From the sublime to the ridiculous, that's the best way to describe the spectrum of alternative sports game choices in 2004. There were several entries that qualified in the "sublime" category--Mario Power Tennis, Fight Night 2004, and Greg Hastings' Pro Paintball Tournament Challenge (which performed one of the most remarkable achievements of the year: making a paintball game fun) come immediately to mind. As for the ridiculous, well, there's plenty to talk about there as well. Between a preponderance of hunting and fishing titles (including the game that gets my vote as Best Title of the Year, NRA Varmint Hunter) and the release date of the abysmal PC game Athens 2004 coming several months after the actual Summer Olympics were held, 2004 has, at the very least, kept us laughing.
As for the year ahead for alternative sports, I'm not ready to make predictions just yet. I'm simply too busy huntin' varmints…