died with ICON, boxing titles became minigames in VR compilations, and 2K took wrestling down an unbelievably boring simulation route.

Bring back arcade sports games, and quick.