No. of Reviews: 22
Review 1
Purchased!
If you love the original Speedball 2 then don't get this. It will ruin your
memories.
This is a terrible "HD" remake of the game. It is actually lacking in some
features the original had, like the manager mode. What it also is lacking is any
difficulty at all, you will easily steamroll every team in the first two
seasons, except when you suddenly play a team that is completely maxed out when
you still have very low stats.
What this game also lacks is any decent graphics. Sure, they are "HD", even
though you only get to choose from 4 basic resolutions. Sorry laptop users. But
they look terrible. Bitmap Brothers games were known for their slick, stylish
graphics and this game almost seems to make a mockery out of that. To add insult
to injury the game is locked at 29 FPS, making it difficult for me to play for
any length of time due to eye-strain (as if the graphics weren't insulting my
eyes enough already).
Then finally you would probably expect an HD remake to have online multiplayer.
Nope... Sorry guys. All this remake offers over the original is the higher
resolution/horrible design graphics. That's it. No Manager mode, no online
multiplayer, no challenge, no point in buying this. Oh did I mention the game
crashing, save file corruption, playing teams with identical outfits to yours
making it impossible to tell them apart (and then crashing after the match),
terrible intro "video", lack of the awesome original soundtrack...
I could go on but this should really be enough for you to make your mind up.
Avoid like the plague.
Review 2
Purchased!
Did you like the original Speedball 2 on your Amiga, but felt that the graphics
were too good and it ran too well?
You are in luck kind sir!
This version of "Speedball 2" is a re-creation of the exact same game from the
90's; but the graphics are now fucking worse and it has game breaking bugs in it
that they never bothered to fix.
I don't know how you manage to do that..
But I can guess..
Review 3
Purchased!
This is one game where you should listen to the reviews... I disregarded
everything I read because I figured nostalgia would compensate.. I was wrong.
Don't waste your money, even if it's on sale.
Review 4
Purchased!
I love this so much .A blast from the past .
Review 5
Purchased!
What an excitement when I heard that a HD-remake of this classic gonna hit the
Steam store!
The disappointment was even bigger once I heard that if would have only local
multiplayer and not online multiplayer!
Review 6
Purchased!
Speedball 2 HD...Hmm, where to start? Lets go back to yonder days when I was
much much younger than I am now, the mid 90s (Speedball came out in 1988 and
1990 (2) but was re-released for 95/98 in a multipack) and I remember spending
many an hour running around with my cyberpunk steroidal war bears beating up the
enemy for ball possession and winning the majority of my games purely by
knocking out enemy team members (which gives you as many points as scoring a
goal might I add) and screaming at my goal keeper to stop being a poof. Ahhh,
good times.
Fast forward to today and Speedball 2 HD is a re-release of the 1988 cult
classic set in the future of a bloodbowl sport which is a combination of
lacrosse, american football and cage fighting. It's exactly like the original
(as far as I can remember) and I have already spent a few hours knocking out the
enemy and scoring obscene goals. It's such a good remake it has all of it's
warts and boils with the buggy player swapping whenever the ball is perfectly
between three of your players causing it to bounce all over the place. But all
that is forgotten when you get your players hip dancing and kneesliding from
scoring or knocking out the enemy players.
Brutality aside, this is classic game that is challenging, requires a little
thought on how you move around and a lot of keyboards from smashing the
spacebar. The challenging enemy players can range from "screwdrivers in their
heads" stupid to "holy hell I haven't even touched the ball and it's already
half time". Great to pick up for a quick laugh then put back down. I can imagine
friendships being broken when this game is played on the LAN!
Review 7
Purchased!
I had fun playing this but there is one glaring issue that reduced my enjoyment.
When you get to division 1 the gulf between the teams you play in the league and
the teams you are forced to play in the intergalactic cup is huge. You're forced
into a cycle of winning 7 really easy games against 3 star teams and then
getting raped by a 5 star team in the first round of the cup which injures your
players.
The game desperately needs another league between Div1 and the intergalactic
cup/champion's league rape-a-thon.
Review 8
Purchased!
This game is just like the original Amiga version and much better in HD - plus
it comes with achievements, trading cards and more!
It maybe a old game, but this game rocks near 1992 and 20 years from then it
still rocks.
Review 9
Purchased!
even playable with my old competition pro joystick i used in my amigatimes, if
you know and loved the original - get this.
For all other lamers ;-) nice scifi rugbylike sportsgame singleplayercampagn,
local multiplayer and a lot of fun. There are different targets and goals to get
points for winning a match. No mercy foul the opponents as often as you can :)
ICECREAM !
Review 10
Purchased!
Argh, conflicted. Thumbs up or thumbs down?
There are good(ish) and bad points to this tarted up version of the 1990s
classic.
Good(ish):
It looks OK
It's full of nostalgia
It's playable enough
You can turn your brain off and just play
Bad:
Gameplay (and to my mind graphics) are not as good as the Amiga or Atari ST
version. This is not forgiveable in 2014.
It's too easy
The ball velocity has been slowed down
Clumsy animation
So why am I still playing it? Because my Amiga is long dead and as bad a version
as this is, it's still as close to the original as I'm going to get.
Marginal thumbs up 5/10
Review 11
Purchased!
I used to love the original Amiga version of Speedball 2, so buying this game
was a no brainer.
Sadly it doesn't meet my expectations.
While the game has great graphics and new features, its not as fluid or as fast
as the original.
Just looking on the discussion thread there are still bugs in the game and they
may not be fixed any time soon.
For me this is a big disappointment and I don't even play it anymore.
Review 12
Purchased!
Far too short and way too easy, but yet, it holds some of the magic of the
original, which is in itself a good surprise.
Review 13
Purchased!
This is an awful remake of a great classic game, I recommend playing the dos
verison of Speedball 2 in DOSbox over this.
The controls in this game are just awful, press down and your player may go down
or just some other random direction. When the computer is control of the ball,
press the action key and your player may slide tackle towards the computer
player or away from him. I question whether anyone bothered to test this game
before releasing it.
Save your money and buy something else
Review 14
Purchased!
I went from Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe on the sega Megadrive, to this. Visually
it's a significant improvement, and smoother. That's about as far as the
positives go.
The controls are really dodgy. When your character has the ball, it's pot luck
which way they'll pass it. When they're off the ball, they auto jump when the
ball is near them. Really messes with the "let the AI catch it then take it from
them" methods. Wheh the ball is on the arena floor, if you leave it there to
whale on the opposing team, the AI ignores the input after a short time and
forces you to pick it up.
The gym section never feels like it's progressing, and with the prices raising
every time you level something up you quickly get to the point you're searching
for coins instead of the game and hoping for the best. I've absolutely no idea
how you are supposed to save up the full amount for the achievement in a career,
let alone upgrade a player or the team. It's a real shame as by the time I got
past a couple of seasons I finished out the career just to tick the box, but in
reality I was so, so glad when it was over.
Review 15
Purchased!
Good for some nostalgia, but its nothing compared to the original mega drive
version.
First, its way too easy..
Second, No Manager mode.
Third, no online multiplayer...
Review 16
Purchased!
I played the Amiga version and loved it. Read the reviews and bought it
irrespective of the negative comments.
Thank goodness I did that because I love it. It's a faithful representation of
the original gameplay and a blast to play! I use a wired 360 controller and find
it to be amazingly similar to the original I so loved when I was a kid.
Definitely fun to play and if you're into nostalgia, you'll love it. Believe the
hype, Speedball 2 HD is great!
Review 17
Purchased!
Surprisingly, not bad. Plays smoothly and has all the charm of the original. The
additional leagues and seasons add a nice touch and the management aspect of the
game is still quite enjoyable without being over complicated.
My major complaint would be too much importance placed on the injuring of
opposition to score. It always fristrated me when I lost one of my best players
in the original and on top of that the opposition gets their goal score from it.
Always seemed too major a penalty and this version has taken it up another
notch. Disappointing but I'm finding I'm injuring my opposition much more than
they're injuring me anyway.
The inclusion of online multiplayer would have made me a very happy fan but
can't have everything I guess. Bitmap Brothers please take note though, based on
the reviews and the feedback people obviously want it. Please deliver!
Review 18
Purchased!
Initially I liked it, but once Id comleted it once (too easily) it lacked any
spice. I no longer reccommend this game, as the once existant support, vanished.
Review 19
Purchased!
Where is manager mode? You think a game like this where the Amiga had it but a
full on modern PC lacks it is just silly.
If you are looking for the nostalgic manager type of game you had on inferior
systems its not there.
Review 20
Purchased!
I must have spent thousands of hours as a kid playing this game. Never getting
tired of the bone crunching tackles or the "Ice cream" yells. Always coming so
close to winning the league and then getting stomped on by that one team. After
a few failed comebacks it's nice to see someone sticking to the orginal formula
but giving it a bit of polish. The addition of a 10 year career mode is a
welcome addition. The new teams are brutal at first but they are beatable. It's
also nice to be able to play in new arenas but somehow I can't help but be drawn
back to those original steel coloured floors.
They left out some stuff from the first one if memory serves, like you could
bribe a match offical to give you more time on the pitch. I'm kind of sad they
replaced some of the artwork too.
Sadly the people who made this game are no longer around. To the Bitmap
Brothers. For missing and forgotten homework, not enough sleep and most of all,
Brutal Deluxe.
Review 21
Purchased!
I'm not quite sure how it's possible to take a game that's almost 15 years old
and make it look worse but Vivid Games do. It's higher resolution, sure, but all
nuance of the original is lost, sprites look comical, pitches ugly and it's even
hard to tell where the goalmouth starts and ends. Instead of starting with a
team that looks like a bunch of nerds your starting team are now randomly
cybernetically enhanced. All 'New Art' motivation for purchasing star players is
lost. All players are now a mish-mash of badly redrawn features from original
characters. If you enjoy looking at clunky photo-fit faces with glued-on
moustaches and noses that line up with mouths perhaps one in ten times (once you
see this you can't unsee it), you're in for a real treat.
Graphics aside, the game is still fairly solid. The on-pitch gameplay is
basically just a port of the original with no attempts made to revamp. Game mode
differs in a few respects, some good, some bad, but nothing is going to make up
for the god awful look of the thing.
If there was an option to use original graphics I'd probably be able to
recommend this. As-is it's really just a curio for fervent fans of the original.
Something to pass the time, to agonise over how what could have been and to
highlight just how incredible the original really was.
Review 22
Purchased!
Genre - Sci-Fi Sport Action
This is based on an original game by the Bitmap Brothers of the same name minus
the HD as it didn't exist. Back in the day these guys were pioneers and other
great games included Xenon 2, Chaos Engine, Z and Cadaver. This version stays
loyal to the original but adds a few more features but nothing that takes away
any nostalgia you might have. If you are not an 80s child, I would recommend
trying it out anyway, but it is old skool so don't expect great graphics!