Blitz: The League

E3 Preview 2005 

The tackle was out the sideline, close to the out-of-bounds area and may have been a little on the rough side. At least, that is what the ball carrier thought, and he started jawing, letting the defensive player know he didn’t appreciate it.

The defensive player doesn’t really care what the cry baby has to say, and furthermore, he really doesn’t wish to hear it. So, with a casual extension of the middle finger on one hand, he turns his back and heads back toward the huddle. 

Welcome to Blitz: The League, Midway’s response to the NFL selling exclusive name licensing to Electronic Arts. Big attitude, intuitive gameplay, fast action – in short all the things that players have come to like about the Blitz franchise, but this time with a little more to depth.

Midway showed off the title at a Pre-E3 event in San Francisco recently, and it was with a great deal of delight that the opportunity presented itself to wrap the hands around a controller and jump into a limited time frame against another player.

The experience was everything one could hope from the game, and a little more. Rip off a few big plays and you can trigger a bullet-type mode that will allow a ball carrier to juke more evasively, or the quarterback to delay that huge rush and pick a target for that downfield pass, or even give the receiver a bit of an edge in going up and yanking the ball away from a potential interception by the defensive backs.  

The game also still has the same small team lineups, same over-muscled athletes, but has seemingly streamlined out some of the post-play antics (body slams, and other extracurricular elements that slowed the game down).

While the action on the field is well known to fans of the franchise, the game has added off-field elements for the single-player experience. There is a story mode that challenges players to take a downtrodden team and build it to championship caliber. Injuries (yes, if you take the chance at a big hit in the game, you could wind up injuring your own player), front-office politics and off-field problems all play a factor in the team’s success.

And yes, you will hear bones breaking, see an excessive amount of blood if the hit warrants it, and can even end a career.

The graphics look crisper and you will even see what is going on up in the booth. Post-touchdown antics may include a player treating the goalpost as a dog treats a fire hydrant.

The control scheme is easy to use. You select plays quickly and bring your team to the line. The quarterback will not scramble across the line of scrimmage unless that play was called (at least in the version shown at the Midway event), and gamers will find it a snap to jump from player to player on defense, deliver the big knock guaranteed to cause snot bubbles, or drop back and find the open man down the field.

Blitz also will support online play.

Blitz: The League showed that a great franchise can still survive with a few tweaks and the same dynamic gameplay, even when you take away the recognized names and teams. This is one football title that should score with gamers when the football season hits.