Accolade Sports Collection Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch & PC)

QUByte Interactive clearly means well with its latest, albeit somewhat staggered attempt to smash it out of the park and into the disgruntled souls of Sega Mega Drive fans, but in reality, there are countless sports games of old that might’ve made for a far greater and more engrossing collection than those stuffed into Accolade Sports Collection. Alas, the developer has stuck to its guns in an attempt to rebuild old bridges with the same recipe that conceived the original series back in the early nineties. But, as the saying goes, not everything is fit for future consumption, and unless you’re an avid curator of retro video games—titles that aren’t massively known to most generations, might I add—Accolade Sports Collection probably won’t resonate with you on a personal level.

The Accolade collection, for those who’ve yet to take the plunge into its rather dated portfolio, originally consisted of several sports games, including Hardball, Hoops Shut Up and Jam, Winter Challenge, and Summer Challenge, along with a few other below-the-radar cruisers. The latest collection, which essentially serves as something of a love letter to the original set list, brings a lot of these titles into a single pool, thus giving it the status of a remastered collection, as opposed to a full-fledged remake with a few spruced up upgrades. But that’s fine. In fact, it’s sort of nice to see the underdog genre having some recognition for a change, what with the vast majority of heirlooms either leaning more towards action or simulation classics these days. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that Accolade Sports Collection is missing something.

From Court to Field

Accolade Sports Collection makes at attempt to reinstall a dated system that was, at least at the time of its creation, the pinnacle of developmental programming in the nineties. In this day and age, these mechanics aren’t so much a revolutionary thing, but rather, a null and void collection of controls that still bear a few shoddy bits and pieces. But, in the spirit of Accolade’s legacy, the latest incarnation takes full advantage of the original design by way of including each of its forefathers’ heirlooms. To that effect, Accolade Sports Collection isn’t so much of a surprise as it is a tribute to its past successes, as if to prove its undying loyalty to its vanilla blueprint.

This collection, which is currently available for an oddly high admission price of $20, consists of five titles: Summer Challenge, Winter Challenge, Hardball, Hardball II, and Shut Up and Jam. In each of these retro titles, which were initially introduced to the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis, if we’re covering all bases), players are invited to participate in a series of sports, including basketball, baseball, kayaking, speed skating, and several other Olympic-based activities, with the latter being part of the slightly more popular Summer Challenge package. And if that sounds like a lot of bang for your buck, well, that’s because there is. And yet, even with so many categories to explore, it doesn’t change the fact that, from a newcomer’s point of view, it isn’t in possession of any real value, other than, perhaps, sentimental.

Swinging for a Home Run

While I did enjoy romping through several of the mini-games in Accolade Sports Collection, I can’t say that I was constantly looking to redevelop my game and strive for greater scores. It was a lot like taking a trip down memory lane for the sake of scratching an itch, or participating in an interactive museum tour to refresh the memories of a lost generational treasure. On the one hand, I adored being able to witness the love and influence that projected out of the series, but at the same time, I felt as if a single helping was more than enough to send me on my way. And while I did find a couple of hearty moments in the likes of Hardball and its sequel, I can’t say that, even with its newly implemented save states and filter options, it was enough to keep me entertained for hours on end.

Admittedly, the most fun I had in Accolade Sports Collection was with the Summer Challenge and its icy counterpart, Winter Challenge. Thankfully, these two titles contain a little more meat on the bones, so to speak, with a variety of mini-games that range from archery, 400m hurdles, high jump, pole vault, javelin and cycling. Granted, none of these activities hold a candle to their adversaries’ iterations of the respective sports, but with plenty to choose from and a good amount of options to tweak in the menus, there is a great deal of potential to snag a few hours of your time. As for whether or not these activities are fun, however, is another matter of debate. Don’t get me wrong, they are digestible, but as with a lot of gimmicks, the novelty gradually begins to wear thin the more you consume its contents.

Verdict

Accolade Sports Collection reinstates its original plan of delivering bite-sized but irresistibly timeless action sports games to a brand-new generation. It’s thanks to several of its modernized features—graphic options, on-screen manuals, and a convenient saving tool, to list just a few of its freshest installations—that it not only bears all of the familiar hallmark qualities of its predecessor, but adds a little extra flair to them with the aid of industry-wide mechanics and UI options.

At its heart, Accolade Sports Collection is still the same cascading treasure trove of games that made the original Accolade saga the impressionable catalog that it once was. To that end, you needn’t fret about the subtle differences between the original formula and the latest one, for it is, in short, the same product, though perhaps with a few additional technical improvements and a little extra polish. In other words, if you previously had any doubt about it not being able to live up to its former status, then you can rest assured that the heart and soul are still as present as ever in the revitalized collection of Sega Mega Drive classics.

To cut to the chase — yes, you should give this bundle of joy a run for your money, if not to rekindle old flames with your adolescent heart, then to marvel at the historical significance of the golden age of virtual sports. Given the fact that sports, as a whole, rarely receive the same tender love and care as other reboots or remastered classics, it is a sight for sore eyes, truly. Is it perfect? No. But then, at least it manages to breathe life into a genre that, quite frankly, has become something of a forgotten child in a world where people idolize modern jank over heirlooms.