Rereleases of older sports games aren’t as common as you would think. Outside of a handful of classic games that have been rereleased several times, it’s not that common to see retro sports games be brought to modern consoles.
That’s why games like Accolade Sports Collection are so intriguing. This collection brings together five classic sports games from the 1990s. The games were all originally published by Accolade, a video game publisher that was eventually bought out in the late 1990s. The five games are: Hardball, Hardball II, Summer Challenge, Winter Challenge, and Hoops: Shut Up and Jam! So, do these games hold up after all these years? Let’s find out as we take a look at Accolade Sports Collection.
Gameplay
Hardball
We’ll start with the first game in the collection to be released, Hardball. This game was originally released on the Commodore 64 in 1985. However, the version included in this collection is the 1991 Sega Genesis version. In Hardball, you can choose any two of the 26 teams in the game for an exhibition match. You can also play the World Series mode where you play a best-of-seven series with two teams.
Gameplay in Hardball is enjoyable and works very well. The perspective is from the outfield for both pitching and hitting, similar to actual MLB broadcasts. When batting you can move your hitter around the batter’s box, which will affect the trajectory of their swing. On the mound, you use the directional buttons to select your pitch and aim where you want to throw it. Your pitchers’ statistics, as well as where you aim your pitch, will determine the probability of your pitch being a ball or a strike. Trying to throw on the corners of the strike zone will greatly increase your chances of throwing a ball.
One thing I really liked was that when you give up a hit on defense, the announcer would call out which defender you are controlling. This is really necessary, because otherwise it would be next to impossible to see what player you are moving around on defense.
Hardball II
Let’s move on to Hardball II, which was originally released in 1989. I originally thought it was weird that two of the five games included in this collection were baseball games, instead of swapping one of them out for another sports game that Accolade published. However, the gameplay between the two games seems different enough warrant both being included.
So, what are those differences? In Hardball II, the perspective when hitting is switched to the behind home plate view that is more typical with baseball games. The visuals are much different from the first game. There is also now a graphic in the bottom left of the screen showing the positioning of both the pitch and your swing. There are also five different types of swings you can choose from.
Fielding Issues
However, there are a lot of ways that Hardball II’s gameplay is worse than the original Hardball’s. The main detraction is defense. Now when a ball is hit, you don’t get a zoomed in view of where the ball is going. You instead have a zoomed out view of the entire field, including all nine fielders. There is also no longer have the announcer calling out which fielder you are controlling. You now have a flashing blue indicator on the body of the fielder you are controlling. This indicator is very hard to see and can make fielding very difficult.
The worst part about fielding is how the game decides which fielder you control. On a ground ball, it will assign you to the closest player to the ball as soon as it is hit, which is the pitcher. As the ball rolls through the infield, you’ll be switched to other infielders. That is, unless you start to move the pitcher towards the ball. In that case, you’ll be stuck as the pitcher with no way to change to another fielder. So instead of running towards the ball as soon as you can, you instead need for it to roll to another fielder so that you can be switched to him in order to make the play. It got very frustrating very fast.
Hoops Shut Up and Jam!
Hoops Shut Up and Jam was originally released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis under the name Barkley Shut Up and Jam! This original version featured NBA All-Star Charles Barkley as the cover athlete as well as a playable character. After the licensing deal with Barkley expired, he was replaced by the character Joe Hoops, and the title was changed to Hoops Shut Up and Jam! This is the version that is included in this collection.
Hoops Shut Up and Jam! is exactly what it was in 1994 when it originally released: an alright NBA Jam clone which serves as a good addition to this collection. It’s two on two basketball with high flying dunks, a turbo system that recharges over time, and no fouls. There are several different streetball courts you can play on throughout the country. The game also has 16 characters to choose from, each with their own style and attributes. I did find that Joe Hoops and Spike are two very overpowered characters, so if you can, make sure you get one of them on your team.
Summer and Winter Challenge
The last two games are the incredibly similar Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge. These are two Olympic style games, including events from both the Summer and Winter Olympics. I had a lot of fun with Winter Challenge. The events were fun, but still quite challenging. The length of many of the races made them more a test of endurance for how long you can make it without crashing or falling over.
Summer Challenge, on the other hand, was the clear low point of the collection. While a couple of the events like bike racing and archery were fun, the rest were just awful to play. This is mainly due to the broken controls. I was constantly having inputs either not register or be delayed so badly I felt like I had no control over what was happening. The pole vault in particular was painful. No matter when I started placing my pole and when I let go, I could never get a single successful vault. Overall, Summer Challenge was a hard to control, laggy experience that really stood out from the rest of the quality in the collection.
Presentation
The presentation options in Accolade Sports Collection were pretty straightforward for a collection like this. For all five of the games, you had the option to play them in the original 4:3, stretched to fit the screen, as well as in full screen. You can change the background behind the gameplay, as well as equip a number of graphical filters. I originally went with the CRT filter since that is how these games were originally intended to look. However, this filter cut off some of the screen in the corners, which in games like Hardball II cut off necessary information. I’ve never seen a CRT filter do this before, so I was pretty confused by why this filter blocked so much of the screen.
Performance wise the game run and played perfectly. I review this game on the PlayStation 5, and didn’t notice any issues with the emulation during my time with the game. The sound and music all sounded great, and I did not encounter any bugs or issues.
Conclusion
Accolade Sports Collection is a good time if you like these type of retro sports games. If you grew up on or played these games back when they first released in the 90s, you’ll enjoy the nostalgic trip down memory lane. For newcomers though, there is a chance that the older controls and gameplay might not hold up to modern expectations. However, for the $20 price tag, I feel like this will be a great trip down memory lane for many retro gamers.
