Saturday, 19 January 2013

Speedball 2 Theme - Bitmap Brothers


Another day, another Saturday Soundtrack - and another Bitmap Brothers Game. This time, the sequel to the popular Speedball game that saw versions on the Atari ST, Amiga and Commodore 64. Bringing with it the legendary attention to detail that this development house were famous for, Speedball 2 blows the original completely away in every way that counts. The new artwork is stunning and characterful, with lovely metallic surfaces everywhere, whilst the arena and team size has been more than doubled in size to accommodate a much bigger and more brutal sport. I remember my dad bringing this home after borrowing it from one of his workmates and then having to convince him to sell it to me after me and my brother couldn't get enough of the game. It's a simple enough concept that allows for lots of tweaks in your team's statistics and with enough management sense and joystick-destroying action, you too can propel Brutal Deluxe to the top.

The sound effects of throwing, pummelling and crowd sounds do vary between the Atari ST and Amiga versions, especially with the inclusion of an ice-cream seller in the Amiga version, but both versions retain the pumping dance track during the introduction that sets the scene - a sampled version of a professionally produced piece complete with TR 909 drums and sampled horn stabs. It's dark and dirty dance, just right for this kind of game.

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