If you're a fan of 16-bit sports games, then let me introduce you to the Accolade Sports Collection. This brand-new compilation sees Atari and QUByte Interactive teaming up to bring us five classic sports games from the early 1990s. I'm talking about both the Genesis debut of Hardball and the PC sequel, Hardball II, as well as Olympics-style mini-game collections like, Winter Challenge and the follow-up, Summer Challenge. Wrapping things up is the addition of Barkley: Shut Up & Jam, which has been retitled Hoops! Shut Up & Jam due to licensing issues. These are all well-known classics from Accolade's library, but are any of them actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Video Games & Computer Entertainment, Mean Machines Sega and more classic magazines that reviewed these games when they first came out. I hope you have your jock strap ready, because it's time for another bone-crunching episode of QUByte Classics Review Crew!


You want to know why Accolade's Hardball was a big deal? All you need to do is compare the influential baseball game to the competition at the time and the difference is night and day. In a world full of tiny, rudimentary sprites, Hardball offered large and expressive athletes that looked like they were pulled straight out of the television. It also controlled well, laying out the groundwork for how to not only pitch and hit, but also field the ball. When I went back and played the original computer version in the Atari 50 compilation, I was struck by how easy it was to get into, even decades later. And that, along with the impressive visuals and intuitive gameplay, is why everybody was so excited to play Hardball on the Genesis. Let's see what the critics thought of this early 16-bit baseball game.

The problem with the Genesis version was that it came out four years later, at a time when the competition was starting to catch-up. Perhaps that's why you saw Electronic Gaming Monthly give this port an average score of 7 out of 10. Martin complained that he doesn't like the reversed perspective of the batter and pitcher. “It totally makes batting a frustrating event. The graphics are very good and the sound is great, real voices call out the plays. Not a whole lot of options here, but a solid game of baseball. I like the batting cages.” Ed, on the other hand, called Hardball “easily one of the best playing baseball games around. Great graphics and the pitcher-batter screen is exceptional. Lots of pitches to choose from and a wide variety of subtle moves and options are built in. It will take some time to really learn how the game plays.”

While this score from EGM is certainly low, it's not the lowest. That distinction belongs to Sega Power, who gave the game a 61%. Video Games & Computer Entertainment agreed with Ed and Martin, also giving it a 7 out of 10. And then there's Mean Machines Sega, who went with a slightly better 75% in their first issue, while Mega Tech gave it the exact same score, also in their first issue. “A decent baseball game which doesn't have enough novel or interesting features to make it appeal to anyone other than real fans of the sport.”

On the higher side, you have EGM's sister publication Mega Play giving the game an average score of 8 out of 10, while the top score goes to GamePro, who went with the perfect 5 out of 5. “Hardball is the first 16-bit baseball game I can recommend. Sure, there aren't a whole lot of 16-bitters out there to choose from, but all you need is one good one, right? Hardball has that great balance of action and strategy that's so important in great sports carts. So get your butt off the bench and grab a bat, it's time to play some Hardball.”

While not as iconic as the 1987 original, this Genesis port still plays a solid game of baseball. Had this been a few years earlier, I suspect the scores would have been a bit higher, but as it is, Hardball hits a double and comes up with an average of 76%. My oh my.

Two years after shaking up the world of baseball with the original Hardball, Accolade returned with a PC-only sequel that improved and expanded on everything people loved about the original. I'm talking about massive updates to the stat keeping, the frames of animation, the gameplay and even modes. This was the game that introduced a team editor, league play, ability to shift the infield and outfield, TV-style instant replays and pick offs, all while giving us several new stadiums to play in. These changes made an already great sports game that much better, and was a must-have for computer-owning baseball fans. And while this particular version never came out on consoles, many of the improvements found their way into future releases on both the Genesis and Super NES. Unfortunately, there aren't any reviews to talk about, so instead we're going to move on to a couple of sports compilations.

For as long as there have been home consoles, there have been sports-themed mini-game compilations. From Winter Games on the Atari 2600 to Konami's Track & Field series to countless versions of California Games, it felt like you were getting one hell of a deal when a bunch of wildly different sports were crammed into a single cartridge. This was the selling point for Winter Challenge, the 1992 Genesis game giving up to ten players a chance to compete against each other in bobsledding, ski jumping, luging, downhill, cross-country and more. While hardly the first game to bring these winter sports together, this 16-bit game added a lot of bells and whistles, including a controllable instant replay mode. In a year dominated by the Summer Olympics, let's see what the critics thought of Winter Challenge.

Once again, Electronic Gaming Monthly finds themselves at the very bottom of the scale, giving Winter Challenge a shockingly low average of 4 out of 10. Steve gave it a 3, arguing that “this game fails to capture any of the excitement you'd expect if you were competing in such winter sports. Many of the game's events are simply repackaged over again and the cart really falls short when it comes to graphic and animation presentation. It's a lot of fun to wipe out, but the game play just isn't there.” Steve agreed, though liked the game a bit more: “I had hopes that this cart would be a great winter Olympics sports sim. While most of the sports are there, they all aren't the best ever done on this system. Some of the events are very hard to master the controls and I really had hoped that the graphics would have been better. As is, the game is only average.”

Now, before you get the wrong impression of Winter Challenge, it's worth noting that EGM was the outlier here. In fact, the next lowest score is MegaTech, who gave the sports collection a 62%, quite an improvement. In fact, even EGM's sister magazine Mega Play gave it an average of 7 out of 10, while Game Informer went with an average of 7.2 out of 10. Rick, the Video Ranger, concluded that “Winter Challenge is fun to play and easy on the eyes, but it tends to be slightly repetitive and might get tiresome a little sooner than you'd like. While it's inarguably a fun game, I'd like to see variety in the action to match the incredible audio and visuals.”

Moving up the scale, we see Sega Power give the game a 78%, while Sega Pro went one tick higher with a 79%. Speaking of magazines with Sega in their name, Sega Force gave it an 80%, while Mean Machines Sega went all the way up to an 85%. “Participate in eight Olympic events in this fine winter sports fest. The graphics are a bit patchy, but overall, this is a fine game that's highly recommend to sports fans.”

Believe it or not, there were magazines that liked it even more than that. GamePro once again gave an Accolade sports game a perfect score of 5 out of 5, while GameZone went step further, giving it a 6 out of 5. They called it a Mega Zone game, the absolute best of the best. “Superb winter sports sim that lets you try your hand at the luge, speed skating, bobsled, giant slalom, biathalon, downhill, cross-country and ski jump, without having to embark on a bone crunching Thompson's winter holiday. A sim so real, you can see the peak, feel the snow, even hear the cow bells. One of the best reasons to buy a Mega Drive yet.”

From EGM calling it one of the worst games of the year to not one, but two different magazines giving it perfect scores, the reviews for Winter Challenge are all over the place. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit when I played it in the Accolade Sports Collection, but clearly there's not a lot of agreement on this game.

One year after wowing Genesis owners with Winter Challenge, Accolade dared gamers to take off their fluffy coats and put on a pair of running shorts. Summer Challenge is everything the Winter game was, only with nicer weather. Once again, up to ten people can complete against each other in eight adrenaline-pumping events, including kayaking, pole vaulting, cycling, archery and more. With upgraded graphics and brand-new modes, this collection of summer games was going for gold. Let's see where the critics ranked it.

While the reviews for Winter Challenge were all over the place, there was a lot more agreement when it came to Summer Challenge. Across the board, the critics that liked the winter version were universally disappointed with the summer edition. Sega Power, for example, went from giving Winter Challenge a 78% to giving Summer Challenge the lowest grade of the bunch, a 51%. Similarly, GamePro went from giving the first game a perfect 5 out of 5 to giving this sequel a 3 out of 5. They concluded that “this game's high point comes when your athlete plows headfirst into an obstacle – Accolade's always done wrecks well. The events are fun for a while, and the unique graphic perspective is worth a look. However, the repetitive action and slow gameplay are frustrating. Summer Challenge qualifies for the final heat, but it's a long shot for a medal.”

Further up the list we see Mean Machines go from an 85% all the way down to a 67%, while Sega Force Mega couldn't muster up anything higher than a 69%. Believe it or not, the highest score comes from Video Games & Computer Entertainment, who didn't even bother to review Winter Challenge. “Perhaps Summer Challenge was to be released last year to coincide with the Olympics – and planned so before Accolade ran into trouble over its status as an unofficial Genesis third party. How else to explain its dated idea and the fact that it seems to have been taken right off the shelf where it was put away? Problem is, somebody forgot that Summer Challenge hadn't been debugged and decided to release it.”

How else to explain it coming out in 1993? Well, it could have something to do with Winter Challenge coming out in 1992. In fact, the original PC version of Winter Challenge came out in 1991, with the console port coming out one year later. Similarly, Summer Challenge hit PC in 1992 and then came to the Genesis one year later. Maybe it has something to do with the Sega third-party craziness, but I suspect it just took them time to port the games from the computer to console.

After dabbling in the mini-game space for a couple years, Accolade returned in 1993 with a more traditional sports game. This time around the target was basketball, and the publisher felt like they had the perfect guy to deliver their message – Sir Charles Barkley. Going with the surprisingly aggressive name, Barkley! Shut Up and Jam!, this is a b-ball game that is desperately trying to be NBA Jam. With no refs, no uniforms and a relaxed set of rules, this is classic streetball, something that helped set it apart from the other basketball games of the era. It would go on to spawn a sequel in 1995, though that game has been left out of this Accolade collection.

When it comes to the reviews, the critics were all over the place. One magazine that refused to shut up with Mega, who gave Sir Charlie the low score of 54%. That's real close to the 56% we saw from Computer & Video Games, who theorized that “if Barkley arrived before Acclaim's NBA Jam, there would be a reason to buy it. However, it hasn't and NBA is the better game. In Barkley, the animation is slower and you occasionally have to wait for the screen to scroll and show you where the ball has landed. This is clumsy, but basically the promise of a more fun game thanks to the lack of real sport rules hasn't been lived up to. Yes, it's got fancy moves like NBA, but it's difficult to get a chance to use these since your opponents are always knocking you to the ground.”

Don't worry, the review scores do get better, but only gradually. Australia's own Hyper gave it a 61%, while Sega magazine went with the disappointing 62%. That's more or less the same as Nintendo Power's 3.1 out of 5: “Sir Charles brings his brand of hoops to the Super NES in this rough and tumble tribute to the pure, neighborhood roots of the NBA.” They praised the “fast action, especially for two or four players,” however, “the play may seem similar to NBA Jam, but the feel is less polished.”

While Shut Up & Jam had a hard time shaking the comparisons, there were magazines who felt like the two sports games could coexist. For example, Super Play gave it a solid 73%, making it their 299th best-reviewed Super NES game of all time. Mean Machines Sega went one tick higher, giving it a 74%, while Sega Power went with a respectable 77%. However, the highest score once again comes from GamePro, who gave Barkley a score of 4 out of 5. Despite the high score, their review was quick to complain about the gameplay: “Controls are inconsistent, unfortunately. Sometimes they're responsive, but other times, as when the computer goes up for a shot, you're unable to jump quickly enough to block it. Still, this is an excellent game. Want it rough? Shut up and jam!”

Look, Barkley: Shut Up & Jam was never going to outscore the mighty NBA Jam, but it still has a few things going for it. A lot of the criticism is valid, yet I still had a good time playing it in this Accolade collection. That said, I do miss Sir Charles. Hoops! Shut Up & Jam just doesn't have the same ring to it.