Hall of Game: Best Virtual Appearances of Real Athletes

We’ve all heard stories or seen with our own eyes the power one player can have during our favorite game or match. We can recall Kobe Bryant scoring 60 points in his final game, Mike Tyson knocking out Michael Spinks in the first round, and Jerry Rice taking over Super Bowl XXIII. These athletes’ videogame counterparts have also become legends among the community, each for their own specific reasons. No matter what sport these virtual athletes played, we all know one thing: they were really good and even more annoying to play against.

#10 - Randall Cunningham, (QB Eagles) Tecmo Super Bowl

We’ll talk more about Tecmo Super Bowl later, but we’ll kick off our list with an iconic member of that game “QB Eagles,” who is really Philadelphia Eagles great Randall Cunningham. Cunningham’s name was not attached due to him not agreeing to terms with the NFL Players Association when the game was released. In any case, Cunningham was a difficult player to stop for similar reasons as another cyber quarterback, but with lesser wide receivers.

Tecmobowl.org founder Knobbe said of QB Eagles, “...used correctly he's basically unstoppable. You can roll out every play and get at least 6 yards on a run or toss the ball if the defender comes to meet you. It's not so much that he's going to score on one play, it's just that with him you can control the tempo of the game and only be stopped by called plays...There is a reason why he's always going to be the #1 draft pick in an online league using the original rom.”

#9 - Rudy Gay, NBA 2K11-13

Rudy Gay is one of the most frustrating basketball players both in the virtual and real world. A man with so much expectation lumped upon him who never seemed to live up to them, Rudy Gay was even more frustrating to play against in 2K for these reasons. You’d think a perrenial disappointment would be easy to stop, right? Wrong. Gay could do everything in 2K, whether you needed scoring from the paint, outside, or beyond the arc, defense, rebounds, assists, you name it. Gay became a cult figure throughout the community, and left people wondering why he couldn’t seem to achieve the same level of success in real life as he did in 2K. Watch him replicate Jordan’s famous “foul-line” dunk here in NBA 2K11:

Uproxx writer Drew Corrigan says of Gay, “Midrange, three, anywhere on the court, it was good to go. Once he heats up, it’s hard to get him to cool down. He was another one of those players that people put up 60-70 points with and there was NOTHING you could do to stop them. His combination of size and strength, along with his fluidity, made out to be a nightmare that no one saw coming. And if you ever started a franchise with him? Forget about it. By year three, after improving some of his characteristics, he’d be dunking on everything in sight, dropping 35 a night and banging five triples a game.”

#8 - Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!

Originally, Mike wasn’t even on our list, simply because we couldn’t agree on if MTPO was a traditional sports game or not. Tyson is the only real person in the game, and it’s not even a realistic boxing game. We decided we’d be remiss to not include the “Baddest Man on Earth” on a list of busted virtual athletes.

For many of us, “Iron Mike” seemed to be the final boss of our childhood that we could never seem to beat. We’d all get hit by one of Tyson’s punishing straights, giving us a Game Over screen, and making us upset we wasted a whole day trying to get to the champ. Even outlets like CBS Sports have paid homage to the classic title 30 years after its initial release because of these struggles. 

Time has not been kind to Tyson, as speedrunners have trivialized our anguish and have had to resort to various gimmicks in order to make the game more challenging. You may have seen the blindfolded Punch-Out! run, but this past Awesome Games Done Quick showed us a new way speedrunners mock Tyson: playing both Punch-Out! and Super Punch-Out! at the same time.

#7 - Ken Griffey, Jr. , Every Baseball Game He Was In, Ever

In a recurring theme of the best players being featured on the cover of their games, Ken Griffey in his own game was a nightmare to play against in any of the four games he starred in. Posting near-perfect stats, Griffey dominated these games in a way no other player could - mostly because it wasn’t their game. Griffey was always the most fun player to use in these games because he practically hit home runs every time he was at bat.

With Griffey’s return in MLB: The Show 17, a whole new generation of players were introduced to “The Kid” in HD. New games, new engines, same results. Check out YouTuber Emmdotfrisk’s short gameplay video of Griffey doing what he does best - belting home runs.

It’s a shame to think of what could’ve been versus what we ultimately got. A string of bad luck with injuries and being stuck on some pretty poor teams post-Seattle kept Griffey from being mentioned as a top-two or three baseball player of all time, rather than just a Hall of Famer (weird to say that, but it’s still true!)

#6 - Peyton Manning - Every Football Game He Was In, Ever.

Sorry to use the same gimmick back-to-back here, but if I’m going to do it for any two athletes, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Peyton Manning deserve it. The King of Consistency as far as Madden, NFL 2K, NFL Fever, or any other football game he was in is concerned, Peyton ruled the virtual gridiron with an iron fist. In Madden alone, Manning was rated above a 90 every year he played except for his rookie season, was rated 97 or above overall for 11 of his 17 NFL seasons, and was rated 99 overall from 2005 until 2010. EA Sports even released three Peyton Manning Madden Ultimate Team cards after he retired, and wrote him a tribute thanking him for being a vital part of the Madden franchise, despite never being on the cover of the game.

Bleacher Report’s Scott Altman recounts a situation every single one of us has been in before when playing against Manning and, “...cringed as he runs around the backfield, wearing the play clock down to one second, and then proceeding to toss a touchdown to Reggie Wayne behind your stingy Cover 3 defense.” Everyone nodding their head knows you can replace Reggie Wayne with any of Manning’s receivers from Indianapolis or Denver - and knows he’ll put the dagger into your heart quickly. Kind of like this:

Another sad footnote on Manning’s career was his career-altering neck injury. Similar to Griffey’s injury history, we all had some amazing years of Manning’s career stolen from us by Father Time. Without that happening, who knows how long Peyton’s reign of terror would’ve lasted?

#5 - Allen Iverson, NBA 2K - NBA 2K3

Before 2K became the gaming phenomena it has become, it was simply Sega’s basketball franchise. For the entirety of the game’s life on the Dreamcast, it featured Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson on the cover and, in another case of “Cover Star Syndrome,” Iverson was unstoppable in these games. Iverson was unstoppable as he made his way to the rim. You could rack up points easily with A.I., mostly because nobody else on that team was any good, but playing normally usually netted you about 30 a game. When he was clicking, though, A.I. was a force to be reckoned with, not unlike his real-world self. I’ve seen stat lines of 50, 60, even 70 points from “The Answer” and never even thought twice about it. That’s how much of a monster he was in these games. Once the series transitioned off the Dreamcast, Iverson went from legendary to a pretty good player, just like in real life. But we’ll always have these games to go back to and dominate with our favorite pint-sized point guard once again.

When speaking about Iverson’s appearance in NBA 2K3, often called his greatest appearance, Corrigan said, “There wasn’t a thing you could do to stop him, just pray he missed. He was too quick to defend, and forget about it on a fast break. His speed was so insane you could literally just run around the court until his defender disappeared and swish an open jumper.”

#4 - Randy Moss , Nearly every football game ever.

Look, I can’t pick only one instance of Randy Moss for this list - the dude was a video game character in real life. He was a freakish athlete who always had a knack for coming down with the ball, despite the overwhelming odds against him. For those of you too young to remember, here’s a helpful little video package to jog your memory:

Yes, that’s real life. This guy did all that stuff in real life. So, you can only imagine how ridiculous his virtual counterpart was, right? Moss was an unstoppable force in pretty much every game he was in up until the very end of his career. I mostly remember him as being one of the only “100” rated players in the pre-patch NFL 2K5 rosters. I also remember him dominating Madden for almost two decades and how impossible he was to defend once he joined the New England Patriots. Then, EA Sports did the unthinkable and made Moss even more overpowered by adding the “spectacular catch” stat in the game. There’s a reason why his last name is a verb (“Mossed”) and anyone using Randy never let you forget when it happened to you. For his legendary status, Moss was named to EA Sports’ Madden NFL All-25 Team, a selection of the finest players from the history of Madden throughout the years.

Top Madden players have also lent their thoughts to Moss’ greatness. “Can you say spectacular catch?” said YouTuber Simfballcritic.  “In Madden NFL 09 all you had to do was the ball in the vicinity of Randy Moss and he would come down with the completion. The combination of speed and height made most one of the most feared receivers in Madden NFL history. Moss caused many people to stay in a Man Defense with 2 safeties over the top.”

Need more proof? Check out YouTuber MilesDawkins247’s trip down memory lane with Moss and see for yourself how powerful Moss truly was.

#3 - Jeremy Roenick , NHL ‘94

Now we get to the “broken” part of the list. These next three guys are without a doubt the most dominant virtual athletes of all time because of how stupidly broken they are. We start with Jeremy “JR” Roenick.

Before JR cut his teeth as a talking head on NBC’s NHL pregame show, he was one of the most dominant centers in the National Hockey League. His appearance in NHL ‘94 was legendary, being even more feared than Wayne Gretzky himself. Roenick was lucky to have the fastest skate speed and hardest shot in the game, making him a completely unstoppable beast that is still talked about today. "It's one of my claims to fame," Roenick said. "I'm very proud of it. I'm down in the annals of history, whether it's being on the ice or in video games. I like that aspect. Whoever it was at EA who gave me the [great] rating in '94, you've left me something to be proud of for eternity." That being said, you probably shouldn't approach JR about it without a press badge.

#2 - Michael Vick, Madden 2004

An entire generation of people shuddered as they scrolled to this point, myself included. We all remember how miserable it was to play against Michael Vick in Madden 2004, and we all did our best to try to stop him - but we never really did. The man was faster than most running backs, had such high agility that he was able to weave through tacklers better than most wide receivers, and, on top of all that, he could even throw the ball 60 yards downfield  - meaning you were never safe from an explosive Michael Vick play. What’s worse is if you were too busy keying in on Mike, your opponent would hand the ball to their Pro Bowl running back Warrick Dunn and gash you up the middle for 15 yards, and if they were on the goal line, you would get a healthy dose of T.J. Duckett, who almost never went down after the first tackle. Vick’s appearance was so iconic that EA named him as the starting QB for their All-25 Team back in 2013.  

Bleacher Report’s Scott Altman described the horror of facing Vick, saying, “You could drop back 50 yards and still scramble your way into the end zone, or you could drop back 50 yards and sling a rocket-pass 80 yards down field to an open receiver,” Altman said. Basically, if you were playing with Michael Vick in Madden '04, anything was possible.” EA Sports Game Changer Shaun Mason said of Vick, “Michael Vick in Madden NFL 2004 was the most overpowering player in Madden history and every other virtual athlete pales in comparison. In real life, he was coming off one of the most dynamic quarterback seasons ever seen, and that translated to an off the chart Madden speed rating...Many Madden veterans still have nightmares about that version of Vick when they fall asleep."

Suffice to say, you might be able to contain him, but you never really stopped Michael Vick in Madden 2004.

#1 - Bo Jackson, Tecmo Bowl

Come on. You knew this guy had to be number one. Anyone that can do this should be number one on any list:

Bo’s combination of speed, strength, and agility made him hard enough to stop in real-life, let alone in a virtual world where all things are optimal, and games were made without thoughts of balance in mind. Like Complex’s Gavin Evans said in his own top virtual athletes list, “Bo Jackson has become almost a mythical creature in video game lore so powerful that only the most foolish of gamers dare to challenge him.”

Tired of these overpowered athletes ruining your life? What about those that make it their life and career? Check out our interview with Echo Fox's Pro Madden player, Raidel "Joke" Brito.