Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe

aka: Speed Ball II, Speedball 2
Moby ID: 273
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Description official descriptions

Brutal Deluxe doesn't live up to their name - in fact they're the worst team Speedball has ever seen. As their manager, it is your job to transform their fortunes. As well as the league system, which consists of 2 8-team divisions and challenges you to advance to the top, there are also 2 cup tournaments, one of which is played out over 2 'legs' with the aggregate score deciding who progresses.

You can play the matches as well, which is the real meat of the game. They consist of 2 90-second periods, and the gameplay is futuristic, fast, and frantic, with heavy tackling encouraged to retrieve the ball. Power-ups and tokens appear on the pitch, including ones to make your players extra-tough or freeze the opponents.

The sides of the pitch each include a score multiplier, which you can run the ball through to increase the value of your scoring - the opposition can sometimes immediately grab the ball and nullify this. There are also 5 stars which are worth 2 points each if you hit them (more if you have the multiplier activated), but these can also be canceled out by the opposition hitting the same star, and their points values only become set after the half. Next to the stars, there are portals, which throw the ball out the opposite side of the pitch, in the direction it was going.

You get money for the results, and by collecting the silver tokens which appear on the pitch at random intervals. Between each match, you can spend these either on improving your existing players as far as they can go or on buying better ones and fitting them into the team. Your original players can only be improved to a certain extent, so remembering where your signed players are and making use of them is important.

A variety of tokens also appear during the match, some of which boost your team's power for a short period of time, and one freezes the opposition.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Amiga version)

9 People

Design
Additional Design
Code
Additional Code
Graphic Design
Music
  • Nation 12
Music Code and FX
Cover Illustration (UK Release)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 70 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 185 ratings with 7 reviews)

Clearly inferior to the Amiga version.

The Good
Well, the Amiga version is one of the games I like the most, and while it's obviously superior to the PC port, the PC version has decent graphics and hours of gameplay. The intro music on the PC isn't nearly as good as the wonderful Amiga one, and so are the sound effects and visuals.

But it's a great game none-the-less.

The Bad
Again, I prefer the Amiga version. The PC version's controls are rather annoying, and the game refuses to run properly on newer machines.

The Bottom Line
A fairly solid port of a wonderful Amiga classic.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

Even better than the Amiga version

The Good
Having played the Amiga version before, I was pleasantly surprised how well the game was ported to PC (DOS), something that can't be said about so many other Amiga => PC ports.

The gameplay is the same, and the VGA graphics are practically identical to the Amiga version. Naturally they could have been even better in PC (VGA has more colors), but as a port this was quite ok.

The sound effects and especially the music depend on what kind of sound card you have. If you had an Adlib or Soundblaster like most PC gamers, the audio was quite inferior compared to the Amiga version.

But if you were lucky enough to own a Roland MT-32 or LAPC-1 sound card/module, you wouldn't believe how much better the music in the PC version sounds, it really puts the theme music in the Amiga version into shame. But then, Roland sound card cost easily what Amiga 500 cost as new...

The sound effects are also quite satisfying on Roland, even if they are generated from the limited sound effect library of Roland LAPC-1. I especially loved how the reverb effect was put into good use, giving the extra ooomph to the ooomph sounds.

The Bad
Due to DOS PC restrictions, getting two controllers (joysticks) to work passably with two-player games was not as easy as it should have been. It was possible to use certain special "double gamepads", but for most people the way to play two player game on PC was that one person was using a controller (a joystick or a gamepad), and the other used the keyboard.

I am unsure if DOSBox DOS emulator is able to fix this problem in modern PCs, allowing you to use two proper gamepads for the same game.

The Bottom Line
Still possibly one of the best futuristic sports games around. You should really try on either on an Amiga emulator (WinUAE) or on PC with DOSBox, you will not regret it.

DOS · by Mussan Smith (1) · 2011

Brutal. Fast. Fun.

The Good
Everything. You have a team of losers (which you can upgrade with money you get after every match) and play against other teams... and then it just gets brutal! This game was the first REALLY good Amiga-to-PC port, and it's fast, action-packed, and fun. One of the games from that time period that I still play on a weekly basis. It was a LOT faster than M.U.D.S. despite being technically inferior, and Bitmap Brothers are awesome when it comes to gameplay. Especially when you play against some of the tougher teams (Steel Fury, etc) the pace picks up so much it's incredible. In a good way. This game is addictive beyond belief (even to me, and I usually disdain any sort of action game or Amiga ports), and it still runs well on a modern machine.

The Bad
Well, M.U.D.S. has a better "campaign" mode (buying and selling players, etc). but that's about it! Oh, and the key selection is awkward (O/P for left/right and Q/A for up/down) and can't be reselected, but you get used to it.

The Bottom Line
Well, I just saw an original boxed Speedball 2 on Disks with manuals etc. on eBay, and I stopped bidding at around $30. Needless to say, there are still many who have fond memories about this game, and rightfully so. Strongest recommendation to hunt this one down, although I doubt you can find it anywhere but illegal abandonware. They really ought to make a compilation CD of all the good Amiga ports from that time (Speedball 2, Xenon 2, Turrican 2, etc).

DOS · by Gothicgene (66) · 2001

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Amiga version of Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Ideas that were scrapped

According to Eric Matthews during development saving a team to disk in order to take it to a friend's house, as well as player-designed home courts were discussed, but both ideas didn't make it in the final game. (Source: Amiga Power #2, 1991/6).

Version differences

The Genesis port is a very quiet port, a lot of sound effects have been left out. The MegaDrive version that went out in Japan had silver and gold teams rather than red and blue.

Awards

  • Amiga Power
    • April 1991 - #3 Best Amiga Game of All Time
    • May 1992 - #3 Best Amiga Game of All Time
    • May 1993 - #4 Best Amiga Game of All Time
    • May 1994 - #3 Best Amiga Game of All Time
  • EMAP Image's Golden Joystick 1991
    • April 1991: Best Soundtrack - 16 Bit
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #43 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • ST Format
    • January 1993 (issue #42) - #31 in '50 finest Atari ST games of all time' list

Information also contributed by Graeme Boxall and Martin Smith

Analytics

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  • MobyGames ID: 273
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Antstream added by firefang9212. Amiga added by necronom. Commodore 64, J2ME, Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 added by Kabushi. Atari ST, SEGA Master System, Amiga CD32, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance added by Martin Smith. Genesis added by Roedie. Acorn 32-bit added by Terok Nor. BlackBerry added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Roedie, Jeanne, Apogee IV, kametyken, Martin Smith, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added September 15, 1999. Last modified March 26, 2024.