NFL Blitz

Midway

A certain part of the NFL has always been about mayhem. Organized, attractive mayhem, perhaps, but mayhem all the same. That carnage finally came to the video game world in 1998 with the release of NFL Blitz on the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PC. The Midway game had already been an arcade sensation, so its arrival in the home market was much anticipated. Anyone who stopped by an arcade or spent time in a sports bar between 1997 and 2000 will never be able to forget how the game gobbled up the quarters of everyone from little boys to grown men.

The reason behind the game's success? Violence. Well, to be fair, the game behind the violence was also deep and very engaging, but a little roughing never hurts. NFL Blitz stripped away the veneer of the pro game, dumping all that nonsense about chess on grass in favor of a free-for-all in which big guys beat the living hell out of each other. About the only thing retained from the real NFL was the regulation-size field. Games were played with just seven players per side, without rules or penalties of any sort. You could level a wide receiver long before the ball arrived or simply deck him at the line of scrimmage. You needed to pick up 30 yards to get a first down. Piling on at the conclusion of every play was encouraged with wrestling-move animations that let you drive elbows into prone ball carriers. There were just 18 plays in the playbook, but all sorts of juke, spin, dive, and stiff-arm moves were allowed on the field. NFL Blitz was more about what you did after calling the play than it was about choosing wisely. The Nintendo 64 version even included a play editor that would connect to the arcade version of the game so you could exchange plays.

NFL Blitz's arcade fun came to the PlayStation in 1998.

Few sports-oriented games were as addictive as this one, but that's not much of a surprise, considering it came from many of the same people responsible for NBA Jam. Players were big and cartoony, with colorful models that featured good animation. Games were quick-moving affairs that seemed to fly by, mostly because there was always something going on. Offense was fairly easy to come by, though things were kept interesting by boosting the yards required to make a first down from 10 to 30. Back-and-forth flow most resembled a good hockey game. One team would take over on offense and move down the field, quickly scoring, stalling, or turning the ball over to the opposition, which would repeat the process the other way. This rapid-fire pace created an addictive experience that many claimed was unparalleled.

Blitz Pro missed the mark.

The game developed over the next few years. Blitz '99 added four-player gameplay, Blitz 2000 added audibles, and so on. Despite a handful of additions year after year, the home versions of the game simply weren't different enough to keep players coming back year after year. After adding an extra "impact" player to the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube editions of the game, Midway took a long look at the Blitz franchise and decided to make its most drastic change yet: a move to a more simulation-oriented game with NFL Blitz Pro.

Blitz Pro attempted to walk the line and deliver over-the-top, Blitz-style fun while scaling back the game's crazier rules. Word started going around that the NFL simply wasn't interested in licensing a game that took so many liberties with the rules. The result of these changes was a watered-down game that was too simple to cater to the needs of simulation fans yet was needlessly complex in other areas, making the game a real turnoff for existing Blitz fans.

Can a new Blitz make an impact without NFL licensing?.

This misstep led to an even more interesting choice on Midway's part. What would happen if there were no license holders to please? No NFL would mean that Midway could make its own football game without having to answer to a league that was battling perceptions that the game was getting too violent. So the NFL and Midway parted ways, and work began on what would eventually become known as Blitz: The League, a game that aims to return the Blitz series to its roots while adding a new story mode penned by one of the writers of the short-lived ESPN series Playmakers.

Electronic Arts eventually secured the NFL license exclusively, so perhaps it's for the best that Midway was already looking in that direction. But can Blitz: The League regain the yardage lost by Blitz Pro? It looks promising, but we'll have to wait and see.