There have been some absolutely horrific injuries throughout the course of professional football, but nothing that even comes close to the violence of Brutal Sports Football. I mean, when swords and throwing-axes are scattered about the field, this can only result in bad things, such as decapitations.

You can pretty much stop reading this review after this sentence, since I will sum up the game in a single phrase: good times. There, two words that summarize the most important point that will be made in the following review.

[GRAPHICS]

You know what? One thing I'm tired of is how many people who write reviews of various Jaguar games seem to baby them like an overprotective parent. This game, Brutal Sports Football, could be done on a Super Nintendo without much trouble. In fact, there is no technology being put to use here, besides a bit of scaling here and there and a somewhat wide range of colour, that would make it a challenge to program this game for the SNES.

But fuck it, if you've done any research on the Jaguar at all, you'll probably know that Atari gave out some horribly shitty development tools to the folks responsible for game programming. So maybe it isn't the fault of Teque entirely.

So the game looks '16-bit' (damn that term gets irritating after awhile). Whatever. The visuals get the job done, although a silky-smooth framerate would improve things somewhat. The field looks all right (well done perspective), the players are animated in a decent manner, and... yeah, that about does it.

[SOUND FX/MUSIC]

There is nothing particularily noteworthy in this category, what with sound effects that fail to stand out and fairly dull music. Ah well, they don't hurt the ears at all, and the song that plays during game time suits the action.. so this gets essentially the same rating as the graphics.

Perfectly ordinary, but in an appealing way.

[GAMEPLAY]

Brutal Sports Football excels in this category. Haha, okay, so maybe it isn't the deepest concept.. a league populated by teams of humans (and lizards, goats, rhinos..) participate in a football-esque sport-ish sort of game involving bloody violence.

The game is a little like soccer in the sense that you are attempting to get the ball into a goal rather than in the traditional American football fashion of simply moving it into an endzone located at the opposing end of the field. You can run the ball, throw the ball, kick the ball, or smash a player in possession of the ball into the goal. Quite a simple system, really.

It's a game that benefits from two players but can be enjoyed solo. Haha, one of the high points comes when scores are tied and it suddenly becomes 'Sudden Death Mode', where the object of the game shifts from being a battle of points to a decapitation festival.

[OVERALL]

Brutal Sports Football is not a game that will dazzle you. First impressions will likely involve something along the lines of, "Hmmm... I feel like dancing."

--Dancing away from the '16-bit' visuals and muted sound, that is!

Or something like that. Actually, the game quickly becomes appealing once you realize you can beat the shit out of the opposing team. As Jaguar games go, well.. it's very enjoyable. Damn enjoyable, in fact. Still, you can't deny that there is nothing from a technological standpoint that justifies its presence on a system with the raw (and generally untapped) power of the Atari Jaguar.

Ah well.. if you end up buying yourself a Jaguar, I recommend this game. It was one of the first I bought and remains one of the most highly played.

[GRAPHICS] - 6/10

[SOUND FX/MUSIC] - 6/10

[GAMEPLAY] - 8.3/10

[OVERALL] - 7.7/10 (not an average)