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However the game does show the Playstation's age, with a lot of slow down when too many players are on screen. The animation of the players is also rather poor, if truth be told. The game actually manages to look worse then Speedball 2. Where as SB2 in all it's 16 bit glory was made up of clear and crisp looking images, SB2100 decides to make its characters look blurry and rather messy. Occasionally the characters will blend into each other, and cause a mound of polygons to move across the screen.
The controls are still very basic, but a cause of much frustration is the automated character switching. On many occasions the ball would be free and you would have a player chasing it down when your control is suddenly shifted to another player who is close by, who then runs away from it for he was facing the other way.
The interface is almost exactly the same, with the usual list of competitions and knockout comps that can be entered. The gym option is still included and this is a good thing as it keeps the element of strategy in the game. The gym is where you take the credit you've earned in games and spend it on your players by boosting their many different attributes. Whether this is done naturally or with the use of anabolic substances is anyone's guess.
For those new to the game, there is a training option, but this didn't seem to have much in the way of tips or hints for helping someone come to grips with the game, all you did was play a game versus an easy level computer opponent.
Speaking of which, the computer AI seems to vary from totally moronic in the first few teams to almost unbeatable once you've won a couple of matches. This isn't helped by your teammates having a mind of their own and more often then not leaving your poor goalie to face an onslaught of attackers. There are moments though when they will give you a good line of defense much like you see in Gridiron, allowing you to score. There's not much depth in the multiplayer either, with both players having to deal with the inadequacies of controlling a whole team, but it's not totally worthless and some fun can be had playing with friends.
The lack of a sound track is another thing to note down, if memory serves us right there wasn't one in the originals, however in this day and age it's expected that there would at least be a selection available. Being the sort of game it is, a soundtrack like that of the Wipeout games would probably go down well with the fast paced action. The only other sounds that can be heard during the game besides the grunting of the players is the random shouting of a fast-food vendor in the stand. This at first brings back memories of playing the earlier games, but after a while just gets irritating.
Ultimately what brings this game down is its prestigious ancestry, if those games had never been made then in it's own right it may have scored better. But just like having successful 'siblings' or 'parents', people expect certain things and when they aren't there or don't happen, then there is usually disappointment, which is apparent in this game. Gamers that haven't played a Speedball game could find it mildly entertaining, and it does have some merits, but it just fails to bring anything new to it's own secluded genre. Lets hope they give it another shot on the PS2.
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