Original Release: Bally Midway, 1990, Arcade
Other Releases: Genesis (1992)
This medieval re-imagining of football is really more like rugby with very limited rules, and chock full of the ol’ ultra-violence.
Pigskin 621 A.D. (Arcade, Bally Midway, 1990)
Where to Buy: KLOV, eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Page
Review by: C. M0use
Pigskin 621 is more like a sloppy, lawless version of rugby than U.S. football. Two clone teams, the Reds and the Blues, are locked in an endless duel for supremacy in medieval times. You control only the captain of either team, the only armor-suited fellow out on the field, but you have some limited control over the actions of your teammates such as telling them when to punch and when to try a pass to you. If you’ve played Arch Rivals, it’s by the same people and is a similarly hyper-violent take on the sport.
The game was clearly intended for two human players to compete for maximum enjoyment. When playing solo, they pull the cheap old trick of generating difficulty simply by making your teammates into idiots and the computer players nearly perfect. Players not under your control will constantly run face-first into obstacles, miss punches and pick stupid times to try to kick the ball forward.
I like the premise and I don’t mind some brainless violent fun, but playing solo quickly gets boring with only the same teams and arena over and over again and the sloppy control and terrible AI getting frustrating quickly. If you’ve got a bud to play it with it’s worth a run.
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