Mutant League Football

Mutant League Football is a video game that was originally released in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. The game was designed using the John Madden Football ’93 engine, and features a different take on American football, where the games resemble a war as much as a sporting competition.

A year later, the same team applied similar concepts to the sport of ice hockey to create Mutant League Hockey. An animated TV series based around the games, Mutant League, aired from July 1994 to February 1996, while a spiritual successor, Mutant Football League was in 2017.

Gameplay – Mutant League Football

The game deviates from usual football simulations in several ways. Most notably it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where radiation has caused the human race to mutate and the dead to rise from the grave. The game instruction manual states that the exact causes of the upheaval have been lost or corrupted, due to (among many things) the chaos of an alien invasion, spin control, a sloppy filing system set up by a temp, and what appears to be barbecue sauce.

Landmines, fire pits, and other hazards (such as areas being open to empty space) litter the field, which can be made of rock, ice, or even toxic waste or rubber, and players can lose health or die during the run of play (upon which they will fumble). Teams have special Nasty Audibles, which are dirty (not to mention excessively violent) tricks such as exploding balls, invisibility, electric shocks, jet packs, or jumping the other quarterback with intent to kill, that lead to big gains and/or horrific casualties. Killing enough players causes an opposing team to forfeit.

Each team can “bribe ref” twice per game (once in each half), after which, the bought referee will call phony penalties (e.g. 5-yard penalty for crying) on the opposing team. This will last for a few plays, but the other team usually tries to kill him (one of the Nasty Audibles that can actually be played at any time) immediately after the first dirty call.

A slain Ref is then replaced by an even tougher one, who will promptly call another 5-yard penalty on the murdering team for Ref Bashing. Note that accidental referee deaths, such as being caught in the middle of a pileup, or nudged into a mine, are not penalized. Other penalties include offsides (encroachment also counts as this penalty), illegal kick, delay of game, QB bashing, and pass interference. All of these penalties are 5-yard penalties except pass interference, which is an automatic first down.

1.Title Screen

2. Offensive Play Selection

3. Defensive Play Selection

4. Lineup 1

5. Lineup 2