Not to be confused with Mutant League Football, although it’s pretty much the reboot/spiritual successor, especially as Mutant Football League is headed up the designer of the original MLF. Mutant Football League draws inspiration from both MLF and the violence and style of NFL Blitz.

MFL leaves the turn-based play of Blood Bowl smooched in a bloodied pile of bones with a game that very much plays with a hands-on approach. You choose each play then directly control any of the players in your miscreant team of hulking mutants – it’s a shame that same level of control is warranted when selecting each team. Instead, you control the bench of a pre-selected group, which becomes smaller as each game goes on and players are killed.

Yes… killed. Backed up by a host of options to customise how aggressive tackles are and how permanent death is, MFL isn’t exactly a gentleman’s game. It’s not just aggressive defence you need to watch out for either. Each field is loaded with environmental hazards that can maim and kill your players, sometimes with little warning.

You can even kill the ref if his bribed attitude begins to prevent you from scoring a touchdown because you ‘flicked boogers at the opposition’. It’s this level of humour and vulgarity that reins throughout the game – even the commentators get with the vulgarity using numerous expletives – it’s all done in reasonable taste, if you’re that way inclined. I even laughed out loud on occasion, particularly when the commentary recreated that dreadful Gary Neville goalgasm.

One-thing that echoes true with MFL, is that it’s essentially Madden for dummies. The AI even does a good job in playing the game for you – often sacking the QB or intercepting the ball with very little input. Button bashing violence also prevails and regardless of calling which play you’d like to run, MFL lacks much tactical prowess – something that Blood Bowl has in spades. Sure, it has its fair share of options – including limited use of dirty tactics, which include a play that kills the QB – but eventually you will suss out how to run the same plays that will win you the game, regardless of how your opponent is set up.

At barely 3 GB and with only 14 achievements to punt for – all of which are currently ‘rare’ – MFL just doesn’t have enough depth to keep your attention for long. If you crave the violence of Blood Bowl but want something more akin to Madden without all the complications, then the mindless violence of MFL will tick all the right boxes. For most though, it’s an evening or two of fun that can’t quite hit the lofty heights that the Blitz series brought.