If you owned an Amiga, there’s a good chance you played The Bitmap Brothers’ future sports series, Speedball.
The 1988 original’s sequel, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, was actually ported to dozens of platforms – including the PS1, where it adopted a 3D visual style, ultimately attracting a mixed critical response.
Well, after an extended period of Early Access on PC dating all the way back to October 2024, UK-based dev Rebellion is bringing the brand back on PS5 this 27th January.
Speedball, as it’s named, is a modern reboot of the console classic, promising a “no-holds-barred future sport that is used by mega-corporations to distract the downtrodden masses from their miserable lives”. Sounds regrettably relatable, doesn’t it?
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This is a sports game where you control teams of cybernetically enhanced athletes, and it promises a blend of arcade sports and simulation strategy.
Since launching in Early Access, the gameplay has been refined and various new modes and features have been added, including a League Mode, tutorials, and more.
Rebellion is describing this PS5 release as v1.0, then – a finished build with further room for expansion.
There’s no word on a price as far as we can see, but wishlisting is available on the PS Store now if you want to be reminded when it drops.
We’ve always been big fans of fantasy sports games like this, so we’ll definitely be giving Speedball a go when it arrives later in the month.
Comments 38
I remember playing Speedball 2 on my cousin's Amiga 500 in the very early 90s and having a lot of fun with it.
I was not aware there was a new one
It looks like a version of the film Rollerball which was a cult hit back in 1975. The film was super violent, for the time, and I really enjoyed it when I got to see it some years later as a teenager in the about 1980.
Curious to see how this pans out, and whether it is closer to Rollerball or Space Jam... 😂
Speedball was one of the first games I ever played back when I was 5, so I will definitely be giving this a go. Loved the amiga, used to play it loads. Fire and ice was another one I was a big fan of
Speedball 2 on the Megadrive was peak! Pretty sure that I have it on the Evercade now as it goes 🤔
@Fiendish-Beaver its basically rollerball, its what it was based off , I remember the vhs cover for this more than the film , which starred James caan if I remember correctly.
@lazarus11 my cousins had it on LaserDisc posh ****’s!
@graymamba Same here mate, good times.
Speedball 2 was tremendous, only the pre-3D Sensible Soccer games match it from that era for pick-up-and-play arcade sports. Hopefully this will be the first sequel/revival/spiritual successor to nail the feel
This is a blast from the past.
I remember playing the original game on the Amiga, as well. I also recall not being very good at it.
It was obviously inspired by Rollerball, which in turn presumably inspired the game in Alita :Battle Angel. Motorball?
The Amiga had some fantastic games. I am sure that I played Frontier (Elite II) the most, though.
To this day I still believe I was unbeatable at speedball 2 on the Amiga! No doubt that wasn’t true but I’d have at least given you a run for your money.
Totally brilliant game!
Hit right in the nostalgia feels. Excited.
As with every attempt to reboot speedball I will buy it. I hope it’s good, but my expectations are low.
I loved this game."ICE CREAM.."
Yes, @lazarus11. It was James Caan. You don't see him talked about all that much these days even though he only died relatively recently, but he was a great actor...
I remember watching Alita (great film, by the way!), @Matthewnh, and saying to my eldest son that Motorball reminded my of Rollerball.
I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball that released in 2002, but I think a super violent remake with todays levels of CGi would be really something worth seeing...
Oh great. I hope it’s speedball 1.
I had this on the Atari ST . Me and my brother loved it . I
ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM!
Had the demo of this on ps1 and was very into it, despite not ususally being a fan of sports games. Bought a kind of similar arcadey 'intergalactic basketball' game, where you played as teams of 2 against aliens, and mermen, etc. Using special abilities to dribble down the line, or score trick shots for extra points. I always played as the werewolves... sounds like a fever dream, now.
No way! This is one of my all time favourite childhood games! It was always so short lived though. You got 1 season and if you didn't get promotion, Game Over. If you did, then you face really difficult teams in the next division up and regardless of whether you win the league or not, Game over. It was awesome.
@graymamba oooh get him 😂 the 6ft × 6ft laser discs , that was the future ha ha now you can have 200 films at 4k on a ssd the size of your little finger
@Fiendish-Beaver watched a film with him recently must of been one of his last , 2 kids where trying to make him believe his house was haunted , low budget but it was quite good , cant remember the name it was on tubi
@Fiendish-Beaver Rollerball (the original) is great! Got to see Norman Jewison’s personal 35 mm print at a screening many years ago and even got a chance to ask the editor a question at a Q&A afterwards!
@lazarus11 I think they even had to turn the disc over halfway through to watch the second half 🤣
@Fiendish-Beaver Yep, Rollerball with him starring was great and as already mentioned a graphically violent film for the time. Also Misery, where his performance alongside Kathy Bates was top tier. And he was a funny OTT villain in the underrated Arnie flick Eraser too!
Wow, yes, @1970sGamer, I forgot about him in Misery. Such a good book and film. I'm a massive Stephen King fan, and have every book he has written, even his non-fiction stuff. Having your limbs amputated by some crazed fan is literally the stuff of nightmares...
That's so cool, @MasterChiefWiggum. I haven't seen the film in years, and did look earlier to see if it is available on blu-ray (which it is). I just worry about how the film holds up by today's standards. It's such a long time since I last saw it, that I worry that it would be very dated now...
I had the first one on Master System. Never thought we would get a new one. For the right price, ill get it.
Loved the Amiga version...honestly wish they'd done a hi-res 2d remake old school pixel art style,(much like say Terminator No Fate), but guess will wait & watch how this fairs.🤔
Vaguely recall the last attempt was back in the ps3 era but seemed to miss the mark. Fingers crossed!!
Nostalgia for me having gone to my mates to play Speedball 2 on his Amiga back in the 4th Year (year 10 to all you kids).
Had a cult status back then (1990) in our year at school.
As I always say with a lot of these old IP's though, I wonder what value they really have?
Back then gaming was still a very niche geeky hobby with a bad reputation (you'd get bullied and girls would mock you), and even fewer of those kids could afford what was a very pricey game system for the day: £1000 in today's money.
Of the few who played the game, how many of us are still active gamers at 50? You could fit every single one of us in the UK into a single basketball court.
Not an IP that would bring in many sales on brand recognition. Even in the PS1 days it’s name had faded into obscurity.
I could never win season 2 on Speedball 2
@graymamba It's on the Bitmap Brother collection 1 on Evercade. I've just received an Alpha last week (better than I expected actually) and already had the VSR and the Capcom super pocket. Over 50 carts now! Not for everyone, but perfect for me.
@DonkeyFantasy Because for all the discourse around Speedball 2 and Sensible world of soccer way back when. The career modes were broken. In swos your team always ended up badly in debt ragrdless of your results and you got the sack. And in Speedball 2 the other teams were borderline unbeatable in the top tier. I'm sure the reviewers skipped a lot of the career aspects in both games.
@themcnoisy nice dude, I just checked out the various Alpha’s now… good stuff. Which one did you go for?
@Dogbreath They have a lot of pull. It's the marketing and making sure the 45+ crowd know the games are available. More kids than you realised played games. They probably joined in the bullying to stay out of the glare of the bullies in your school.
In my school, the cool kids all played games. As the wannabe bullies were all midgets with alcohol fetal syndrome and got battered if they tried anything.
@graymamba The Megaman version. Playing King of Fighters 97 on it (neo geo collection 3) last night was brilliant! The included games are good. Mega man power battles 1 and 2 are arguably the weakest of the 6. And they are still both enjoyable. The sound is way better than I had considered, super clear. The screen is bright with a great definition (if the screen was half an inch bigger I would say perfect). It's great. If you have the spare money I would buy one.
@themcnoisy I’m certainly intrigued. If only my games room were bigger, I could have a section of the room with all 3 (there are 3 right)? I always dreamt of my own arcade… and that would be close-ish.
@graymamba good grief 😂😂
Nice! Now can we have some sort of remastered SWOS with up to date squads please!
Great news, if it can rekindle the magic I am all in, kind of feel like it needs to be played on a joystick with one button though
@graymamba I too am enjoying it on Evercade, can't get enough of the NeoGeo carts at the minute, some great games looking forward to the Turrican collection next month (another Amiga classic) 👍
@Northern_munkey ... yep I'll be keeping an eye on this one too munkey
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