2024
The best fighting, driving, and sports games of 2024 on PS5, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC
We take a look at the best games in these genres among those released in 2024 that is about to end.
Although it has not been the most productive year for the sports genre - the best example being the election of EA Sports FC 25 as the best at The Game Awards - there are always good proposals to get your hands on. In addition to the infallible soccer simulator, there are other usual annual releases that, although not included in this text, are always red in the calendar of fans, such as Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K25, or NHL 25.
These include F1 24 and Top Spin 2K25, as well as WWE 2K24, which is somewhere between sports, wrestling, and pure spectacle. We will also include fighting games, where there have not been many titles in terms of quantity, but where fans have been well served in terms of quality, with nothing less than Tekken 8 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection. Let’s take a look at them.
Tekken 8
Katsuhiro Harada and his team at Bandai Namco laid the groundwork for the future of the franchise with the best-selling Tekken 7. The characters of its predecessor and the massive community it created around the world convinced the Japanese genius that they were on the right track and that these were the solid foundations on which to build. The result was Tekken 8, a game released in early 2024, with a huge, diverse, and balanced roster of characters, perfectly recognizable gameplay... but also a necessary update for the genre. It is no longer enough to have an arcade mode and a multiplayer mode with ranked matches, and this has been perfectly understood, presenting a fun multiplayer lobby and other elements that make it accessible to more players, while maintaining the usual depth.
EA Sports FC 25
Regardless of the criticism that season after season, the game once known as FIFA, now EA Sports FC, is year after year the most played sports game of the year, as it could not be otherwise when it comes to the king of sports. This year, as if that were not enough, it was recognized as the best sports game of the year at The Game Awards. We know that, as in every release, Ultimate Team will be the most played mode by players, the one that absorbs the vast majority of hours spent by everyone opening envelopes, playing UT Champions, and completing challenges... but that does not mean that EA Vancouver neglects other aspects. Thus, this year we have been able to enjoy an extremely fun and direct mode such as Rush, very accessible to everyone, to which we must add more new features in Career Mode that make this the best installment of the series in a long time.
WWE 2K24
Wrestling is on the verge of winning over more fans than it already has worldwide thanks to its landing on Netflix, but 2K Games and Visual Concepts will also play an important role. With titles as complete as WWE 2K24, there is no doubt that they will do their part, and with modes like Showcase of the Immortals, the most veterans will be delighted to be able to recreate some of the most legendary matches from Wrestlemania, the WWE event par excellence. But of course we can also recreate the great rivalries of today like Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley, Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens, or the confrontation that will be consecrated as the true Tribal Chief between Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa, in modes like My GM, My Faction, etc... all with an overwhelming amount of possibilities between the ropes... and outside of them.
Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO
The saga created by Akira Toriyama is in a very sweet moment... if it ever stopped being so. While the story of these legendary characters continues on screen and on paper, Bandai Namco has not stopped offering video game adaptations, in most cases of remarkable quality, with a few exceptions such as Dragon Ball: The Breakers. Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO may very well be the definitive game for fans, featuring a super accessible fighting system and an absolutely massive roster of fighters, with more than 100 characters that fans have been imagining great battles with for decades. With Spike Chunsoft’s game, there is no need to imagine anything, any fight is possible, and that is a direct hit on the hearts of the fans, who have responded by flocking to the stores to get their hands on this title that smelled like a smash from miles away.
F1 24
Codemasters has been demonstrating its expertise in the driving genre for decades, whatever the terrain: rallies, circuits and, of course, Formula 1. The great circus is captured on screen with a technical power beyond any doubt, and when the wisdom of the British adds the resources of Electronic Arts, the result can only be an enormously solid simulator. After the great leap that represented F1 23, this season’s installment was limited to living on the rent, but even so, it is more than enough to satisfy fans of these very fast single-seaters, better recreated visually than ever. Despite the absence of historical content, probably the great unfinished business of the saga, in terms of content F1 24 comes with a huge offer for the motoring fan to spend months and months emulating Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris and, of course, Alonso.
Marvel vs Capcom: Fighting Collection
Capcom’s massive compilation of up to seven fighting classics: X-Men: Children of The Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men VS Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998), and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000). Decades of history for one of the most popular crossover games ever, with the charisma of characters from the House of Ideas and others from the Japanese company such as Ryu, Ken, Strider, Mega Man, etc.... Of course, all of them with new functions and features, to which we must add the rollback netcode for online performance appropriate to the times. And to top it off, the addition of the beat ‘em up The Punisher. Almost nothing.
Top Spin 2K25
After some failed proposals in the last years, such as AO Tennis 2 or Tennis World Tour 2, racket fans were missing a good product to get their hands on. The return of a legendary saga of this sport such as Top Spin raised hopes of finally having a reference title, and despite their limited experience in the genre, Hangar 13 (creators of Mafia 3) managed to create a convincing proposal. With 25 licensed tennis players and no less than 40 different courts, Top Spin 2K25 offers a wealth of content that is also reflected in its game modes, highlighting the classic My Career, especially fun in individual sports.
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