Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition

 Switch
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
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  1. DualShockers
    Nov 14, 2018
    70
    Mutant Football League’s offbeat, seemingly nonsensical rules work to make football more strategic, and honestly, more exciting.
  2. Nintendo Enthusiast
    Nov 9, 2018
    70
    Ultimately, Mutant Football League Dynasty Edition does most right. In fact, there’s no single element I can point to that genuinely hurt my experience with it. It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch, as it doesn’t do enough to truly cement itself as wholly worthwhile. With that being said, there’s no denying the great fun to be had with the game. Old school, arcade-raised gamers will dig Mutant Football League Dynasty Edition, as will the modern sports fan.
  3. GameSpace
    Nov 1, 2018
    70
    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.
  5. Destructoid
    Nov 18, 2018
    60
    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.
  6. Nintendojo
    Feb 4, 2019
    58
    If you take out the game’s Dirty Tricks, on-field murders and hazards on the turf, Mutant Football League is a pretty faithful football game at its core. With EA’s Madden franchise absent on Switch, MFL is the only game in town for fans of American football. Despite the game’s crude commentary, it can be an enjoyable experience, and there is a lot to enjoy from the game’s terrific presentation. Those who dread skill being undermined by luck may find the game a tad bit frustrating, however.
  7. Switch Player
    Apr 17, 2019
    50
    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.
  8. Nintendo Life
    Nov 5, 2018
    50
    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.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 23
  3. Negative: 4 out of 23
  1. md5fungi
    Jan 7, 2020
    7
    Years before the very chaotic and ridiculous NFL Blitz was released for the Nintendo 64, there was Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.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.    … Full Review »
  2. HawaiianJohn
    Mar 3, 2019
    9
    I absolutely love this game! The commentary is crass and obnoxious... exactly how a Mutant Football League play-by-play should be. The bloodI 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. ;)    … Full Review »
  3. buckyr
    Feb 13, 2019
    9
    So, so much fun. Allocating experience points and building up your roster in a strategic manner based on your team character types revealsSo, 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.    … Full Review »
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