Accolade Sports Collection Nintendo Switch Review 5/10 🌭 "Hotdog anyone?"

"Cassidy's new glasses were rubbish! They were so bad he started pitching to 3rd base!"

Growing up I almost exclusively played sports video games. I was sports mad. I loved any sporting event you could imagine and consumed any and every sport on UK TV. I watched Grandstand, Sports Night, Final Score, Match Of The The Day, The Match, Football Gazzetta, Transworld Sport Special and any type of sport that anyone threw my way. I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl every year and I loved every Olympics from 1988 onwards. 

I was a big fan of the EPYX GAMES Series with California games and Winter Games probably being my favourites (hotdog anyone?), if I see a Track & Field arcade I just have to play it and I fell completely for the Wii Mario & sonic at The Olympics video games. 

Upon seeing that this Accolade Sports Collection was coming out, I had high hopes! After spending time with the collection I am afraid to report it's just not as much fun as I remember these games being.

"The blind man wandered dangerously into a bleep test competition between Chicago and Brooklyn"

The collection comes with a generous selection of 5 games and includes:

• Hardball!
• Hardball II
• Hoops Shut Up And Jam! (originally Barkley Shut And Jam!)
• Winter Challenge
• Summer Challenge

The collection also includes the introduction of save states, screen filters, and a rewind feature which enhances the gaming experience, making it more accessible to new players.

"Being the only person at Lee Valley Ice Rink is not as much fun as it sounds..."

Taking each game as an individual experience I had the most fun with Hardball! and Hardball II as I always loved a good Baseball game but despite loving these games at the time there were better Baseball games that came out in subsequent years. My go to retro Baseball Video Game is now Baseball Stars II as it feels so good to play and looks tremendous.

I never played the original Barkley Shut And Jam! and after some time with Hoops Shut Up and JAM! I can see I didn't miss out on much as NBA JAM on SNES is a much better 2 on 2 basketball video game and much more fun!

That leaves us with Winter and Summer Challenge which are Winter and Summer Olympics games. I found the vents a slog and not much fun which meant that on some events like giant slalom I just lost interest. Also, in the hurdles track event, If you hit a single hurdle and fall then you're out of the race and that's it! This was quite frustrating. 

"The International Hopping Championship 2025 was well underway"

SUMMARY

Overall I didn't enjoy the collection but I did enjoy the baseball classics. I love these types of collections for giving people who loved these games as a kid new ways to play them in 2025 but this one left me feeling a bit bored. 

Right I'm off to SWIIING BATTTER,BATTER BATTER, SWIIIING!

5/10

💧MELTING💧