Card of the Day: 1989-90 Topps TMNT Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sticker #10

Card of the Day: 1989 Topps Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Raphael Sticker #1

Spontaneous Explosions, Fire Pits, & Bribes – THIS… IS… MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL!!!

An apocalypse is no excuse for that football game to go unfinished.  That’s what the people at Electronic Arts thought when they decided to release Mutant League Football for the Sega Genesis in 1993.

As you can tell from the box art, this is not your typical lifelike football simulation.  Radiation has caused humans to mutate, and the dead are rising from the grave.  The reason for the post-apocalyptic environment hasn’t officially been explained.  According to the instruction manual, the reasons were lost do to an alien invasion, spin control, a sloppy filing system setup by a temp, and/or BBQ sauce.  The investigation continues to this very day.

Playing fields can be made of rubber, toxic waste, ice, and rock.  You’ll find many hazards on these fields that you certainly won’t find on any normal gridiron.  Hazards include fire pits, landmines, and you can even fly off into outer space.  If members of your team hit any of these hazards they can easily lose health or even die.  If they die while carrying the ball, don’t look for any sympathy.  The opposing team will just pickup the ball as if it were a normal fumble.  Each team has what they call Nasty Audibles.  These involve using items such as jet packs, electric shocks, invisibility, and even exploding footballs to intentionally hurt players on the other team.  You can even attack the quarterback with the intent to kill.  If you eliminate enough players, the opposing team has to forfeit.  One of the most popular things you can do is bribe the referee.  You can do this twice per game.  A bribed referee will make fake calls.  This doesn’t last very long.  As soon as the first fake call is made, the other team usually kills that ref.

With all of this violence and additional features, I bet your thinking this game probably sucks when it comes to playing real football.  That’s not the case at all.  Its hard to find a game that has a good balance of comical violence, yet retains that excellent football game play.

Inside specially marked copies of the game you’ll find two trading cards.  Its cool to see cards included within a video game.  There were a few spin-offs.  They made Mutant League Hockey, and there was a Mutant League Basketball game in the works but it never saw the light of day.

Lyle Alzado would’ve done well in this league if it had existed in the real world.

If you play this game on full-season mode and end up winning the championship, the losing team spontaneously explodes.

Running for two seasons an animated cartoon was even inspired by these video games.  Along with the show came a series of crazy action figures.

Between 2017 and 2018 Mutant League Football received a revival for the PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.

Flashback Product of the Week: 1989 Topps Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

It has been over twenty years since we’ve seen a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film hit the big screen.  TMNT hasn’t gone anywhere.  They’ve been around in all types of animated media, but not live-action.  Their last live-action film, TMNT III, was released in 1993 and is still considered a major bomb.  TMNT III never lived up to its first two predecessors, and didn’t take advantage of the library of villains the Turtles have.  This weekend though TMNT is making a comeback to live-action.  It literally is judgment day for a film that’s been in development for awhile, and has had die-hard TMNT fans talking.  I personally would like to see it do well.  The TMNT and Batman were my introduction to the world of superheroes.  I’ve got a feeling though that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is going to take the top spot again.

The TMNT animated series that ran for ten seasons (1987-1996) is a core element of my childhood.  It started well before the first movie was released in 1990, and was much more kid friendly than the original TMNT comics.  It shocked me when I found out how violent the TMNT comics actually were.  The original comics showed the Turtles drinking beer and killing people.

In the 1980’s, Topps created card sets for everything.  Not just sports.  It should be no surprise that the TMNT animated series got their own set.  So many of these sets were produced, very little value can be found in them today.  The TMNT set consists of 99 cards/stickers.  There are 88 story cards and 11 stickers.  Unopened boxes can sell for $40.00.

Who would’ve thought Kevin Eastman’s and Peter Laird’s goof would have turned into one of the biggest superhero name brands.