Are you a fan of Accolade’s classic sports games? I mean, it’s not impossible, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone make the claim before. Well, if you’re the exception, then Atari and QUByte have a collection of five of the developer’s title coming your way. The collection releases January 30, 2025.
I’m not complaining, it’s just unusual. So, to make sure we’re on the same page, here’s what’s coming in the package:
- Hardball! – It’s baseball. Just baseball. Unlicensed baseball. This looks to be the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Hardball.
- Hardball II – It’s more baseball. In case you didn’t get enough baseball the first time.
- Winter Challenge – These are the sports you play when it’s cold out. Skiing, bobsledding, biathlon, that sort of thing. There’s a pretty solid assortment to be found (eight events), and it gets pretty ambitious with 3D graphics.
- Summer Challenge – Similar to Winter Challenge, but for the months where you can wear shorts in Canada. It’s also eight summer-y events and thy manage to throw in some more of that polygonal good stuff.
- Hoops Shut Up and Jam! – A classic two-on-two street basketball challenge. This one is maybe the funniest inclusions because the name is familiar, but not quite right. That’s because it was released as Barkley Shut Up and Jam, since it featured Charles Barkley. Clearly, re-licensing his appearance is too much for this humble collection, so it was renamed.
Amusingly, the press material doesn’t even mention the original name of Hoops Shut Up and Jam! They’re either assuming you know or that you just don’t know at all. And if you’re the type to just pick up a retro collection of sports games you’ve never heard of, then that’s pretty awesome. You’re my type of person.
The games appear to be the Genesis/Mega Drive version across the board. Hardball 1 and 2 got a PC release last year, but those were the DOS versions. All the games had multiple platforms, normally across home computers, but Bark… Sorry, Hoops, was also on the SNES. It’s a bit of a bummer that the collection doesn’t just provide multiple versions, but also kind of understandable. A collection of old sports titles is always going to be incredibly niche, so it’s hard to go the extra mile within budgetary constraints.
Are any of these games great? I’m the wrong person to ask, as I’m not much of a sports kind of person. As far as I’m concerned, a lot of them are very similar. However, from what I understand, they’re decent.
Accolade Sports Collection releases for PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch on January 30, 2025.
