| Introduction
Established over 13 years ago and based in Wapping, London and Harrogate in the
North of England, the legendary Bitmap brothers ( comprised of three friends
actually and not brothers) broke into the industry with
the hit 1987 scrolling shoot-em-up, " Xenon", for
the Amiga. This success was followed by other hits like
"Xeneo II", "The Chaos Engine",
and "Gods" which raised the bar significantly
and showcased visuals and gameplay that exceeded what
other similar software houses were churning out.
"Speedball 2 - Brutal Deluxe", represents
the first of many of their well known classic hits to
be given the GBA treatment and the next year or so should
see much of their back catalogue re-released as well. Do
we really need rehashed, decades-old titles on the GBA
though? Has Speedball stood the test of time? You'll
be pleased to know that I'm as eager to find out as
you are.
GamePlay
Speedball 2 is best described as a futuristic mix
between American Football and Rugby, with a good measure
of violence thrown in. Your main object is obviously
to score goals, which will gain you 10 points, but you
can also gain victory by pulling off some of the many
other special moves. These all take place at the sides
of the playing court and although the manual makes them
sound incredibly difficult, they simply involve hitting
various targets while the ball is 'charged up'. I won't
go into how this works, as it's one of the more advanced
moves, and all you'll be concerned with for the first
hour or so is getting the ball past the goalkeeper.
As with most other sports titles now, Speedball 2
offers a 'Quick Start' option where you join a random
game and try to work everything out for yourself. This
is always a great learning tool as nothing is really
ever at stake. 'Knockout' and 'Cup' puts you against
other teams with the winner going on to another match
and the loser is well, knocked out. Finally, there's
the all-singing, all-dancing 'Championship', which takes
you right through an entire season of playing all the
other teams in order to win the cup.
One new aspect of Speedball is the management section,
and it's here you have the opportunity to build a really
great team. It all depends on your success in matches
of course, but winning money will allow you to train
and equip your team members with bigger and better armor.
There are also opportunities to choose your team set-up,
the substitutes, and even buy and sell players with
other teams. It does give a greater and much needed
depth to Speedball, because while the original could
sell itself on far less technical aspects, we appear
to demand a lot more from our sports sims today.
Controls
As the control system is much like the 16-bit classic,
it remains incredibly simple when you're actually playing
a match, with only the d-pad, 'A' and 'B' buttons to
concern you. The new management system is a bit more
complicated however, with lots of buttons that can be
pressed to improve your team's overall ability. It's
yet another section of a GBA title that requires you
to sit with the manual on your lap initially at least.
It does get slightly easier and more intuitive in time,
but not without some minor frustrations during those
first few sessions.
Graphics
Visually, Speedball 2 is actually an improvement
on the original 16-bit classic, and nobody would have
convinced me all those years ago that a tiny handheld
game console would replace a huge computer and monitor.
It is all very simple though, as the entire game is
played from an 'above' perspective, and most of the
animation is limited to players' legs and arms moving
about. The various menu systems are a little more involved
and the management and training screens contain a tremendous
amount of detail. Overall, it all works reasonably well,
though the graphics come off as technically correct
rather than particularly creative.
Sound & Music
The sound in Speedball 2 comes in many different
layers that include the players, music and even the
crowd. The problem is that there's so much noise--it
can actually distract from what's going on in the game,
so you may feel the need to turn some of it off quickly.
This is done simply via the options menu, and it's probably
best if you scale the audio down to player sound effects
only. Overall though the quality is quite good, but
can be a bit overwhelming.
Final Comments
Even after all these years Speedball is still a tough
game, and it's interesting to see that a good idea will
always stand regardless of how much time has passed.
It looks good and plays well, with the addition of the
management aspect adding depth to what was previously
a straight sports Sim.
However, even with all its plus points, it can quickly
become very frustrating for novice gamers when you discover
that after the first few matches, opponents become almost
impossible to beat. The multiplayer mode does go some
way to addressing this, but the single cart option is
rather limiting, and you'll require two or more copies
of Speedball 2 to have a fully featured game. Definitely
a ‘try before you buy' for younger gamers, but a wonderful
slice of retro heaven for everyone else.
|
Hardware
Reviews 
Game
Title
