Top CB in the league? At least Madden says so.

I recently read that Nnamdi Asomugha has been rated a 99 in the 2010 edition of Madden football.  This is not surprising news…I like sports and I like video games – ’nuff said.  But what came to my mind was me playing a franchise in Madden 09 with the Houston Texans (again, no questions please).  I had a game against the Raiders, which yielded a prime-time match-up:  Asomugha covering the ridiculously talented Andre Johnson.

What happened next is what frequent players like to call “the computer cheating.”  I threw to Johnson several times with Asomugha intercepting jump balls each time.  About 5, 6 times.  That was just plain ridiculous and shouldn’t have happened. 

Nnamdi was rated a 96 on last year’s game…but this year he has been bumped up to a 99 rating.  Imagine that.  Now I know that the team that I run my franchise with this time around will not reside in the AFC West.  I’m sure that he’ll be intercepting hand-offs to running backs.

But this just made me think about the good old days of games that had virtually unstoppable players.  In tribute to Asomugha’s dominance over me, here’s a few that I can recall:

Jackson did a lot of tackle breaking on TecmoBowl.

• Bo Jackson – Techmo Bowl:  His character is the standard by which all other video games characters will be measured.  Bo could not be tackled.  Bo had warp speed.  Bo scored touchdowns on every play.  After Bo scored a TD, he beat up the opposing team and ate them.  OK…maybe not…but you get the picture.
• Mike Tyson – Mike Tyson’s Punchout:  You only received the privilege of fighting him after defeating all of the other characters on the game.  Then, you were immediately greeted by a 1:30 punch sequence (at the start of each round) during which any punch that connected would knock you down.  But somehow that was believable given how small Little Mac was compared to the gorilla that was Tyson.
• Marshall Faulk – Madden 1999-2000:  When he got the ball, he could beat the defense to the edge every time…and score.  His speed was just blazin’.
• Kevin Garnett – 2003-2008 NBA Live:  According to the game-makers, he had the total package.  Height, quickness, skill, and defense were all at KG’s disposal.  And they were evident whenever you played with him.  He was the only reason that anybody would have even considered playing with the T’Wolves. 

What players do you remember who are immortalized in video game history??