Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe Review

By Kristan Reed Published 18 October, 2007

Ice Cream. Ice Cream.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Cribbed from the 'How to Play' section is possibly the most succinct description of The Bitmap Brothers' 1991 classic ever written, so it bears repeating here: "Speedball 2 is a brutally fast-paced game of two 90 second halves, where points can scored in an instant. You'll need to wrench the ball from the opposition at every opportunity and viciously smash in the scores if you want to emerge victorious."

One of the most beloved of all Amiga games, it succeeds for two reasons: it's so easy to pick up and play, and has that indefinable replay value that makes you want to have another go as soon as one match has finished. Unlike a lot of ham-fisted attempts at future sports, it keeps things incredibly simple. You try and gain possession of a metal ball, and either try your luck running with it, or chuck it to one of your eight team-mates. Plucking it out of the air, you'll face a barrage of burly, armour-clad opponents trying to knock your block off, so possession doesn't last long. Bouncing it off walls, charging down anyone in your path and trying to fire it into the goal is the main meat of Speedball 2, and it's very very addictive. As the name implies, it's hilariously brutal, with the kind of casual violence that would have pressure groups up in arms if they could only see the effect it has on breaktime playground games.

So it's a 180-second game where the most points wins, but gaining those isn't as simple as merely throwing the ball into a goal. Dotted around the rectangular arena are various other score enhancers, such as stars, score multipliers and domes. Hit one of the five stars on the wall and you'll gain two points, hit all five and you'll get a 10-point bonus - and the same in reverse if you switch off your opponent's stars. Elsewhere, the score multiplier adds an extra five or ten points when you score a goal, depending on how many times you've sent the ball whizzing through it. And, finally, if you ever find yourself in space with enough time to pull it off, pinging the ball off the bounce dome gains you two points every time you hit it.

Arms like a traction engine

If you're really good, you'll also be able to make use of the Warp Gates to set up opposition-confounding manoeuvres which teleport the ball from one side of the arena to the other. Likewise, once you know your way around, you'll also want to take full advantage of the Electro Domes, which electrify the ball and leave an opponent stunned and with Speedball pie all over their face. Also, scattered around the pitch are all manner of temporary power-ups, which may affect individual players or the entire team. Evidently, there's much more to Speedball 2 than might be initially apparent.

'Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe' Screenshot 1

New style: screen filling confusion.

As with the Amiga original, you can play the game in quickie two-player mode, or engage in a number of competitions, including an eight-player league (and rather pointless manager version where you just watch the AI duke it out), knockout cup, and tournament. The big draw with this version, of course, is the ability to play the game online, in ranked or player matches. In this instance, there's a little more incentive to get stuck into the league mode, because it gives you the chance to use your career team online - which, as any veteran will know is vastly more entertaining than using the rather hapless team you get by default. That said, you can only use you career team in the ranked matches, so be prepared, because there's a good chance you'll get smashed up by old hands who've been playing the game solidly for 16 years and have ranked up their players to the max. Initial impressions of online matches are fairly positive - lag is definitely a factor, but as with all Xbox Live matches it's the luck of the draw. Our advice? Find a pal who doesn't insist on downloading during online matches.

Visually, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe offers you the choice of the original Amiga graphics, or a spruced-up version. The gameplay is identical either way, but for some reason the deliberately clunky gameplay just feels better using the old-style visuals. One of the main problems with the updated version is the fact that they fill the entire screen - meaning that you'll most likely have to sit further away from the screen to take it all in. Strangely, the Bitmaps didn't take the opportunity to allow you to see more of the pitch (presumably because they felt it might change the gameplay dynamic), but at the same time, seeing such a small portion of the pitch zoomed in to such an extent seems odd. Or maybe our TV's just too damned big.

Join me for my summer of sport. JOIN ME.

Regardless, the updated visuals aren't a disaster (like Double Dragon was). The character models are nicely detailed, and it's hard to find fault with the way they've added shadows and made the arena look much nicer. The problem is, in order to make sure the game still plays identically, they've had to adhere to the original clunky movements of the players, meaning your eyes are drawn to the unnatural animation much more than when you're playing it in the original mode. Such trifling issues don't really detract from the gameplay once you get used to it, but don't be surprised if your first reaction is one of gurning disappointment. Just switch back to original, get used to the gameplay again, and then maybe come back to it later. You might be surprised.

'Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe' Screenshot 2

Old style: phew. That's better.

Despite the claims of the game being built with the original Amiga code-base, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe is unfortunately marred by a few minor bugs that spoil the game a little. Apart from players occasionally running into thin air, one that we have difficulty understanding is the way the game occasionally freezes your player for second or so at kick-off, giving the AI the chance to steal possession when you ought to be able to charge in an challenge them. It's not something that happens every time, but when it does it's usually at a point when you can ill afford to be on the back foot. Having run through a couple of league campaigns, I can ruefully report that it's not uncommon at all, and unless Empire and The Bitmaps patch it, the game simply doesn't represent the Speedball 2 that you'll remember.

One nice touch that's worth mentioning is how the controls have been slightly tweaked, giving you the option of a low throw or high throw in one of two ways. Either you can do a light tap of the A button for a low throw and it hold down for a high throw, or just hit the B button for a high throw. Obviously that wasn't possible on the one-button Amiga joysticks of the time, but it'll be interesting to see the effect this subtle tweak will have on more proficient players.

As ever, the achievement system adds a further layer of fun to an already excellent game, and unlike a lot of XBLA titles, it'll take a while to mine the game for all 12 of them - just as it should be.

In most ways that matter, this is a fine conversion of an enduring classic, and is exactly the sort of game that makes Xbox Live Arcade one of the most exciting gaming platforms around. Available for 800 points, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe is not necessarily the sort of game that newcomers will take to, but for those of us who were around at the time, it's damn near essential. The Bitmaps deserve credit for not messing around with what made it great - but fix those bugs soon, eh chaps?

8 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (71) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Triggerhappytel #1 4 years ago

    Hmmm, sounds decent - I loved the original.

    Could we also please have remakes of Shadow of the Beast and Barbarian 2 now?

  • decibel #2 4 years ago

    wahey! will pick this up

  • Frumper #3 4 years ago

    I think the freezing at 'kick-off' happens if you are pushing the control stick as the ball is launched.

    I found that if I let the ball land and then moved it was fine. You then have to be quick off the mark against the better teams to get to the ball but it's better than being rooted to the ground.

  • pinchofsalt #4 4 years ago

    Bugs? In a conversion of a 15 year old game?
    Thats a bit inexcusable - especially that kick-off bug.

  • radwell #5 4 years ago

    Awesome use of Partridge quotes.

    'And another!'

  • Darren #6 4 years ago

    Well I respect the review but personally I found the game dull, although I loved the original Amiga version. It just seems so ordinary to play now and the vertical scrolling viewpoint annoyingly restricts how much of the playing area you can see and looks plain odd on a widescreen HDTV, not to mention ugly. Why couldn't they have rotated the playing area 90 degrees with tweaked visuals and used the full width of widescreen TVs to enhance it for the 21st century? And why can't I try the 3D mode?

  • DudBug #7 4 years ago

    I don't think the kick-off quirk is a bug (if that's not a contradiction in terms ...). I am sure that I remember the same thing happening on the old PC version of the game and I think it is (was) a design decision - kick-offs would be too easy if you could hold the stick in the relevant direction before the ball is released. If you pause slightly once the ball has been released and then push in the right direction then you should be able to get the ball sometimes (it's a matter of timing). The game punishes you by freezing you if you push too early. Amazingly I found myself doing this instinctively, despite not having played the PC version for at least 12 years.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 14:00

  • Darren #8 4 years ago

    This game has lag?!? How typically Xbox 360! LOL

  • Bi50N Verified Head of Global Communications, THQ #9 4 years ago

    "The game occasionally freezes your player for second or so at kick-off, giving the AI the chance to steal possession when you ought to be able to charge in an challenge them"

    This is a feature, not a bug - you're probably pressing forwards too soon. It's a bit like timing a zoom start in Mario Kart, and it was there in the original.

  • jamespo #10 4 years ago

    how about a turrican and kick off 2 remake :D

  • Triggerhappytel #11 4 years ago

    @ jamespro

    A Turrican remake would be awesome, but a Turrican 2 remake would be better. Rumours have been around for a little while that a downloadable T2 will be coming to PSN -- I really hope so. So much better than bloody Lair.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 14:14

  • krudster #12 4 years ago

    If it's a 'feature' then it's a pretty silly one, and certainly not one explained or remarked upon in any instructions or write-ups I've ever seen about the game.

  • krudster #13 4 years ago

    Still bitter about that SG score MM? Never mind, time heals all wounds.

  • menage #14 4 years ago

    Reviews written out of nostalgia should be illegal.

    "Shadow of the Beast "

    Nooooo

    "A Turrican 2 remake"

    Yessssss. Super Turrican even better.

  • 1Dgaf #15 4 years ago

    Even if it's a feature, it certainly feels like a bug. I had to play several games before I got the timing right and even then I mess up regularly.

    I had described at as being like the Mario Kart pause too, but then I realised the difference. From what I remember, In Mario Kart you get a rewarded for starting at the right time, but you're not overly penalised.

    Here there's no reward for starting at the right time. You're just allowed to, well, start. However the penalty for getting it wrong is much more severe. There's an imbalance there.

    I agree that the view of the pitch is too small. Also, if one resizes the screen the bottom of the scoreboard gets chopped off. Sloppy attention to detail.

    Having got somewhat used to the start of the game, my main complaints are about the way the game chooses what player I'm supposed to use. Two often the ball will head towards two of my guys and the computer will flick control between them, effecitvely meaning I'm not controlling either. As this happens the CPU can take over.

    Another problem is the game not letting me play the person closest to the ball. I've found this happens near the stars towards the goals. Especially galling if the opponent is there too.

    Then there's the problem of the AI goalkeeper moving too far out, letting the CPU get in behind him. By the time you get control it's too late to do anything.

  • monkie_king #16 4 years ago

    Yeah, I'm afraid SOTB was a bit ... rubbish. THe second one was better, but still very frustrating to play.

    Turrican 2 on the other hand was rocking, even if it did pinch a lot of stuff from Super Metroid. I even managed to finish it, which I can't say for the first one. I remember T2 had two completely different backstories, one in the manual, and another in the anime-style intro.

  • mattigan #17 4 years ago

    This game has lag?!? How typically Xbox 360! LOL

    Ha yes hilarious, one could also say "another good game?!? How typically Xbox 360!"

    or

    "A new game!!!! How typically Xbox 360!"

    or

    "There's games out on it!?! How typically Xbox 360!"

  • edpovall #18 4 years ago

    The "freezing" thing is a feature that was there on the Amiga. I think its a good thing - it means there is skill to the kick off (I too found myself doing it instinctively and didnt notice it until my missus started complaining her player wasnt moving).

    I was defintely disappointed with the "enhanced" visuals - I think they actually lack character and detail compared to the old style.

    Great to play it again though.

  • driptray #19 4 years ago


    This is definately a case where sheer gameplay quality > dated graphics/animation.

    It's just a shame they didn't decide to make the graphical update as high-res sprites with proper widescreen support!

    Also, it's a shame you can't set up an online league.

    Despite that, it's really good! :-)

  • driptray #20 4 years ago


    @1Dgaf. I think the shoddy goalkeeping is due to having a shoddy goalie! I think he'll act differently when upgraded.

  • monkie_king #21 4 years ago

    Did anyone manage to win the trophies on the original? I remember developing a tactic of getting a commanding lead early on, then getting the ball to my star player and spending the rest of the match whizzing around hoovering up as much cash and upgrades as possible.

    However, I never seemed to have enough money to stay competitive against the later opposition teams, usually lacking the strength in depth to compensate for my stars being taken out of the match through injury.

    Any top tactical tips?

  • 1Dgaf #22 4 years ago

    Ah, I see. I'll have to pay attention to that.

    So, just the indecisiveness to fix then. "Which one shall you control? Eenie, meenie, miny, moo, catch a retro gamer by his toe.."

  • monkie_king #23 4 years ago

    1Dgaf, that wasn't an unusual problem on Amiga sports games, though some let you switch between available players with the button. On Speedball ISTR the best thing is to run away from the ball if you get assigned the wrong player, so control switches to the guy you want.

  • 1Dgaf #24 4 years ago

    "the best thing is to run away from the ball if you get assigned the wrong player, so control switches to the guy you want."

    Buh?

    Note to developers: you don't have to be entirely faithful to the original.

  • Roamer #25 4 years ago

    Xbox Live is great for downloading games, but it sucks for playing multiplayer. I've yet to find any available matches in any of the games I bought, save for Gears of War where there's usually a few(5-6). Is this because of the silly subscription thing? Aye, that's a plausible explanation methinks.

  • sabreman #26 4 years ago

    @ManicMinerUK

    I'm coming down to L'spa to see Philip shortly. Fancy meeting up for a beer?

  • Hog-lumps #27 4 years ago

    If the starting thing is a feature, they should make it more obvious with some visual feed back e.g the player starts running/sliding on the spot (like the wheel spins in mario kart)

  • Triggerhappytel #28 4 years ago

    @ menage, monkie_king:

    I agree that Shadow of the Beast is a bit shitty - I used to really love it, then played it a few years ago before finding out it was really quite crap and bastard hard. Great music though.

    Anyway, despite this I thought it had some great designs and atmosphere - I maintain that I'd still like to see a remake, albeit with a completely re-written game engine.

  • reality_cheque #29 4 years ago

    The important question is - do you still get as many points for knocking an opponent out as you do for a goal? I'm wondering if my old tactics will still work... hold up, and hammer the button. You'll pass the ball to an opponent, punch him in the face, pick up the lose ball and repeat until you score :D As an added bonus, I used to be able to take out so many of the opposing team they'd start bringing the fucked players back on with no stats!

    Oh, and do you have to restart the game if you don't come top in the league every time?

  • monkie_king #30 4 years ago

    @Triggerhappytel: gfx whore!

    It did have a good atmosphere actually, oddly Metroid Prime reminded me of it, when poking around in the ruins.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 14:52

  • IAmBatman #31 4 years ago

    > Turrican 2 on the other hand was rocking,
    > even if it did pinch a lot of stuff from Super Metroid

    Turrican 2 released 1991
    Super Metroid released 1994

  • monkie_king #32 4 years ago

    umm ... normal metroid then. I assume that's where they got the morph ball, ahem, gyroscope from, anyway.

    (edit: Wikipedia agrees, so it *must* be true!)
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 14:57

  • L42yB #33 4 years ago

    @Roamer - I have had no problems getting into games... I'm guessing u have a rubbish internet connection...

  • Drpwnage #34 4 years ago

    After 10 minutes on the demo my thumb had already started to ache from the constant button mashing! was just like old times.

    Does the single player mode still have the AI Supernashwan team?

  • bluebird #35 4 years ago

    Used to play it on the Amiga, but... really I was bored with it in 5 minutes. I just doesn't grab me anymore. Part of what made the Bitmap Brother games great were their graphics (that nice metallic look they did so well), and the graphics, while great in their time, are just dull and boring and pixelley now. The gameplay itself is only fun with a friend really, not much fun on your own IMO.

  • KillallHippies #36 4 years ago

    Glad that frozen player thing is a bug, i just thought i was being really crap.

  • Additive #37 4 years ago

    Played it for a bit last night. Must say the menus are horrible. What was wrong with using the old style??? It all fitted in nicely with the whole styling of the game before.

  • thehat #38 4 years ago

    A spell checker is no replacement for proofreading ;)

    Sounds god though...

  • Darren #39 4 years ago

    @Mattigan - But lag is typical of many Xbox 360 games, including XBLA games. You hear and read about it all the time, on the internet, in the magazines. DOOM had appalling lag (yet I remember playing it fine with dial-up!!!) and so does Speedball 2. It's inexcusable that such simple games should suffer from latency issues. It's either bad programming or there's something wrong with Live. I rarely experience lag on my PC or PS3 but every other 360 game I've played is prone to it: Saint's Row, Prey, DOA4, Call of Duty 2, The Darkness, Ridge Racer 6, PES 6 and Team Fortress 2, etc., etc. It's really not good enough when we pay £40 per annum for Live. It costs nothing extra to play PC or PS3 games.

  • cyber_nicco #40 4 years ago

    Shadow of the Beast
    +infinity

  • silver-jon #41 4 years ago

    I picked it up last night and played until 12:45. First game to steal me away from Halo 3. I originally had it on the Amiga and never got the hang of it so I was determined to do so last night. Despite the retro grapics it's still an absolute classic. Still really good fun, and I bet playing it online or 2-player would be brilliant.

    One thing that I'll only know the answer to tonight is whether it auto-saves progress in the league mode. When I exited the game there was no option to save progress, only a warning that I would lose unsaved progress if I continued. So it'll be heartily annoying if I'm back at square one tonight.
    That said, it's still a compelling game. Some of the Achievements look REALLY hard to get (power-charging the ball so it knocks over 3 players AND scores a goal ?!!)

  • Darren #42 4 years ago

    Have you played Shadow of the Beast recently? I have (thanks to WinUAE) and it's absolute cack these days, little more than a glorified tech demo dressed up as a passable game. It wasn't all that impressive back in 1989 but everyone went ga-ga over the admittedly, for the time, pretty visuals with 64 colours and multiple layers of parallax scrolling. Utterly shite game though and borderline unplayable these days.

  • driptray #43 4 years ago


    @silver jon : no worries, it auto-saves! (It also has no manual save option, which makes that warning about "you may lose out if you haven't saved" ridiculous!)

  • mattigan #44 4 years ago

    Ah, a more grown up comment than the previous effort!! I shall respond in kind.

    I very rarely have any problems with lag, although I do have a 22meg connection and am pretty close to the exchange, but to counter this I am running my 360 wirelessly and rarely bother turning off bit torrent so I guess it cancels out.


    Many of my friends have similar lag free experiences even when competing across the globe, of course there are going to be times when you are hosted by some muppet with a 256k connection, you just can't avoid it on the internet.

    But I think the way the 360 does its multiplayer with one system hosting the map and the rest connecting as clients, means that as long as people want to play, there will be games to connect to.

    If Sony shut down the RFoM servers tomorrow, you would basically be fucked for multiplayer, and they WILL shut those servers down one day when they are no longer financially viable then you will see the downside to the free system, it basically means they answer to no one and do what they like, whether you like it or not. MS have a vested interest in making LIVE the best it can be as they have to keep it fresh or people will stop buying it!!

    I think that by and large Live is excellent and the fee (less than £40, if you bother to shop around) covers more than just the multiplayer side of things, it also pays for the whole experience (downloads, demos, ease of matchmaking, dash updates, everything) and I still think it's value for money.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 16:33

  • Thamuhacha #45 4 years ago

    Do you have to restart if you lose the league? And does the game end if you win division 1?

    I really want a version where I can keep playing and finding new team members rather than just hanging on and hoping I can afford Norman and Jams when they appear.

  • Darren #46 4 years ago

    @farticusmaximus - Yeah, right genius. I've already said that I don't get any or very little lag with PC and PS3 games and they all share the same router as my 360. My PS3 is wireless just like the 360 and both are next to each other! The settings for my 360 are no different from those of the other two, only they have unique IP addresses, and, in fact, the 360's IP address is even in my router's DMZ, e.g. the NAT is open. /rolls eyes

    It's Xbox Live that's at fault IMO. It can't even cope with my Friend's list at times, preferring instead to freeze the Guide for minutes at a time on more than one occasion. I suspect the service is becoming oversubscribed and Microsoft aren't doing whatever it is they have to do to ensure it runs smoothly.

    I have an 8 Mbps connection by the way.

  • miiiguel #47 4 years ago

    I can live with Darren's lag, and my non existent lag too.

    But I do agree it's yet another "MS conspiracy"/"bad engineering"/"da evil"/"Japan do it better" thingy...
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 17:05

  • krudster #48 4 years ago

    You don't lose progress for exiting the league. Just hit load league when you go back in and it's still there at the same point after your most recent game.

  • GamesConnoisseur #49 4 years ago

    I do have occasional lag in odd games, but nothing consistent or across all the games as its seem in Darren's experience.

    There must be a conflict or something, I do get worse lag when my wife using the internet via her laptop! But most time (90 percent or better) no lags.

    I would have said Darren's router needed configured but he know what he talking about and have opened NAT. So must be something else.

    Xbox may be more sensitive to contention ratio and ISP as mostly peer to peer? Upload speed do occasionally suffer during peak time in my street (online gaming NEED good upload as well as download).

    Hey, maybe PS3 is installed with secret 'confuse and confound M$ box' viral programming, which would be a clever attempt to show the superiority of PS3 kit!
    ;-o
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/07 @ 18:03

  • OnlyMe #50 4 years ago

    Is it me or was this a pretty bad port? I've been playing the Amiga version since it came out, and that was much better. Mostly because they completely screwed up the sound with some horrible crowd effects that makes the other sound effects impossible to hear. It was really annoying to play because of this. I think I'll stick to the Amiga version, don't have Live Gold anyway.

  • mattigan #51 4 years ago

    I wouldn't put your 360 in the DMZ Darren, just forward the relevant port through the router.

    Have you tried it via ethernet? Something sounds amiss with either your setup or hardware to me.

  • smelly #52 4 years ago

    Not as good as my rose tinted specs remember.

  • MartinScott #53 4 years ago

    Where is Sensible Soccer ?

  • smurphs #54 4 years ago

    Since we're all in nostalgia mode I'd like to see Future Wars remade in hi-def, but keeping that fantastic music. First game I ever completed.

  • convercide #55 4 years ago

    "Join me for my summer of sport. JOIN ME."

    Woohoo - The Day Today.

    I'm Ian Curtis and I watch Rok TV every day.

    Edited by 1 at 19/10/07 @ 08:27

  • Bi50N Verified Head of Global Communications, THQ #56 4 years ago

    @Krudster - they didn't tell you there was a zoom start in the Mario Kart manual - you had to, y'know... find it out for yourself. But as a fundamental part of the re-start, I think this ought to be in the documentation

    @ the person who said "I had described at as being like the Mario Kart pause too, but then I realised the difference. From what I remember, In Mario Kart you get a rewarded for starting at the right time, but you're not overly penalised.

    Here there's no reward for starting at the right time. You're just allowed to, well, start. However the penalty for getting it wrong is much more severe. There's an imbalance there"

    I picked a gaming anology as an example, but it's not actually the right one. Think insead of a 100m sprint - there is no reward for a 'perfect' start, just degrees of disadvantage for a slow start. And of course, start too soon and you risk disqualification...

    From a gameplay perspective, the devs needed a mechanic at the kick off that rewarded a degree of skill and timing to prevent the re-strart from being a simple test of the centre forwards' speed stats. I think they came up with the right solution, but can anyone think of an alternative mechanic that would fulfil that gameplay need and be less frustrating for the player?

  • BadDevotions #57 4 years ago

    i loved speedball - i might have to get this, after I've played about a zillion other games.

    wish they'd do battle squadron on xbla, that was kewl - http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Squa...

  • Notorious_LRO #58 4 years ago

    Tried the game yesterday. Also annoyed at the crowd noise and stomping of feet (or whatever it is), but actually really geared towards winning the league like I did.. 15 years ago? I also remember the lag at the start of the game from the Amiga. Weird that Eurogamer doesn't.

    BTW: If we are taking Live Arcade suggestions, i'd like to add adventure games to the list. Everything from Maniac Mansion to Monkey Island and the point and click Leisure Suit Larry's.

  • Monkey_Puncher #59 4 years ago

    Yeah the freezing thing is definetly not a bug, I don't remember it in the Amiga version but it's definetly part of the game. Once you get used to the timing you should haven't any problems with it though.

    Took me a few games to get back into, but I'm absoloutly loving this game now!

  • wa_uk #60 4 years ago

    loving the alan prtridge references. keep it up EG

  • TheSnotGoblin #61 4 years ago

    I know they've changed the sound effects (And I'm sorry to lose the classic UI) but can anyone tell me if the "Ice-cream! Ice-cream!" sfx is the same as the original. It seems different somehow (Though I haven't played the original in a long time); maybe it just plays more frequently or something.

  • PlugMonkey #62 4 years ago

    Did anyone manage to win the trophies on the original?

    Eventually. The first time I beat Super Nashwan is still one of my all time favourite gaming moments. You’re already doing right with your running around hoovering up the money strategy. There’s 10 coins in a match and you want to be getting all of them.

    When you start getting star players offered you want to upgrade your central players first and then the right hand side of your team – the reason being that when you’re attacking the tackle dome is on the right, and you want good players on that side.

    Against the top teams, it’s all about the battle for the multipliers by the doors. Fight it out with your stronger right side of your team. Twice round the multiplier not only doubles your points, it means that tackle balls go through three players instead of one. Then score off every opportunity – not just goals but the stars and bounce domes are worth points too. The first time I beat Nashwan I took the ball at the restart and threw it back towards my own goal with seconds on the clock to hit the bounce dome and overturn a 2 point defecit. :) The only other thing I can think of is to practice short vs long passes by holding down the button for longer. You can often get a freebie on the multiplier with a long throw from defence that lands just in front of the scoop.

    Note to developers: you don't have to be entirely faithful to the original.

    This isn’t a remake, it’s a re-release. Alienating the hardcore fans who make up the core market by making pointless changes would be pretty dumb. Just running the player away works just as well as adding another button to do the same job, and means that when I switch player I’m already pressing in the right direction. Take it out and I’d have to relearn how to play the game, and then I wouln’t buy it. I just want the Speedball 2 I already love with online enabled, not people trying to make ill conceived ‘improvements’.

    It seems different somehow (Though I haven't played the original in a long time); maybe it just plays more frequently or something.

    They seem to play it at random intervals instead of when a player gets injured. I have no idea why they have done that and it’s the one thing about the game that really bugs me for some irrational reason. Probably because we all shouted “Ice-cream! Ice-cream!” as a taunt to the other player who’s star centre fwd we’d just knackered. Now it’s lost all it’s meaning!

  • 1Dgaf #63 4 years ago

    Plug,

    I haven't advocated adding a button to select a player. I think they should have worked on the way the game selects players to begin with.

    That's an improvement that doesn't need qoutation marks.

  • TOOTR #64 4 years ago

    JOIN ME. Steve Coogan is a genius. FACT.

    Still on the fence for this one. Puzzle Quest is more than enough XBLA goodness for a while.

  • bloodflowers #65 4 years ago

    Awesome game, awesome XBLA release.

    Whinescreeners, please shut up - it wouldn't be the same mangled to fit on a 16:9.

  • Xythras #66 4 years ago

    I played it for a couple of hours straight. Only 4 achievements left. ;)

    It is definitely a very good re-release and almost faithful to the original. If it comes to me they could have left out the "enhanced" graphics but since they are easy to avoid they are not much of a problem.

    Some of the changes to the original are welcome while others are slightly annoying.

    + More leagues/ teams
    + You can keep on playing even if you don't come out on top in the lague
    - The start bug. I remember that the first thing I did on the Amiga was to smash the button and slide into the central forward. Now I have to move first and lose precious time.
    - Management is a bit pointless and in division 1 pure luck
    - New sound effects (crowd) are annyoing
    - Icecream, Icecream is coming way too often
    - Menus don't look as nice as the originals
    - Why the hell did they change the music?

    There is also one thing that needs clarification. Was the team equip feature as weird in the Amiga version or am I doing something wrong? Star players cannot be upgraded. No stats can go above 230 through normal upgrades but they should go to 250. In the Amiga version I did not upgrade but only bought star players. I did this when I first went through manager (just for the achiement mind you) but in division one it left my team very weak. Almost no star players get an average above 230. Most don't even come close to that. In the end you get about three with an average of 233. The rest is decidedly weaker then 230. This means you'll end up with a very weak team if you only buy star players and there is no way to repair the damage. If you buy the weaker star players in the lower divisions you are royally screwed. I am sure you could also equip star players in the original. my advice is to skip the star players and simply equip your whole team to max. Maybe buy up to three star players in division 1 . This works very well in the normal league but I haven't tried the cup and knockout yet. It is very annoying that it is simply impossible to match the stats of the top three teams.

    If I am doing something wrong some advice would be great if I am not this is messed up.

  • jamespo #67 4 years ago

    from a quick go on the demo, it's good but not as good as I remember

    I preferred Speedball 1 at the time

  • Remy #68 4 years ago

    @Xythas and others

    I'm not sure if the start 'bug' is definitely a bug. I have to admit to fuzzy memory on this one, the reason why I don't notice it though, is that the best tactic vs the CPU if you have a fast CF is not to "dash forward" immediately anyway. If you do so, you will get the ball, but will promptly likely be tackled. It's generally much better to tap up a moment AFTER the ball is launched, let the other CF collect the ball, then slide in to take it, and tackle them in the process. Do this right every kickoff and with good relative stats you'll also injure their CF during most games... ah, I'm giving away my tricks now though ;)

    I have to agree with all your other +/- points though. The new music is ok, but they should've kept the old one too. Sad to admit I'd pay points for a "retro update" on that one. I am midway through a league (Div 3 now) and thought I still had to get promoted each year or I was out! Well, I won the league multiple times on the Amiga without losing a single game anyway, so I ought to be able to do it again ;)

    The player upgrade system appears to be exactly the Amiga to me. Yes buying too many un-upgradable star players could really damage your team there too! IIRC your stats can go to 250 in some of the other modes (Cup) but not in the league. The best team tactic on the Amiga I found, and you have alluded to already, was to buy no more than 3 star players, and the way to upgrade them is to buy a new one that replaces an old one.

    The one thing that does seem to have changed with regards to all players, stars included, is that players no longer have a Fwd/Mid/Def allocation, and can freely be switched between all positions. Again, I must admit to fuzzy memory, but I do not remember this being the case on the Amiga, I recall buying 'Def' star players that could only play in one of the 3 Def slots (or subs).

    Anyway, superb game. Exactly as good as I remember - simply one of the best ever made IMO. 9/10 from me - may raise it to a 10 later ;)

    Oh and hello EG, first post...

    GT: Remy77077

  • Remy #69 4 years ago

    BTW, this is little more than an ego trip post I realise, but Super Nashwan was not the hardest team to beat on the Amiga version. They had the best Offense..nggg..nghh.. 'Attack' on the game, but Fatal Justice was the all-round better team & harder to beat, at least for me - I could paste Nashwan with multiple injuries that would cripple them for the rest of the league, but Justice was always a scrappy horrible game.

    No idea if the above remains true yet on XBLA though. ;)

  • fujimaster #70 4 years ago

    I must be SO missing something here - I never liked the original and was determined to give the 360 version a real good try, but it was just as dull. Going to chalk this one up as just one of those games I'll never "get into". Deleted.

  • BadBoyBonner #71 4 years ago

    Monkie_King


    "Turrican 2 on the other hand was rocking, even if it did pinch a lot of stuff from Super Metroid."

    Unless Factor5 knew how to time travel your taking a load of cack

    Turrican 2 launch - 1991
    Super Metroid launch - 1994