Welcome to the future! Here, you'll find that quite a lot has been changed as far as leisure goes. Football, Rugby and all other forms of ball-related excitement (bar one) have been abolished and replaced by a new game - Speedball. Taking a look at the rules, it's easy to see why it becomes so popular - there are none! The idea of the game is to score goals in your opponent's net. but this can be achieved with any combination of violence, cunning. and ruthless dirty tricks. The only skills needed are a smidgen of team work and a nice line in bribery and blackmail (especially when it comes to dealing with the ref!)

The mid-field excitement is spiced up by the inclusion of icons dotted around the pitch, which appear every few seconds. These are either money (after the match, these are used to buy extra skills, stamina, power, or even decrease the same attributes on your opposing team!) or ef feet icons. These offer even more wild excitement, allowing you to boost your stamina and skills more immediately or even reverse your opponent's joypad controls!

Speedball players have three options whilst playing. Running (pretty essential when you think about it), barging (do this to the opposition in order to claim the ball as your own) and throwing the ball (holding down the button changes the power and height of the throw).

It's not the taking part that's important in Speedball - it's the winning (preferably fatally maiming as many of the opposition's players as possible!)

Comment

Speedball is a strong first release from Mirrorsoft. The game's mixture of ball-control, team skills and lashings of gratuitous violence combine to make a future sport that is very satisfying to play. If the prospect of being able to collectively bundle the opposition's goalie and then coolly plant the ball in the goal appeals to you, then this game is for you! offering far more lastability and excitement in two-player mode (why don't you switch ends at half-time, though? Player one has all the advantage of playing up the screen and it does make a difference), Speedball is a fine Sega cart. The graphics, though a tad blocky more than serve the purpose, though the scrolling is a tad on the jerky side. The sound is a bit limp, though - the white-noise effects and strange music don't exactly combine to create the powerful atmosphere required. All in all, a decent game, the like of which just hasn't been released on the Master System.

A good looking, entertaining and challenging sports game which is fun with one player, but is brilliant in two-player

Graphics

79%

Sound

69%

Playability

83%

Lastability

80%

Overall

81%

Rating

81

Reviewer

CVG magazine "Complete Guide to Sega"

Region

UK

Scans

CVGCompleteGuideToSega-Magazine-Issue1?gallerypage=40