The return of a classic.
I have fond memories of the Mutant League games. They were always just the right amount of stupid. Taking popular sports and adding insane hazards and outlandish characters just seemed to work. So when I heard they were crowdfunding a spiritual successor I was on board.
The premise is simple: craft a game featuring ridiculous characters, mix it with an absurd amount of violence, and be fun. Mutant Football League brings most of those ingredients to the table. This new version touts all the features one would expect from a modern sports game. There is local and quick play against AI. A season mode is there for those wanting to take their team through the paces. A playoffs mode for that championship atmosphere, and online in case you want to demolish your friends at any time.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
Mutant Football League features a wide array of teams and players. Most of them are based on their real life counterparts, with some clever puns indeed, teams such as the Grim Bay Attackers and the Nuked London Hatriots. Players are also based on their real-life counterparts such as Throb Brawnkowski and Ohell Wreckem Jr. Yes they are cheesy, but that is just what I expected from this game.
Playing the game feels like I remember it. The playbook is limited and the controls are simplistic. This version also has modifiers called Dirty Tricks. These range from extra tackle power, to flatout bribing the refs. The latter is the most annoying thing in a game ever. When the CPU bribed a ref against me, he called a penalty on every single play, thus making the game unplayable. I simply turned them off due to this issue.
Visually the game looks fine. It retains that dirty and violent look of the classic titles, but with a fresh coat of paint, nothing revolutionary here, but there are some nice effects. Don’t mistake that though, this still feels like a $20 game, especially when it comes to the commentary. The voice work is done by the original king of arcade voices Tim Kitzrow. For those too young to remember, he is the NBA Jam guy. Yes, it definitely had to be the shoes. However even his lines repeat far too often, and his cohort is just flat out annoying. There is literally only one set of dialogue for every extra point attempt.
Mutant Football League is a nice throwback to those games. The problems lie in that it feels sorely lacking in the presentation department. I would love to see it do well enough to improve upon the foundation, but for $20 it is hard not to recommend for fans that have nostalgia for those classic titles.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
