So it looks like the latest remake off the line is Speedball 2.
I’m pretty sure they’ve tried to do this before, with Speedball 2100 on the PlayStation, which was essentially the same game with blurry textured polygons in place of sprites (at the time this represented an improvement, but it has to be said, the original’s visuals have probably aged better).
A further remake, Speedball: Arena, never saw the light of day as far as I can tell, before 2007’s Speedball 2: Tournament was released to a fairly mixed reception.
The latest version looks to be more of a ‘back to basics’ type remake, and will be a 2D affair. Jon Hare, of Sensible Software fame, is involved, and claims that this will be “the best version of Speedball that’s ever been available on PC”. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
They’ve done this sort of thing before with Hare’s own Sensible Soccer – do a new version with updated graphics, disown it, then do another one, then disown the 3D altogether and re-hash the original.
My own opinion is that remakes of this sort don’t do anyone any favours. It would be best to just leave these old games be, and give people access to play the original instead (via a GOG release, for example).
As for Speedball 2, I was never a huge fan myself – and although my review is one of those old ones that possibly needs a remake of its own, I’d stick by my general position that it was okay at the time but no classic, and doesn’t really stand up all that well, which is probably why I haven’t rewritten it, to be honest. (You may notice that the review of the 2007 game I linked to, not entirely co-incidentally, says something similar – but other opinions are of course available).
Here’s the trailer for Speedball 2 HD, then. I don’t think it looks that great – sharper, yes, but the HD only seems to highlight the terrible animations:
Posts
Interesting how these revisitings of classic games reflect wider trends. Back at the end of the 90s, if you were doing a remake or sequel, it had to be 3D. Now there is enough space between us and the old days, and nostalgia is enough of a force, that 2D is popular again. At least, enough so for a $10 game to be viable.
November 21, 2013 @ 3:28 pm
I think somewhere along the line someone realised that 2D looks ok and ages quite well.
I remember someone (I think it was in PC Zone) criticising the (beautifully drawn) graphics in The Curse of Monkey Island and comparing them unfavourably with the polygons of the fourth game – I thought that was wrong at the time and it looks an even sillier claim now.
Having said all that, though, this looks awful. You can’t just sharpen things up a bit but leave the animation stranded in 1992.
November 23, 2013 @ 4:45 pm