Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe is available on Xbox Live Arcade starting today.

Regarded as a break-though title that took the sports genre to a new level, Speedball, the Bitmap Brothers classic, was first released for the Amiga in 1990 and quickly became a huge success. However it wasn’t until the release of its sequel, Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe that the title reached new gaming heights and sold over two million units. Empire Interactive says it is considered by many to be one of the best games of all time.

It says the Xbox Live Arcade version is perfect conversion of original game will all the classic elements that have made it a firm favourite, but with the addition of a high definition version, more teams and downloadable content.

Empire Interactive has recently enjoyed success with the release of arcade classic Double Dragon, one of the most popular full game downloads on Xbox Live Arcade. It hopes the release of this Speedball 2 will cement Empire’s position as a leading provider of casual games in the online marketplace.

Clive Kabatznik, CEO of Silverstar Holdings commented, “Speedball II will undoubtedly add to our earlier successes on Xbox LIVE Arcade and further demonstrates our ability to cost effectively redeploy classic titles on all major formats and a multitude of distribution channels.”

Mike Montgomery, of developers Bitmap Brothers said, “The team is as passionate about Speedball today as they were back in the day. The evolution of the game to Xbox Live Arcade will provide renewed interest and excitement for Speedball fans old and new.”