Played on May 15th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 69/160)
Originally, this game was not on my Sega Genesis Challenge list, but after the terribly unfun time I had with Strider, I swapped out Strider's Return with this very interesting take on the typical sports game.
Now, I really don't care for the more "grounded in reality" sports games like Madden, FIFA, or NBA. They are insanely bloated in the mainstream marketing with their yearly releases, and I just think they are boring. It's when there's some kind of fantasy catch to it that makes it more exciting. Mutant League Hockey is one of those games where it takes the simple game of hockey and throws monsters into the ring with gore, hazards, and all kinds of dangerous plays.
So the game of hockey goes like this, you have a puck, you have to secure it and get it to the goal while maneuvering against your foe and bypassing the goalie. This is easier said than done when they can also punch you to the ground which you can to, but they can also intercept your shots.
What makes it stand out is more than just aesthetic, but also the arsenal you have on hand. You can call some nasty plays which include exploding pucks to blow up in the enemies face, you can waste the goalie to make it easier to make the shot, you can confuse the enemies, and much more depending on the team you have.
The team may seem cosmetic on the surface, but really, each of the players it houses have individual stats with some being better than others. Some of them are intentionally designed to be trash like the Mighty Weenies, but others are designed to be so good they can't even play in playoffs such as the All Stars. In a way, it's kinda like deciding what difficulty you want to play on.
The one thing that I'm unsure of about this game is playing with penalties on because while it does seem more balanced to prevent cheesy strategies, it's often difficult to determine what conditions cause penalties and in a game as rough as this, it kinda feels undermining of the whole point of the game. It does encourage you to utilize in special plays like bribing the referee or even outright killing him, but it actively discourages nasty plays because if you kill the goalie, the player that delivered the killing blow ends up penalized. You can also set how vulnerable to death each person is as Level 1 will ensure that almost everyone survives, but Level 5 will more likely cause a forfeit to decide a game.
Another thing I find odd is that the NPCs will never use any special plays themselves even with penalties off which seems to give you more of the upper hand against them. Not sure if I can say the same for the player enemies, and because it doesn't give any visual cues that the play was selected, it's hard to determine if they even picked something or if they're actually bluffing, and if they did pick something, which one?
So in case Hockey wasn't brutal enough as is, then throw in even more brutality, and now you're on thin ice. The one thing that is disappointing is that the game teased Mutant League Basketball in the intro credits, but it never happened.
Originally, this game was not on my Sega Genesis Challenge list, but after the terribly unfun time I had with Strider, I swapped out Strider's Return with this very interesting take on the typical sports game.
Now, I really don't care for the more "grounded in reality" sports games like Madden, FIFA, or NBA. They are insanely bloated in the mainstream marketing with their yearly releases, and I just think they are boring. It's when there's some kind of fantasy catch to it that makes it more exciting. Mutant League Hockey is one of those games where it takes the simple game of hockey and throws monsters into the ring with gore, hazards, and all kinds of dangerous plays.
So the game of hockey goes like this, you have a puck, you have to secure it and get it to the goal while maneuvering against your foe and bypassing the goalie. This is easier said than done when they can also punch you to the ground which you can to, but they can also intercept your shots.
What makes it stand out is more than just aesthetic, but also the arsenal you have on hand. You can call some nasty plays which include exploding pucks to blow up in the enemies face, you can waste the goalie to make it easier to make the shot, you can confuse the enemies, and much more depending on the team you have.
The team may seem cosmetic on the surface, but really, each of the players it houses have individual stats with some being better than others. Some of them are intentionally designed to be trash like the Mighty Weenies, but others are designed to be so good they can't even play in playoffs such as the All Stars. In a way, it's kinda like deciding what difficulty you want to play on.
The one thing that I'm unsure of about this game is playing with penalties on because while it does seem more balanced to prevent cheesy strategies, it's often difficult to determine what conditions cause penalties and in a game as rough as this, it kinda feels undermining of the whole point of the game. It does encourage you to utilize in special plays like bribing the referee or even outright killing him, but it actively discourages nasty plays because if you kill the goalie, the player that delivered the killing blow ends up penalized. You can also set how vulnerable to death each person is as Level 1 will ensure that almost everyone survives, but Level 5 will more likely cause a forfeit to decide a game.
Another thing I find odd is that the NPCs will never use any special plays themselves even with penalties off which seems to give you more of the upper hand against them. Not sure if I can say the same for the player enemies, and because it doesn't give any visual cues that the play was selected, it's hard to determine if they even picked something or if they're actually bluffing, and if they did pick something, which one?
So in case Hockey wasn't brutal enough as is, then throw in even more brutality, and now you're on thin ice. The one thing that is disappointing is that the game teased Mutant League Basketball in the intro credits, but it never happened.