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Among the slew of baseball games on the Genesis, Accolade’s Hardball! strikes out. Poor gameplay overpowers all other considerations, making this one title to forget about. Later installments fixed many of the problems, but by then there were much better alternatives. The best thing about Hardball!? The Boris Vallejo box art.
EA’s seminal hockey series lasted well into the twilight of the 16-bit era, and while fans will debate which is the best installment, the series never really dropped its overall level of quality. That’s pretty impressive compared to the many other sports franchises that floundered as time wore on, and the 1997 edition of NHL is proof positive that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does work.
One would think that a basketball game feature two of the greatest athletes to ever play would be a no-brainer for greatness. Unfortunately, Electronic Arts proved us wrong. Stiff, unintuitive gameplay overshadows some excellent presentation, and what should have been the definitive version of One-on-One ends up bench-warming for all the others instead.
Karate tournament simulations aren’t meant to be games one can just jump kick right into. Instead, the player is expected to learn the ins and outs of competition and improve with time. Some titles. like Budokan, do this reasonably well. Others, namely Best of the Best, are TKOed in the first round due to repetitive and uninspired gameplay.
Sierra came up with an offbeat take on basketball that unfortunately doesn’t execute as well as it should. An interesting concept that stands out among other Sega CD titles, Bouncers unfortunately falls flat due to uninspired gameplay and an overall lack of depth. It might still be worth looking into for the novelty factor but not much beyond that.