Mutant League Hockey

Mutant League Hockey
Box art of Mutant League Hockey
Developer(s)	Electronic Arts[1]
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts[1]
Designer(s)	Michael Mendheim[2] Alan Martin[2]
Platform(s)	Sega Genesis[1]
Release date(s)	NA 1994[1] EU 1994[1]
Genre(s)	Sports[1]
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer
Rating(s)	VRC: MA-13 (not recommended for children under the age of 13)

Mutant League Hockey is a hockey game that was released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis. It is a spin-off of Mutant League Football and features several of the same team names and players as well as new ones.

Unlike Mutant League Football which featured five species of mutant, Mutant League Hockey narrows it down to three: robots, skeletons and trolls.^[2] The game is identical in tone to its predecessor, with special plays that can cause things to happen like making the puck explode when it is picked up by an opposing player, bribing the referee to call fake penalties against the other team, and land mines and holes on the ice.^[2]

The teams in the game are ranked by a rating of zero through six skulls.

As with Mutant League Football, hazards litter the ice and death is commonplace. Players may substitute their goalie for a demon goalie, a gigantic demon head that takes the place of the net; scoring on a demon goal causes it to explode. In addition, the crowd is prone to throwing weapons or other powerups onto the ice; they may be picked up and used freely. When a player dies, their corpse remains on the ice and may be tripped on; between periods, a giant slug acting as an ice resurfacer eats the debris littering the ice. As in real hockey, fights may break out. Fights in Mutant League Hockey are done as a minigame, where the objective is to knockout the opponent. Both players are still sent to the penalty box, but the player who got knocked out also takes an additional penalty for losing.

Teams

Toxic Conference

• Black Hearts (4 skulls) - spoof of Chicago Blackhawks
• Montroyale Cadavers (3 skulls) - spoof of Montréal Canadiens
• War Slammers (3 skulls)
• Deathskin Razors (3 skulls) - carryover from Mutant League Football (originally a spoof of the Oakland Raiders)
• Bruiser Bots (3 skulls) - spoof of Boston Bruins
• St. Mucus Ooze (3 skulls) - spoof of St. Louis Blues
• Mutant Monsters (4 skulls)
• The Derangers (1 skull) - spoof of New York Rangers
• Chilly Liars (2 skulls) - spoof of Philadelphia Flyers
• Mighty Weenies (0 skulls) - spoof of Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Maniac Conference

• Pucksucker Pukes (5 skulls) - spoof of Pittsburgh Penguins
• Ice Slashers (4 skulls) - spoof of New York Islanders
• Dead Things (3 skulls) - spoof of Detroit Red Wings
• Lizard Kingz (4 skulls) - spoof of Los Angeles Kings
• Darkstar Dragons (4 skulls) - carryover from Mutant League Football
• Terminator Trolz (3 skulls)
• Turbo Techies (3 skulls)
• Screaming Evils (2 skulls) - carryover from Mutant League Football (originally a spoof of the Philadelphia Eagles)
• Slaycity Slayers (3 skulls) - carryover from Mutant League Football (originally a spoof of the Seattle Seahawks)
• The Shrimps (1 skull) - spoof of San Jose Sharks

All-Star

• Toxic All-Pros (5 skulls, made of the best players from the Toxic Conference)
• Maniac All-Stars (5 skulls, made of the best players from the Maniac Conference)
• Galaxy Aces (6 skulls, made of the best players from the entire league)

Legacy

Popular hockey blog Capitals Kremlin named Mutant League Hockey as a member of its Video Game Hockey Hall of Fame, citing its inclusion of a third button for violence as a major step forward in sports gaming.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Release information". GameFAQs. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/data/586334.html. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "Game overview". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/mutant-league-hockey. Retrieved 2011-04-12.