XBLIG News, Reviews & Previews

Having played the original Colosseum during peer review and having thoroughly enjoyed it, even though if I am honest, I did fail it for a very minor, but failable bug. I was really excited to find the email from ShortFuse Games asking for a review. Naturally, I jumped at the chance, expecting it to be a follow on to the original. However, it wasn't, it was even better!

To describe Colosseum: Hammerball as briefly as possible, it is akin to Ice Hockey, but with more blood!

Basically, each team consisting of either two or three players must try and score a goal by hitting the ball with a big olde war hammer into what looks very much like a pinball bumper. Simple really.

Now, the player is able to charge their shot, so that as one would expect, it can travel faster, but it is also an easy way to thin the numbers of your opponent, as a well aimed shot of a fully powered strike can kill an opposing player! Talk about blood sport!

The sport is played in an oval arena and has configurable win options, such as time limit & score limit.

Hammerball is a local multiplayer game, which I was a little disappointed with as I'm sure that it would do well as Live game, but then for 80MSP, it's an absolute steal.

The graphics are in line with the original Colosseum and are in my opinion top notch, as are the sound effects and music.

To sum it all up, Hammerball is a great game and I'd be surprised to not see it do well. Great job ShortFuse. Any chance of adding Live play?

So, though it is a great game, I do feel that it would be a great Live game, so unfortunately, the effects my rating and means that I have to give it a . It would have been more, but I feel that Live play is a must for this game. Just my opinion.