Accolade Sports Collection compiles five early ’90s sports titles showing their age. I’m not sure how “classic” these 30-plus-year-old games actually are, or if they make for a collection that’s “epic,” but since I own three of these five as cartridges, they’re quasi-classics for me. Is this a package worth owning on the Nintendo Switch?
Let’s briefly start with the pair of games I hadn’t previously owned, and that’s the baseball title Hardball and its sequel. I respect the original Hardball for all it offered back in the day, for launching a series, and for its appearance in the intro of The Princess Bride. But it was first released in 1985, so even by 1991, it was already feeling dated next to some of its contemporaries, never mind now. Speaking of ’91, I wanted to capture the era and play as the NL champion Atlanta Braves, but you can only pick city names in this one; expected, but still a bummer. All the same, the game looks pretty good, though the repetitive music (which you can turn off) might annoy you if you play for any length.
The sequel offers a change in perspective, loss of in-game music, more stadium selections, and a demo (watch) mode common to sports games of the time, to name just a few. There’s plenty of depth, evidenced by the in-game manual having well over a dozen pages, as many pages as the Olympic-style carts in this collection have. But this also indicates a lack of immediacy. There’s also a shortage of speed, with the animations (though impressive for the time) making for a more sluggish affair. A pick-up-and-play game, this likely is not, although save features do prove beneficial. But unless you have nostalgia for either of these Hardball games (likely stemming from the PC versions), I can’t say they hold up well on a console.
Next up are Summer and Winter Challenge. With 16 events in total, divided evenly between both games, I’m not really in a position to talk about individual events. You might suspect these to be cases of quantity over quality, and I wouldn’t necessarily dispute that. That said, most of the events are kind of fun for me, with admitted nostalgia goggles firmly in place.
Would I be shocked if those with retro sensibilities found them entertaining overall, too? Nope. The presentation certainly helps, with ambitious-looking polygons (no small feat on the Genesis) and animations demonstrating these titles weren’t phoned in. The “Behind the Athlete” view gives these games an especially cool TV-style presentation in 16-bit form. The views do make some events extra challenging (try not getting a foot fault during the pole vault), but with some retro-minded buddies you’ll have some button-mashing fun.
Last but not least is Hoops Shut Up and Jam, which many will remember as Barkley Shut Up and Jam. Like the biggest NBA stars of the ’90s, Sir Charles starred in his own video game. At least it was an actual basketball game, unlike Jordan (platformer) and Shaq (fighting). His character model is tweaked to avoid licensing now, but it’s the same NBA Jam-style fun it always was.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s the easiest game out of the five to just pick up and play. I’m a veteran player, but the Accolade Sports Collection is also marketed to those “new to retro gaming.” So, for those not wanting to pursue digital manuals or deal with slower learning curves, Hoops Shut Up and Jam is the star of the bunch, even if it’s lost its title star.
Accolade Sports Collection (QUByte Classics) delivers pretty much what I expected, no more, no less. But $19.99 is a tough sale for a compilation like this in 2025, even for someone like me with nostalgia. Wishlist this one for a future discount.
