Speedball 2 HD

As nostalgic reminder of the original, Speedball 2 HD could suffice; as a separate game (remake or not), it's hardly worth the price. The rules, gamefield layout, controls, sheer pace and simple gameplay are taken fully from the original, that's the good news. Less pleasant fact is, the flaws, namely lack of content and questionable AI, remains too. But that could be overlooked, if the SB2 HD was true remake and nothing more. Unfortunately, The Bitmap Brothers apparently tried to "improve" it to today's standards. The graphic is pretty much taken from the original (up to the after season "champions"/"eliminated" pictures), but the distinct metallic "feel" of the original design is lost with palette changes (see TerrorK review). The UI is bland and less intuitive then original. Worst of all, the career mode is painfully easy; unless you lose on purpose, you easily win all competitions on the first try. There is hardly a point in ten season career, if you can boost the whole team stats on max to the end of season 3 (and you can, yes, you can). If they enhanced the remake in some positive way I didn't notice: The new teams and arenas are just sligthly different textures of players/fields. The multiplayer is still limited to hot-seat. Less universe-building flavor elements than original (read: none at all). To sum it up: Speedball 2 HD is repetitive and too easy, sadly wasted opportunity to revive great "bloodsport" video game.

I was excited because Speedball 2 is one of the major fun game of my teenagehood memories. So i got it on GOG and installed it at its release. It's more than a gross colossal dissapointment ! Action is lame and sluggish, no pad support and even with xpadder or other tools like that, you still feel the controls are just complete failure. In fact the explanation was found on the internet: it is the mobile phone speedball 2 force-converted to a desktop PC ! I am angry and dissapointed to the least i can say...

Like a lot of people I played the original Speedball 2 Deluxe (on PC VGA). I fell for the nostalgia and thought that 20 years later a remake in 2D would be nothing short of amazing. Boy was I wrong. The animation is choppy, the ambient of the original is gone, graphics are missing that defining touch so typical of the Bitmaps bros, sound is bland (gone is the mythical music of Speedball 2)... Stay clear of this thing. You can find better titles that this one on mobile phones, not even talking about PC.

This (on the Amiga, not the PC which had disturbingly poor sound by comparison) was (is ?!) my all-time favourite game ... First off I have to say I haven't played this game (off GOG) on my computer, I have however bought and played it on the ipad the day it came out - I believe this is the same 'Jon Hare conversion' as the ipad version ? And for this reason I shall not be buying it. Here's why ... I hadn't played this beloved game for over 15 years (on an Amiga, with a competition pro joystick) and I picked up the ipad version and completed the whole game (inc Champions league) on my FIRST ATTEMPT ! Now this is not me bragging, I am not (and never was) that good at computer games, I completed the various competitions in the original by (LOTS !) of hard work, determination and hours and hours of serious joystick bashing and as such when I won it gave huge satisfaction, there was no guarantee however that next time I would win again because Super Nashwan could play you off the park at anytime, Fatal Justice could also do this on occasion and if you met the Turbo Hammers in a particularly aggressive mood they could kick you off the park - for me at least it was no certainty you are going to win. Also in the the original the gym was important - as to how you wanted your team to play, I never used to max out my aggression as instead of being in a good position to receive the ball I found with max aggression your players would wander off and fight instead and with this new version I feel it just doesn't work like - in the original version you couldn't upgrade your 'star' players in the gym, their stats were set, so again, you would buy in star players to fit in with your style of play - for me 'JAMS' (star forward) was always in the right place at the right time and not off fighting. I think this game was a missed opportunity, it was (imho) practically perfect in it's original format - all it ever needed was the longevity improving.