“Accolade presents…” There’s a voice/intro that is brunt into my subconscious. From developer QUByte Interactive and publishers QUByte Interactive & Atari comes Accolade Sports Collection… a collection of sports game from Accolade.

“Prove that you’re the best gamer of the 90s. Take on everything from legendary baseball to electrifying street basketball, winter and summer sports and try to beat five games that made history: Hardball!, Hardball II, Hoops Shut Up And Jam!, Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge.”

I used to play so many Accolade games growing up, so when Accolade Sports Collection came up for review, I had to put a code request in. What you get here is an emulated collection of four Accolade games, sports games to be more precise. For your money you get Hardball! and Hardball II. Two baseball games that are pretty much the same. Rather interestingly, it is the DOS version of Hardball II used here – but the updated console version of Hardball! This is quite bizarre as the original version of the game came out in 1985, but the console version in 1991. While the DOS sequel used in this collection was released in 1989, before the console version of the first game. So you get a sequel that as not as refined as the first game due to the different versions used. In short, the Hardball! version used in this collection is better than the sequel… so it kind of makes including Hardball II pretty redundant – even more so as it is still just baseball with both games anyway.

Then there’s Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge. Again, I’m not seeing the point of including both of these in the same collection – they’re almost the same game. The events between the two games play very much the same, the main difference is that one takes place at winter and one at summer. These are also the console ports and as the games use a 3D-like perspective, they chug along really slowly, like 10fps slow because consoles back then just could not handle 3D. But the PC versions were silky smooth. It’s strange they they have gone for the worst versions of both Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge for this collection and not the far better PC versions. It’s the opposite of the Hardball! scenario.

The last game in the collection is Hoops Shut Up And Jam! Originally released as Barkley Shut Up and Jam! in 1993. However, due to no longer having the Charles Barkley licence, he has been removed from the game and replaced with the fictional Joe Hoops, hence Hoops Shut Up And Jam! Anyway, this is an NBA Jam clone, and quite a clunky one too. It’s just not as smooth or as fun to play as NBA Jam – but it is the best game on this collection. There was a sequel, which was a bit better and given that this collection likes to include games that are similar to others, it is a bit strange that the sequel is not here. However the rights for Hoops Shut Up and Jam 2 were secured by another studio a few years ago and it was released for the Evercade in 2021, so that explains that.

On top of the games, you get the usual screen filters, save feature and the ability to rewind gameplay on the fly. Overall, Accolade Sports Collection is not particularly good. There’s just not enough variety here. There’s no reason to have both Hardball! and Hardball II, especially given that the console version of the first game is better then the DOS version of the sequel used. There no reason to include both Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge because they are pretty much the same game. Then there’s the fact that they are the slower console versions and not the far better DOS games. Hoops Shut Up And Jam! is the best game in this collection – but that’s not the boast it seems like as it is still pretty average.

Accolade Sports Collection is not a great showcase for Accolade’s history, they had some fantastic titles sports and non sports. But if we ate talking strictly sports games – why is there no 4th & Inches (American football), TKO (boxing), Mini-Putt (mini golf), Rack ‘Em (snooker and pool), Grand Prix Circuit (F1) and others? A bit more variety of games from Accolade’s back catalogue would’ve been great. The addition of save slots and a rewind feature is nice and all, but Accolade Sports Collection is just lacking in everything else. QUByte Interactive have put out some great collections in the past, this isn’t one of them.