One of the more interesting games shown during this years Electronics and Entertainment Expo was Mutant Football League, this version being shown on the Nintendo Switch. Mutant Football League had been released on the PS4 and Xbox One in the past but this time around, the claim to fame was that it was on Nintendo’s “play anywhere” system, which is a great bonus for a Football game that plays like a cross between Madden and NFL Street.
For the hands on, I was able to play one of the developers of the game and going in I’m thinking this wasn’t going to end well for me. However, I was up by 6 at the half but missed the extra point because one of the only issues I had with the game was the kicking controls messed me up. The kicking controls are similar to Madden but you press the button before you want it to stop, not where you want it stop on the power gage.
I recovered an onside kick, unintentional kick, by doing this same kicking gaff. Another minor issue I had was the turbo control, where it felt like you weren’t going anywhere when you were using it on the field of play. I thought I would be able to run really fast and get away from the pass rush when I called a run but the pass rush was way faster than my running back, even when I used the turbo button. Luckily I didn’t need to run the football too often, trying to get the hang of the controls and not having my players die too often. If you have too many players perish during the game, you could lose because of a technicality.
There is a mini game during half time where you shoot ref bots and the higher score wins! The winner gets to revive one deceased player that was lost during the first half. The developer almost came back on me by scoring a quick TD and then on the last play of the game recovered a fumble and then had the biggest monster on the field running toward the end zone. If I couldn’t bring him down, I would have lost the match and after six or seven attempts to tackle this monster, he finally went down and victory was all mine
Play calls are just like modern football games but there are dirty plays that can be only be used once per half. You can do things like paying off the ref to look the other way when you do something crazy for example or change your opponent’s controls to the opposite direction. That took some time to get used to and I had to quick cause I scored a TD on the play where I needed to realize that down was up. One of the cooler features in Mutant Football League is the announcer and the players are voiced by Tim Kitzrow. He has been the announcer in various sports games but most notably NBA Jam!
The Switch version will start out with random online mode but should have online play with friends added later in its lifespan. The Switch doesn’t have many sports games yet and if you can play online, sign me up! The slight issues with the controls were the only problems I had with Mutant Football League, everything else works for the game. Try not to have your players die; it could be a short game if you lose all your great players by death or falling on spikes or fire pit. No matter the cause of the death, if your team dies, there won’t be a victory party!