In the city of Gordon on the fantasy continent Ghold they have a great passion, the M.U.D.S tournament. This abbreviation stands for mean ugly dirty sports. In this mean, ugly, dirty team sport, two teams of five players each compete against each other, all of which consist of convicts and were recruited on the slave market.
You act as a player coach who has to take care of important manager decisions but can also actively intervene in the game. In training mode, you can play a single game against the computer or a friend without the strategic surrounding it. Since such a task can hardly be mastered in one go, the game status can be saved. In your capacity as a trainer, you take care of e.g. to buy and sell players, place bets, set up the team, determine the tactics, and can even try to bribe players of the opposing team or referees. Each character has individual characteristics. Your squad can consist of up to 13 players.
In a game, it is important to score more points than your opponent. A second way to win is to decimate the other team. If a team no longer has enough living players, it has lost. The small dinosaurs with handy tails serve as balls, which you have to throw into the barrel of the opposing playing field in order to score a point. The playing field scrolls from top to bottom.
There are two types of controls and three-game speeds to choose from. You can also compete in pairs or let the computer do the action. Similar to American football, almost anything is allowed. M.U.D.S. has a humorous manual. There are statistics for every game, information about the team and your team are even saved. Initially, the developers are not lacking in original ideas. Playability and complexity are excellent. The trading and strategy part of the game is really easy to use with various menus, but the best way to control the brawls is with a joystick. Long-lasting motivation is preprogrammed through different playing fields and new monster types, I was also pleased with the two-player mode and the numerous sound effects.
This game was available on PC, Amiga, Atari ST. Released in 1990.