Developed by Teque Software and published by Millennium in 1994 Essentially taking the premise of Speedball 2 and applying it to American Football/Rugby, Brutal Sports Football is one of those games I have really fond memories of. Players engage in a series of matches where the key to success lies not just in scoring goals, but also taking down the opponent's team. Inflict enough punishment, and it's entirely possible to punch player's heads clean off, with a fountain of pixelated blood spewing across the pitch for good measure. The game was released for OCS/ECS Amiga machines in 1993, with an updated version for the A1200 and CD32 in 1994. This is one of the few AGA games I'd say really took advantage of the enhanced colour palette of the newer machines - the game looks superb. Clearly a lot of effort went into the visual overhaul; player sprites have been redrawn and updated with better colours, and weapons are now integrated into the player's run animation, rather than sticking out in front. I may be alone in this, but I think the visuals and presentation beat out the Atari Jaguar version, even if the scrolling and animation isn't as smooth. On the subject of scrolling, it's disappointing to find the game still suffers from the same insufferably slow framerate as the OCS version; it's marginally better, but I've no idea why it should be so slow. I'm pretty sure the 68020 in the A1200 could have pulled off a solid 50 Hz scrolling here. The other thing I found rather annoying was the fact the non-human races are substantially stronger and faster than the Viking teams. There's no way to upgrade your team like in Speedball 2, so every match feels like a massive up-hill battle. Of course, you can buy a temporary speed boost in the locker room, but this takes things to the other extreme, making it possible to run rings around your opponents. I held off using this option until the final matches in league 1. Credits Coding: Alistair Mann, Colin Hughes, Paul Stapley, Peter J. Jefferies Graphics: Antony Hager, Ian Stevens Music: Richard Joseph Game Concept: Dean Lester Time Codes 0:00:00 - Title Menus 0:01:49 - League 4 Match 1: Slayers vs Barbarians 0:09:35 - League 4 Match 2: Slayers vs Pit Fiends 0:19:07 - League 4 Match 3: Slayers vs Crushers 0:27:27 - League 4 Match 4: Slayers vs Barbarians 0:36:21 - League 4 Match 5: Slayers vs Pit Fiends 0:46:45 - League 4 Match 6: Slayers vs Crushers 0:52:07 - League 3 Match 1: Slayers vs Dragons 1:01:45 - League 3 Match 2: Slayers vs Marauders 1:11:23 - League 3 Match 3: Slayers vs Slashers 1:21:30 - League 3 Match 4: Slayers vs Dragons 1:30:59 - League 3 Match 5: Slayers vs Marauders 1:40:53 - League 3 Match 6: Slayers vs Slashers 1:51:26 - League 2 Match 1: Slayers vs Spikers 2:00:26 - League 2 Match 2: Slayers vs Hot Heads 2:11:09 - League 2 Match 3: Slayers vs Stompers 2:20:32 - League 2 Match 4: Slayers vs Spikers 2:30:47 - League 2 Match 5: Slayers vs Hot Heads 2:41:23 - League 2 Match 6: Slayers vs Stompers 2:51:44 - League 4 Match 1: Slayers vs Mad Herd 3:01:57 - League 4 Match 2: Slayers vs Mammoths 3:12:16 - League 4 Match 3: Slayers vs Beserkers 3:22:49 - League 4 Match 4: Slayers vs Mad Herd 3:34:24 - League 4 Match 5: Slayers vs Mammoths 3:46:38 - League 4 Match 6: Slayers vs Beserkers
