The team development is intact, as you’d imagine, although the stats of the original Speedball 2 have been adjusted. Ladies, gentlemen and cyborgs will be playing against each other and together, with respective proficiencies in speed, strength and accuracy. There’ll be nine to a team, instead of six, and the somewhat esoteric stat of “intelligence” has disappeared.

“Players have six statistics - like speed, strength, accuracy...” continues Tambellini, but at this point in the interview we then spend a few seconds trying to communicate beyond our common vocabularies, resulting in us finally translating the Frenglish “stiffness” into “stamina,” a statistic which is explained to us as affecting “the rate at which you lose stiffness.” Yikes. That sixth stat suddenly feels unimportant, and we move on to glorious distractions of power-ups - all of which remain intact: bumpers, team improvements, tunnels, the works.

But what was that online engine he mentioned, earlier? The essence of Speedball, it seems almost too obvious to say, was sticking two joysticks into your computer, inviting people around who’d never played it before and beating them. What multiplayer options does Kylotonn have in store for us?

“There will be two online games. The first is just friendly matches; you can play against anyone at any time. The second part of our online matches, with a monthly subscription, will save your matches and give you an online ranking over five different leagues. At the end of the week, you’ll be able to advance according to your score.” Hmmm. More monthly subscriptions? However, we’re assured it’ll only be three or four dollars per month, whatever they are.

Talking to Kylotonn calmed the feeling of dread in our guts. They get it, for sure. As to whether they can build a game that’ll cut it in 2007 on the sandy foundations of nostalgia; well, we honestly can’t wait to find out. Speedball 2 is tentatively set for release this summer according to the official site here.