Speedball review - Sega Master System

Gazza cried because he received a yellow card - how would he react if a solid metal ball hit his face at 80 miles per hour? Speedball is that sort of game: fast, violent, and skillful, and makes rugby look like an 80-minute knitting session.

Set in a jaded future, the sport of Speedball pits two teams of five armoured men against each other, with the object of hurling the ball past the opponent's goal keeper to score points. It's a battle of wits, muscles, and power gloves - but skill is the deciding factor.

To liven things up (as if they needed further livening up), power-up tokens appear on the pitch, and these speed up your players, reverse the controls, give one team immediate possession, or do something even more exotic. Coins, however, have a different effect, as explained elsewhere in the review.

Not for the faint-hearted, Speedball offers bloody laughs for its players - are you game?

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Speedball is one of those games that adds another dimension to console software; it's relatively original, exciting to play, and it has a sense of humour. After ploughing through a plethora of staid shoot 'em ups and cretinous cute platform games, this comes as a breath of fresh air to me. My minor criticism is that the speed of the game isn't quite what I'd hoped for; when it's the name of the game, I expected the action to be more fast-paced. It makes little difference to the enjoyability though, and this is a superb two-player game. No rules means no limit to the fun - if you've got a friend to play against on a regular basis, make sure you check out this thrilling game.

This is a game of two halves, and no mistake. As a simultaneous two-player game it's superb, combining fast and furious (and pretty violent) gameplay with excellent graphics! However, when you play it on single player mode, it's virtually useless - I beat him 10-0 on my first game, and continued to win time and time again until I gave up with disgust. It's a massive shame - if this had been playtested properly and given a decent computer opponent, it would be utterly brilliant. As it stands it's recommended only if you always have a second player on hand. If you're likely to be playing on your own, give it a miss. There simply isn't enough challenge to keep you occupied for more than a few hours.