REVIEW: ‘Mutant Football League’ Keeps Football Going After the Season (Switch)

With the 2018-2019 NFL Football season is ending soon and when the Super Bowl ends, it’ll be a long wait for the next season. Thanks to a wonderfully talented and passionate team at Digital Dreams Entertainment, football is here to stay all-year long with Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. With a wonderful history and team behind it, Mutant Football League is a different football experience, and an incredibly great one, for pro-Madden players or people stepping into sports video games for the first time.

Mutant League Football has an astounding history behind it. In the early 1990s, the 16-bit era of video game systems was in full swing. During this time, a pantheon of sports games arose including 1993s Mutant League Football developed by Electronic Arts. Using the same engine as Madden ’93, the game presented football but with a more violent and dystopia twist. The game took place in the post-apocalypse, where mutants have taken over.

Robots, monsters, aliens, and all sorts of creatures battle it out on the football field, but as they play the familiar sports game, each team will take to all sorts of dirty plays to achieve victory. Explosive footballs, invisibility, extra speed, electrocution, and even fighting the opposing team were all welcomed. More than twenty years later,  creative director Michael Mendheim, who was the designer of the original Mutant League Football, began his own company, Digital Dreams Entertainment. After two public funding attempts, the game was released in 2017 for Steam, and in 2018 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Mutant Football League takes the familiar mechanics but introduces it into a new dimension. While the presentation is leaps and bounds better than the game’s original debut, the gameplay still feels familiar while being brand-new. In Mutant Football League, the teams are all parodies of teams in the NFL, such as the Nuked London Hatriots and the Tokyo Terminators. Even the players have parodied names such as Bomb Shady and Von Killer.

This enthusiasm and level of comedy will give any player a good chuckle, but its further underscored by the audio commentary. Between plays, players will be briefly interviewed on their thoughts on the game, creating witty taunts and clever statements. Mutant Football League embraces unsportsmanlike conduct and uses it to great effect. This is further emboldened by the play-by-play commentary from legendary voice actor Tim Kitzrow.

Tim, known for his infamous lines in NBA Jam, such as ” Boom Shak-al-laka.”  As mentioned before, the game encourages players to play dirty, such as murdering the referee or using landmines on the field. Hearing Tim’s commentary is thrilling, hilarious, and enjoyable.

One of the biggest enjoyments of the game is its accessibility. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of sports games and sports simulators. While I don’t mind watching an NFL game at the local Buffalo Wild Wings, my mind cannot follow the drafts, picks, and statistical data of today’s freshest players.

Fortunately, Mutant Football League is extremely accessible to all players, regardless of their skill level. A quick tutorial gives players all they need to know to play the game. The rest is up to the players and how they want the game to be set up. A plethora of customization options allow players to adjust the arena, difficulty, and time spent on each quarter.  Even employing the “dirty plays” is easy and wildly enjoyable.

Additionally, multiple game modes, including the DYNASTY mode, are included in Mutant Football League. The Dynasty mode, in particular, puts you in the role of a team manager but streamlines the process with encouraging you to review, recruit, and enhance your players.

When it all comes together, the game is unlike anything in games today. It’s enjoyably silly, unapologetically dirty, and downright fun. Being able to literally murder the opposing team, through brute force and dirty plays is immeasurably exciting and will make even the heartiest of players laugh. During one game, I murdered the referee several times, used explosive footballs,  electrocuted, and even tore through members of the opposing team with a buzzsaw.

Mutant Football League is a must-own regardless of your platform. The game is a blast from the past, but it feels like a celebration and returns to the focus of fun and enjoyment in games. The crass humor and violence take the ordinary game of football into a wild and fun sports experience for all players but also remind players the video games can be silly, parodied fun. I encourage that everyone looking for fun check out Mutant Football League.

Mutant Football League will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 19, 2018, and is already on the Nintendo Switch.