What makes for an excellent first-person shooter? Good graphics, challenging opponents, diverse weaponry, creative level design, smooth controls, atmospheric sound effects and maybe, to top it off, a thrilling story, are surely amongst the top ten on the list of things most players will immediately think of. But considering this, the fewest will think of Extreme Paintbrawl. Why? The concept sounds rather nice: Paintball offers a fresh setting. Getting your enemies to surrender, instead of blasting them to bloody bits, for a change has something to it. Two teams, each one defending a flag, may be genre standard, but especially fitting in this case. But as soon as you get to see how all this got implemented the disillusionment sets in.
You would think that a landmark game such as Speedball 2 should have inspired more imitations. Though it actually took a couple of years until the first serious one appeared. Released in late 1993 and updated for AGA in mid-1994, Brutal Sports Football was celebrated by the local British press, but broadly shunned in the German magazines. Very likely, the latter ones had a suspicion it would not be treated favourably by the censors responsible for the protection of minors.