One of the best games on the Sega Genesis was Mutant League Football. It was so different from other sports games, and was much closer to something you might find on the Neo Geo in terms of arcade sports, but much darker in terms of content. It had violent content that you wouldn’t expect, and even let you bribe or kill the ref. But sadly the series just didn’t continue after the spinoff Mutant League Hockey and seemed to be destined to remain in the past.
And then we have Mutant Football League. MFL is a spiritual sequel to the classic that brings back the classic style of arcade sports games. What we have here is not just a return to Mutant League Football but NFL Blitz as well. As a fan of the classic style, I was happy to see this and quickly went to play.
There are multiple modes available in the game, and I can tell you for certain that this is no Madden NFL game. The action is intense and the humor is here in spades. You have teams with parody names, made up of mutants, zombies, aliens and robots, and almost anything goes. You can bribe the ref, kill the ref or make a number of other dirty cheats. You will choose the play to make and carry it out, but be warned that the field is filled with traps and other dangers just waiting to kill you. It is unpredictable, it is engaging and there is always something new to discover.
I loved the commentary in the game, as it gave Mutant Football League as not only was it hilarious, it was just so well done that it gave the game more of a legitimate feel. I took a while to get used to how Mutant Football League plays, but I ended up playing for hours once I did. It feels like there is no real limit to the insanity of what you can do, and you will find yourself playing several matches just to see all of the options.
The multiplayer is another story though. I had issues with connections when playing, and got frustrated more than once. I am hoping this gets fixed soon, as I know there will be patches coming to add more content and fix problems. If these issues are resolved, then this will be a must play game on the system. It already is the best American Football game on Switch (albeit by default), and the game itself is truly amazing. It has a great soundtrack for the most part ( although I wish they didn’t use the song Rock and Roll Part 2 by Gary Glitter even if it is a sports staple), and has the perfect level of intensity to it. I recommend checking it out, because I believe that it will be a perfect game for Switch after the promised patches and gamers will enjoy it. This isn’t even mentioning the fact that sports fans in general and football fans in particular will fall in love with this. Now lets get Mutant Hockey League next!
Disclaimer: A copy of the game on switch was provided for this review.