This past year EA decided to literally buy the sport of football, no they didn’t up the salary cap or buy out T.O.’s contract, they basically took away the chance to make a successful football game for any video game developer in existence. The NFL 2K games are a figment of the past, as are any other non-EA NFL titles. But this year Midway decided to take a chance and give the infamous Blitz franchise a new life on next-generation systems. Blitz: The League takes a fresh look on football with completely invented teams and league options. The campaign is thin but still fun and the graphics are average for what the Xbox 360 can do, but the game is fun anyway, and that’s all that really mattered with the Blitz games. They may not have T.O. or Reggie Bush but they did manage to snag a few old beaten down players by the names of Lawrence Taylor and Bill Romanowski. If you ever need to get away from the seriousness that videogames have become, Blitz is just the game for you, read on to find out why.
First let me start by saying that Midway brought this game to us not at the regular $59.99 price point, and instead you can pick up this fun but average game for the low price of $39.99 at your local gaming retailer. I needed to tell you that up front because I actually liked Blitz: The League as a forty-dollar game, not a sixty-dollar game, that’s a big difference. The gameplay mechanics are everything and you will know them by heart if you have played a Blitz game before. The left joystick moves your player, one button jumps/tackles, one passes/changes men, one jukes, one does the turbo, and the new button takes care of the “special” moves. This is a simple enough controller design that after one single game I felt like I have been playing this game for months. My eight-year-old nephew took no time to learn to play a couple games of Blitz after he was totally confused by Madden 2007. That being said Blitz is not for everyone, especially if you give a crap about the stats feature in Madden. This game is fun, simple and easy fun. There is some swearing and some graphic fighting but overall it’s not nearly as bad as a lot of games out there. The game starts out with a choice of A) playing a new campaign, B) free play, or C) online play. This isn’t a lot of modes but as I said it does what is needed for the price tag.
In the campaign mode you take over as general manager of a new franchise team and have to build it from the ground up. Everything is customizable from the home town (even Birmingham, my home town, was represented) to the color of the jerseys. Next you have to choose your star players in a couple of positions (QB, RB, WR, TE, etc.) and then decide how to train them. The training is as simple as adding points to their passing, running, or stamina. The customizable options are plenty enough to give the gamer the feeling that this team belongs to them, name, logo, color and all. Once you have made your dream team it is time to pick your stadium and head into the real season. The goal of Blitz: The League is to take your team all the way to the finals while keeping the owner happy and winning at the same time. There are a few CG movies thrown in between games but besides that there is little for storyline. This is a still football game after all. The actual gameplay instantly took me back to the days of the Nintendo 64 and when the arcade versions of Blitz were popular. Games are easy enough to win and all the old rules are back in full force. 1st and 10’s are thing of the past, in Blitz you start off with 1st and 30 yards to go. All playbooks are the same and broken down into speed, power, balanced, and my favorite trick plays. The trick playbook includes WR reversal to pass and other classic trick plays to pull off whenever you feel the urge. There are 2 meters that matter in the game, your “special” meter and the “fight” meter. As you fill up the special meter you have the ability to pull the Left Trigger and go into “matrix like” mode where your player moves faster than everyone else and pulling off jukes is easy as pie. You can also use this mode when you’re the quarterback to dodge that oncoming defensive end at the last second. The fight meter fills up as you do “dirty hits” (pressing the tackle button while holding the L Trigger) and once it gets filled up on either side an all out brawl ensues, winner takes all.
