Last week we continued our best gaming debate by arguing over Boogerman vs Toe Jam. Toe Jam slaughtered Queen Slug for a Butt the week before, but this week was much more close. Here were the results:

Boogerman: 32 votes
Toe Jam: 53 votes - Winner!

This week's debate is between Sports games and Mini-game focused games. Both have big audiences. Sports titles of course have been around much longer as I still recall playing the stickmen littered basketball game on Atari, rightly titled, Basketball (it had to be the first of its kind, no need for fancy names). Then you have the mini-game/party-game genre that is ever growing thanks to Nintendo. I can't think of a game before Mario Party that had the sole focus of being just mini-games, ehh.. Adventures in the Magic Kingdom featured different gameplay types within one game, but I don't completely consider it the same thing.

Check back next week where there will be no results to this fake debate, check back with Fronz's posts for the real deal. I just realized, other than NBA Jam, there hasn't been a sports game I really enjoyed (though when I keep thinking, I can give a pass to NES Ice Hockey, which was fun at the time). I also realize there isn't many party-game type games I don't like, but, I am semi-sick of the genre itself, so don't play the new ones that keep coming out (Note: I bought WarioWare brand new from Amazon for $25 last month, I still haven't opened it yet, I just couldn't pass it up, 25 bucks.. but I am too busy with The Darkness and now just started Overlord, to care about the minigame stuff).

As a "hardcore" gamer, is it wrong to have a bittersweet relationship with these two genres? When people spark up the video games are art debates, do these two genres not completely represent why video games are not art, but just graphically sophisticated toys? I do however appreciate that the gaming entertainment medium tries to expand its horizon to all people with all tastes and should continue to do so, but, I just hate how established genres such as RPG's and Fighting games seem to be on the decline by comparison (Note: Xbox 360 has two fighting games on disc, and just a few more on XBLA, at the least Virtua Fighter is on the way and Soul Calibur has been announced).

P.S. When Sports games and Mini-Games collide, it isn't actually that bad. SNES Quarterback Club was fun as hell because of the collection of mini-type games that was the "Skills Challenge" mode. Also, Track & Field on Nintendo was a cool series because of the various quick sporting events you'd do.