October happens to be that rare time of year when all four major North American sports are in action–five if you count soccer; six if you count NASCAR (and seven if you include golf). If you’re any kind of sports fan, there is probably something for you to watch right now.

The sports genre is one we don’t cover much here at oprainfall. Aside from the occasional Mario Golf, or odd duck like Rocket League, the only time sports games get any coverage is when discussing retro games. Sure the modern sports games can be fun since you get to play as your favorite teams and players, however I believe the retro era was where those games shined. There was minimal licensing of leagues and players leading many games to use completely original rosters. Others took liberties with the rules of the game, resulting in more than one game with robotic players or super abilities.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a sports game fan, I guarantee you’ve played at least one classic game that doesn’t often get considered when talking about the sports genre, like Punch-Out!! or Excitebike. Below, you’ll find some classic TV advertisements for some memorable sports games, as dug up by the oprainfall Retro Commercial Research Team–in other words, me.

So, what are some of you’re favorite retro sports games? Do you prefer R.B.I. Baseball or Baseball Stars (or, like me, do you think Baseball Simulator 1.000 is better than both of them)? Tecmo Bowl or Tecmo Super Bowl? Ice Hockey or Blades of Steel? Sound off in the comments below.

Here are the highlights from the past week:

REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

• REVIEW: ESCHATOS | Jacob Dobbs
• REVIEW: Almightree: The Last Dreamer | Eric Chetkausaks
• REVIEW: Samurai Warriors 4-II | Joe Sigadel
• REVIEW: Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash | Josh Speer
• REVIEW: The Legend of Legacy | Steve Baltimore
• REVIEW: A Kiss For The Petals: Remembering How We Met | Benny Carrillo
• Early Access IMPRESSIONS: Dungeon League | Phil Schipper
• (18+) EROGE REVIEW: Saya no Uta | Chris Melchin

ORIGINAL CONTENT

• Making It Rainfall Week 3: Crashing Castles
• Interview: XSEED Executive Vice President Ken Berry on New Games, Censorship and PC
• Last Week’s King and Kong (Oct. 5-11, 2015): Charities and Defaming
• Total Control Ep 51: We Interview XSEED (PODCAST)

NEWS

• Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water Shows off Zelda and Zero Suit Samus Costumes
• Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus HD Coming to PC
• Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Western Release Date Announced
• Distribution of Nintendo NX Dev Kits Begins
• Sony Announces the October Flash Sale Deals
• Trails of Cold Steel Gets New Screenshots and Trailer
• XSEED To Localize Xanadu Next For PC
• New Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Footage and Details
• RWBY Manga Coming From Shirow Miwa

Do you like Super Mario Maker? Are you looking for more levels to play? Check out our Making it Rainfall series, where we detail levels made by some of the contributors, and try your hand at their creations.

And, as always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for retro commercials, let us know either through Facebook, Twitter, or just leave a good old-fashioned comment below.