Vintage arcade-style football is back: the Game X Change Iron-Man of Gaming

Boy, that Ace Bricka is a regular Vince Lombardi, isn’t he?

As Destructoid’s resident sports gamer, I see tons of comments on my posts along the lines of “I only care about sports games when you can hit someone after the play”, or “If you can’t get ‘on fire’, then I don’t care.” That’s fine; I spent many an afternoon in high school playing NFL Blitz on the PlayStation with my friends, so I enjoy arcade sports games, too. But I finally have a story that might pique your interest.

Game X Change, a small GameSpot-esque national game retail chain (50+ stores), is co-sponsoring the Iron-Man of Gaming along with ScrewAttack. It’s a videogame competition that will take place from June 19th-22nd at the Grapevine Convention Center near Dallas, Texas. Gamers will duke it out for a chance at $10,000 in cash and prizes. For more info, head over to the event’s official Web site at http://www.ironmanofgaming.com, or check out the press release after the jump.

The tournament will employ five classic games, four modern games, and a mystery game. Here are the games that have already been announced: Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (SNES, Classic Platformer); Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Current Racing); and Mutant League Football (Genesis, Classic Sports).

That’s right: 1993’s EA-developed Mutant League Football, the Genesis arcade football classic with deadly fire pits and the ability to kill respawning referees, is back…with a vengeance. The darkly funny football game featured uproariously campy lines such as “I’m decayed, I’m deceased….I’m an undead scoring beast!” and “He didn’t suffer long. I’ll try to do better next time”. So dig through those closets, Dtoiders, and bust out those grand old 16-bit Sega consoles. Your skills probably need some sharpening.

MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL ANNOUNCED AS “CLASSIC SPORTS” GAME AT “GAME X CHANGE IRON-MAN OF GAMING”

Dallas, TX – March 6, 2008 – ScrewAttack Entertainment LLC, producers of the most downloaded video game content in history, announced today that the Sega Genesis classic sports title Mutant League Football would be one of the ten competitive titles played at this year’s Game X Change Iron-Man of Gaming event. “One of the most popular football games of it’s generation, Mutant League Football is all about fun,” Craig Skistimas, Program Director of ScrewAttack Entertainment said. “It’s the perfect fit for the Iron-Man and it’s going to be a blast to watch the tournament take shape.”

What:
The Game X Change Iron-Man of Gaming will pit the best gamers in the world in an all out competition on games from “All Consoles, All Genres and All Eras” for the opportunity to win $10,000 in cash and prizes, the title of “Gaming’s Iron-Man” and have their name engraved on the Iron-Man of Gaming Championship Belt. In addition to the tournament, this year’s event will feature concerts of the hottest video game cover bands, free coin-op arcade games and meet and greet opportunities with various video game related celebrities.

How:
The unique competition will consist of five “classic”, four “current” and one mystery game. While the “Classic” games will be predetermined by the Iron-Man staff, the “Current” games played at Iron-Man will be decided by the gaming community via “Gamer’s Choice”. Leading up to the Iron-Man gamers will have the opportunity vote on the “Current Racing”, “Current Fighting”, “Current FPS” and “Current Sports” games being played at the event by logging on to IronManofGaming.com. A portion of the Iron-Man proceeds will go to the charity Get Well Gamers. Competition games already announced for the Game X Change Iron-Man of Gaming are:

Classic Platformer- Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (SNES)
Current Racing- Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
Classic Sports- Mutant League Football (Sega Genesis)

Up next, the opportunity to vote of the “Current Fighting” game Wednesday, March 12.

When/Where:
This year’s Game X Change Iron-Man of Gaming will take place June 19^th-22^nd at the Grapevine Convention Center near Dallas, Texas. Travel accommodations and other information is available at IronManofGaming.com.