Pigskin 621 AD

aka: Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl
Moby ID: 27305
Arcade Specs
Buy on Genesis
$34.99 used on eBay
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Description official description

Pigskin 621AD is a sort of dark-ages-medieval-fantasy-style combat rugby game in which two five-player teams take to the field to compete in a game of "footbrawl," all the while dodging rocks, trees, pools, pits, furniture and other obstacles. Each player controls the team captain of one of the teams. The original coin-op cabinet was set up with two joysticks and one screen, with both players sharing that same screen; if either player's team captain falls off the screen, he is quickly able to catch up and get back into the action.

At game start, players can elect to play either the standard game or the more difficult Pro game, which featured more aggressive AI players. The first half of the game takes place on an outdoor field, while the second half takes place in a medieval-style dungeon "field." Both fields feature specific obstacles, with the dungeon field having more darkly thematic hazards like pools of beer to slip on, piles of skulls to trip over, and trap doors to fall into.

Players have two buttons: punch and pass, and constant punching is encouraged by the fact that each player's team will only punch (thereby knocking opposing players down if hit) when the team captain punches. Score is gained by both possession, with one point earned for each ten seconds of uninterrupted ball possession, as well as by carrying or passing the ball over the opposing team's goal line.

One of the more noteworthy twists of the game is that weapons, from axes and swords to nooses and torches, litter the playing field. If a team captain runs over one of these weapons, it is picked up and stored as a concealed weapon. Whenever players get into a cartoon-cloud-of-dust-with-people-in-it-style brawl over the ball, if any one of them has such a weapon, he wins the brawl and the opposing player is slaughtered in some suitable way, denying the bereaved team of one player for a short time.

As the game progresses and one player or the other gets significantly ahead in points, it balances the game by giving slight advantages to the losing player. Specifically, it applies hazards like a soldier who will sit on the field waiting to stab players of the other team as they go by, and eventually will give the losing team an upgraded troll player who is faster, tougher and more aggressive. In a single-player Pro mode game against the computer, the player can elect to have a Troll Bowl, and the entire computer team is replaced by trolls.

The game was ported to the Sega Genesis console as Pigskin Footbrawl in 1992 by Razor Soft. This version featured the endorsement of the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons at the time, Jerry Glanville, and it periodically plays recorded announcements of Glanville throughout the game.

Screenshots

Credits (Arcade version)

17 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 68% (based on 7 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 9 ratings with 1 reviews)

GET THE BALL!!!

The Good
When I first laid eyes upon the cover of this game I was very intrigued and after looking at the back and seeing how it plays out I was instantly hooked. Who doesn't want to play a game of football where you can take a mace and implant it into someones head or impale them on a spike?

Well, the first thing I notice is the decent graphic job done on this, the sprites are large and even though it has a medieval theme it does have some bright colors. It's easy to follow the ball since the camera thankfully pan's along with it, but this does cause a few problems (which I will get to later) and the controls are simple yet effective. One button to pass and the other to punch, that's it, no turbo, no complicated pass windows and all that jazz. Plus the weapons are easily picked up just by simply walking over them and used just by running into an opposing player.

Another thing I notice that actually set's it apart from it's other competitors (really only Mutant League Football can be compared to this) is the lack of blood and gore, but that really doesn't matter, less is more is what I say. Also, your main player can't die but your teammates can easily be killed, but thankfully they are an infinite amount of replacements and no cop out forfeit decisions that MLF was notorious for.

The sounds and music are average, but nothing terrible. It's fun to hear a guy getting smacked around, but the constant "oof" "oof" of the fights tend to get annoying. The sound of the guy screaming as he is killed is a little distorted, but nothing terrible even by 16-bit standards. The music is just average also, with a medieval theme that constantly loops, but this is easily forgotten since your so focused on the game.

The Bad
Well only two things really bothered me with this game and one of them is that there is only two stages (a field and a dungeon). Now don't get me wrong, it's nothing detrimental to the gameplay since each one is laden with booby traps which does make it fun, but they could have at least added one or two more stages just to spice it up. Playing the same two stages over and over does tend to get boring, especially since there is no season mode or anything like that, just a single player game. Like I said, nothing detrimental, just something I wish they could have addressed.

One thing that does hurt the gameplay is that the camera pans along with the ball, which doesn't sound bad, but you can't switch around to other players, you can only be the main knight character. The problem lies is that if the ball is clear on one side of the field you only have an arrow to indicate your location if you are on the other side. Even though the arrow is helpful, you are affected by off screen booby traps which really gets annoying since you basically have to learn the entire layout of the field just in case. It would have been nice if you can just have your player run to the other side without having to worry about constant slowdowns. Sometimes the opposing team scores a goal before you can get your character to the other side just because of the off screen obstacles. Very annoying.

The Bottom Line
All in all, Pigskin Footbrawl is a very fun, yet underrated game. Sadly this game was really never known well back then and is often considered a Mutant League rip-off even though it came out before MLF. Still, it is a very fun game with bright and colorful graphics, simple controls and an interesting theme. If you love alternative sports games, this one is a safe bet.

Genesis · by Big John WV (26955) · 2009

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Big John WV.

Arcade added by Pseudo_Intellectual.

Additional contributors: Pseudo_Intellectual.

Game added April 11, 2007. Last modified March 3, 2024.