Thoughts by Mr Creosote (09 Jul 2022) – Amiga (OCS)
Brutal Deluxe – the very game which catapulted the already acclaimed Bitmap Brothers to legendary superstar status. The one game everybody remembers, the one game which keeps coming back in different editions. Though then, cross your heart, when did you actually last play it? This many years? That’s a pity, because boy, is it still great!
Picking it up from the original Speedball, this sequel not only extends the scope, but it enhances playability by a degree that this will certainly not turn into a “if you liked the original, give it a try” review.
The combination of a much larger playfield and a closer camera perspective makes for an interesting new feeling. Although explicit overview is not excellent (also due to lack of a genre standard radar), artificial intelligence teammates behave in predictable and smart patterns. Quite elaborate, fluent play maneuvers can be pulled off with some experience.
With that knowledge, it is almost a pity how effective just running over the opponents becomes after some time. This can be achieved either by upgrading the existing players or buying stars from the transfer market. Given an advantage in player stats, violently breaking through defenses becomes the easiest way to score.
Fu Man Chu would make a great addition to our team!
In that respect, the graphics artists have essentially made the choice for the players. Buying from the transfer market is made attractive due to the interesting faces associated, replacing the rather plain guys initially found in the team. This intuitively encourages good business choices, as indeed it is also the financially more attractive strategy than upgrading.
The playing fields themselves now have static placement of all elements, but they have gained as well nevertheless. There are several places to score apart from the goals, and a score multiplier can make or break a match. As the latter is placed in a location not on the direct trajectory towards the goal, it makes for interesting decisionmaking during the short, but sweet matches (90 seconds!) what to spend this valuable time on.
Trailing behind on score, one player down
As in the predecessor, although winning is key to success, it is finally shallow unless randomly appearing money is also collected during the matches. Without capital to invest, the following matches will not end well. Apart from money, various power-ups also appear on the playfield for temporary boosts.
In the upper league (of two), computer teams are at the right level to still provide a challenge without being unbeatable. Though of course, the real party only starts with two human opponents. This is a multiplayer game at heart and tactics like intentionally injuring the opponent’s players (for points!) only really start making sense in such a setup.
You see, there is little to fault the game with. It plays beautifully, looks great both on still pictures (those artists really knew how to put the players into cool looking poses) and in motion… feeling obliged to split hairs now, the sprites during the matches could use some more individuality. Also, the sound which is a bit of a letdown. Sure, the title tune is great, and the ice cream vendor shouting on the ranks is a classic, but apart from that, effects during the matches have a bit of a stock library feel to them. There isn’t even any music anymore during the matches! Second, when the game was “upgraded” to AGA some years later, they left it to the same colourblind guy who messed up The Chaos Engine in lollipop colours already.
The latter doesn’t take away from the original version and the former, while regrettable, doesn’t seriously detract from the enjoyment. Speedball 2 is fast paced, easy to learn, challenging, almost flawlessly produced and most importantly eminently playable. Not only the best sports game of its generation, but its qualities have endured the test of time!
Thoughts by Mr Creosote (12 Jul 2002) – Atari ST
The successor of the best sports game of the 80s – published on the Atari first! A few years after Speedball. Corruption and violence have driven the sport underground. At least that is what the intro says. There’s not really much more violence, but at least the corruption has obviously been eliminated (no bribing the officials anymore ;). Anyway, you’re the manager of a team called ‘Brutal Deluxe’ (what a sound name!) which is a member of the second league. And now guess what you have to do…
Actually, if you’ve really never heard of or played Speedball, there are still two possibilities – manager simulation or actual sports game. To make it short: it’s an action-packed sports game in which you directly influence the action on the field. Speedball is a bit hard to describe. It’s a bit like a handball match where the referee has lost his glasses. So the players carry the ball around as they wish. At least until they’re stopped by an opposing player – by any means necessary.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t rules, though. In fact, they’re quite elaborate when it comes to scoring. That is not only done by goals (still the main source), but you can also hit special targets on the field: stars on the wall which, once hit, begin to glow or the pinball-like bumpers. Nice extras, they really add some spice to the game!
The top-down view on the field works great. The players are easily distinguishable, you always have an idea where you currently are, in which direction you’re running and so on (don’t laugh – that’s not the case with certain new sports games!). This ‘static’ view also makes the controls very easy, even catching the ball from the air is easy after half an hour of playing :) The only thing I’d prefer to have changed is the zoom level. You’re too close, a little more overview wouldn’t hurt.
Between the matches, there is a little ‘manager part’. You’re awarded money based on your performance in the last game. With that, you can buy new players from the transfer market, buy better equipment for your players (Speedball is played in full mechanical suits of which you can change every part individually) and so on. Certainly a nice addition since it adds to the long time value.
The game has been improved compared to its predecessor on the whole. The action is even more fun, it’s extremely fast, sometimes frustrating, but guaranteed to glue you to the screen. Each team has more players than in Speedball, but the fields are also larger, so that is still balanced. The AI of your ‘teammates’ (you always control the player nearest to the ball of course, I mean the ones you don’t control in one specific moment) is good enough to let you complete nice tactical maneuvers and score beatiful goals.
Speedball 2 might be the best sports game in existence. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, though. It just happens too often that you steer your goalkeeper away from the goal ‘by accident’ (because of the controlled player suddenly switching to him). The players of your team and on the transfer market remain pretty much ‘faceless’. They don’t only look almost identical (fans of other Bitmap Brothers games will notice slight similarities ;), but they also don’t seem to have any real identity. On the field, just the position of a player is shown. It would be nice to have some ‘statistics’ after each game how well each individual did. Same goes for the other teams. They don’t differ enough. For some reason, some are better and some worse, but somehow it’s never really obvious why. At least the looks could change, give them another shirt, make them mutants or something! It would fit to the Rollerball-atmosphere at least (and I’m not talking about the crappy remake).
Last but not least, why have I chosen this game for the Hall Of Fame? Sports games were one of the most common genres on the Atari ST. Most of them dealt with football (soccer). And they all played very similar: very much action, not much fuss about tactics, players and all that. Speedball 2 is the prime example of how this genre could have been developed to perfection. It comes closer than any competitor!
