Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
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
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Cover Illustration (UK Release) |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 70 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 184 ratings with 7 reviews)
The Good
It's fast, brutal and fun! I really can't wait until bitmap brothers get their act together and release speedball 2100. But until then, the speedball 2 map will always have a special place on my desktop.
The Bad
The league is a bit too short...
The Bottom Line
An excellent way to make time fly. Especially when playing against a friend.
DOS · by Vince (2) · 1999
The Good
An outrageously superb game, even now. Fast, furious and most importantly, fun! The most amazing thing about this game is that you REALLY can just pick it up again and enjoy it the same way you did when you first played it. The playability and difficulty curve are THAT good.
This game single-handedly cemented the Bitmaps Bros fame for all time (even if their other games didn't deserve it) and Eric Matthews is a sorely missed genius!
(I would LOVE to see this game updated, while NOT changing a single thing about the gameplay... just more beautiful graphics and sound.)
The Bad
Multi-player league and knockout are bizarrely missing and there's no good reason why! (Even the 256 color AGA 'Update' didn't include it!) If they'd had this then it would probably be still being played today!
The Bottom Line
Completely, truly and utterly perfect.
Amiga · by Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker (476) · 2004
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
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
Related Sites +
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Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Bitmap Brothers' site for Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe. -
www.gods-country.de
The Bitmap Brothers tribute page for this game
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Tomer Gabel.
Antstream added by firefang9212. Amiga added by necronom. Commodore 64, Xbox 360, J2ME, Windows Mobile added by Kabushi. Atari ST, Amiga CD32, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, SEGA Master System 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 15th, 1999. Last modified January 20th, 2024.