Digital Dreams Entertainment plays a dirty game of football with Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition for the Nintendo Switch; but the use of vulgarities, complete lack of concern for player safety, and hard-hitting defenses make it a blast to play. There is something strangely satisfying about mutilating an opposing QB and then murdering a referee. If Madden is the NFL, then one could say that Mutant Football League is arena football. It’s unconventional but it is entertaining and it’s the best football game for Switch.
Mutant Football League is a nice alternative for those that are put off by the Madden juggernaut. Dynasty Edition adds some minor features, but it’s an affordable package which can easily appeal to fair-weather as well as lapsed football game fans. Digital Dreams delivered on their crowdfunding campaign and then some. Now who do I have to speak with to get a Mutant Hockey League?
First of all, it's the best American football game on the Switch... *badum chh*
It's arcade football comparable to NFL Blitz but with a bit more depth - but not much. There is an involved franchise mode, season, playoffs, online, and exhibition. For what it costs, there is a ton of content. More DLC is incoming as well.
It compares favorable to the PS4 version. It is in lower resolution, but honestly it's not noticeable unless you are intentionally comparing it side-by-side. I love this game.
Here are two recommendations:
#1: turn the game speed on "fastest." Anything below that feels too slow. Fastest seems just right for arcade football.
#2: turn off "Dirty Tricks." It's cute, but also infuriating. Lose it.
Mutant Football League is the only football game on the Switch this year, and we're lucky it's a fun one despite all its warts. If you can handle its quirks, and want a football game that doesn't take itself too seriously, this one is for you. It also helps that it's half the price of that Madden guy's game, if you're counting.
It just feels like there are a lot of missed opportunities in Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition. The gameplay certainly works, but there's really nothing all that spectacular about it.
Despite providing a lot of content, Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition is a sports game undecided about its audience. It mixes elements typical of both simulation and arcade experiences, but ends up coming touching down too early on both fronts.
It's a crying shame - not to mention an almost unbelievable situation - that Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition is currently the only American football game on Switch; Nintendo fans certainly deserve much, much better. Due to the annoying 'dirty tricks' system and unpredictable field changes, the experience leads to many cheap situations which, while mixing things up, don't make the game fun to play. It has the over-the-top aggression of its spiritual forerunner - 1993's Mutant League Football - and a sizable amount of content, but it's simply not an enjoyable experience after a few games, even when a second person is involved.
I absolutely love this game! The commentary is crass and obnoxious... exactly how a Mutant Football League play-by-play should be. The blood and gore can be tuned up or down to your liking as well as adult commentary "beeped" for younger audiences.
The only thing missing, which would definitely make me give it a 10 is custom Team Building and Paint Schemes, Replay, custom controller inputs and cross-play! Because there's no cross-play, I bought the game for PC (via Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
The difference in controller assignments sometimes messes me up since they are different between consoles. It would be nice to be able to assign buttons so that they would be the same across platforms.
BTW - this is better than ANY Madden game could ever be! Just my opinion. ;)
So, so much fun. Allocating experience points and building up your roster in a strategic manner based on your team character types reveals surprising depth, as does earning offensive and defensive formations and plays to expand your playbook. There's great diversity in the playing surfaces and unique strategy to employ at each venue. I love that you can be hopelessly behind on the scoreboard and shift strategies to try and make the opposition forfeit.
The drawbacks are minor: the commentary is a bit much for me, there are small glitches such as burn returner statistics not being recorded correctly, and of course, there's the glaring absence of the Bengals.
Minor quibbles aside, this is a faithful update of a classic with new features galore, and an absolute steal at the price.
Years before the very chaotic and ridiculous NFL Blitz was released for the Nintendo 64, there was Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.
Mutant League Football was essentially Madden '93 turned on its head: your teams were made up of mutants, aliens, skeletons, and other weird creatures, a variety of violent plays could be used to actually kill your opponent's players, and cheating by bribing the game's refs was encouraged and extremely useful. The game is a classic of over-the-top, thrilling sports gameplay, and I'm still quite enamored to this day.
To my pleasant surprise, Mutant Football League (a slightly different title) was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2018, essentially a remake of the Genesis classic.
Mutant Football League does not exactly stand up to modern football games in all the ways sports game fans might expect: you don't get all the fancy game modes and a ton of features, you're not going to see beautiful replays with dynamic cameras, and it's not an evolution of the Madden series in any sense of the word. However, when taken as a spiritual successor or remake of the classic Genesis game, MFL succeeds.
The classic gameplay of Mutant League Football has been revived and updated in just the right ways. There are a plethora of "Dirty Tricks" you can call instead of normal plays, resulting in the football exploding at the end of the play, your players to spontaneously become gigantic, and other outcomes which will likely result in your opponent's players' untimely demise. You can also injure and bodyslam other players after plays to deal more damage, taking a cue from NFL Blitz's violent playbook. Each match is commentated by a number of unsavory individuals who meander from cheesy to vulgar to just plain strange, and while it most definitely gets old quickly, it's an important reminder that this game isn't meant to be taken seriously.
The problem with many sports games is that lingering feeling that the AI is cheating. In Mutant Football League, cheating is the name of the game, so make sure to cheat back! You can once again bribe the refs to have random penalties called on your opponent, in which case they will surely try to kill the offending ref (which can be avoided if you can run him out of bounds)! It's actually refreshing that you're able to inflict some unfairness upon your AI opponent, which is not the norm in modern sports games.
So what is actually significantly different here from the original? The major difference in Dynasty mode. This is essentially a create-your-own team franchise game mode. You are tasked with leveling up a mediocre team from the ground-up, making smart free agent signs and trades with other teams when prudent, and figuring out who is going to be your best backup when a star player inevitably dies during a match. The roster management is simple but fun.
At the end of the day, Mutant Football League doesn't really innovate when it comes to football video games. Instead, it takes a classic formula that works and improves upon it. For fans of the original, this is a definite buy. For people that want a solid football experience that doesn't take itself seriously, this is worth a look. For everyone else, maybe look elsewhere.
I love MFL, but... They need to release a patch that corrects the issue with the game freezing. I have 10+ hours, and have had the game lock up 4 times including the second play of the only online game I tried. Aside from the fairly regular freeze the game is great fun.
The arcade football action is quite tight and offers a lot of fun right out of the gate. It's easy enough to jump into the game and have some fun but does have enough going on that it takes time to refine your skills.
Dynasty Mode is surprisingly deep as it tracks stats, has free agents, trading, player development. That being said it is hampered by not allowing you to change options (difficulty, game length, etc.).
Presentation leaves little to be desired. There are plenty of game play options to tailor the game to your liking. While the commentary can certainly get repetitive it is well done though a little juvenile, and each stadium feels and looks unique.
Overall MFL is definitely a welcome addition to the Arcade Sport genre, but a few tweaks would certainly help make this a must own. If you're interested buy it, if you're on the fence wait until the freezing issue is corrected.
The game would be some much more fun if it wasn't for ridiculous spikes in difficulty. Once you hit the 4th quarter of a match and are winning the AI will throw every cheap trick at you in the book to make sure you don't win. Make an amazing play? the AI bribed the ref which will overturn your entire play and penalize you for it. Quarterback makes a great throw? The A.i. will kill your QB so you have to use a reserve one for the rest of the game. Defense sacks the QB? The AI will blow up and kill **** portion of your defense immediately making you use lower stat players for the rest of the game. Its extremely frustrating and will make you rage heavily. Oh by the way this is all on easy difficulty by the way. I can only imagine how much more ridiculous the game gets on normal.
i only recommend this If you used to play Mutant League Football or Mutant League Hockey on Genesis back in the day and can manage to get past the frustration.
SummaryMutants and monsters unleash maniacal carnage on the gridiron in a fully-3D, arcade-style football game. This funny (and brutal) parody of professional American football delivers intense online multiplayer action, deep strategy, and deadly humor. Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition includes Dynasty Mode, two new teams, and new playab...