EA's Cancelled Mutant League, Road Rash Projects Unearthed
October 8, 2009 10:00 AM | Eric Caoili
In my constant pursuit to uncover all things Mutant League related, as I believe it's one of the finest Electronic Arts properties of all time (OF ALL TIME) -- I've found at least two unreleased games from the sports series: Mutant League Basketball and Mutant League Speed Demons. I suspect the latter was a Road Rash-style title, though media for the game is nonexistent.
Supperannuation discovered another lost project, Mutant League Resurrection, a 3D title that was in development at EA Chicago in 2005 before it was cancelled due to lack of funding. It looks like Resurrection was pitched as a multi-sport title, as you can see the football field transform into a hockey rink around the 0:50 mark.
"We worked on it in our spare time externally of EA. We showed it at EA, but didn't create it there," says former EA designer Joseph Hatcher. "Two of the original designers that were at EA Chicago at the time liked what we did and planned, and multiple EA studios wanted to help us here and there."
He continues, "The video is based on 3 characters we created inspired by the originals. We cloned them and animated them to show what the potential was in a 3D Mutant League series." If only someone would realize that potential and bring it to market!
Make sure to also check this other Supperannuation find from today, a pre-visualization video of a next-gen Road Rash from EA's now closed Warrington studio:
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6 Comments
Love Mutant League. Have you heard about any possibility of new Mutant League games? It would be great if the originals were ported to the 360. I heard MLF was ported to the Playstation at some point.
Andrew | October 11, 2009 8:05 PM
unfortunately, haven't heard anything about a new game. i'm also unsure if MLF was ported to playstation, but it was brought to PSP with the EA Replay compilation -- it's actually somewhat better than the original as it has higher resolution graphics. also, it's portable (with wireless multiplayer, even)!
eric_c | October 12, 2009 6:49 AM
I actually worked at EA in 2005 on football titles, and there were definitely no internally-announced plans to use the Mutant League franchise at that time. Mutant League was brought up in casual conversation *all the time*, though - everyone found it surprising that we weren't using that.
John | October 15, 2009 11:16 AM
Eric, I was a Product Manager at EA from 1990-1995 i.e. during the release of the original MLF. Somewhere in a box I think I've got an (unworn) baseball cap with the original MLF logo on it. I'd be happy to send it to you, since it sounds like you're into all things mutant. If you want it just drop me an email at [email protected] Cheers.
Rick Lucas
Lightplay Studios
Rick Lucas | October 15, 2009 1:23 PM
Wow, I loved those games too! Still play Mutant League Hockey, when I can get the Genesis to work!
yorev | November 27, 2009 6:24 PM
If Mutant League were to be released tomorrow, I would sell anything I had to buy that game. All they would need to do is make an extremely gory and funny NFL Blitz with the Unreal engine, and voila!
Dafe | March 18, 2010 12:25 PM