‘NFL Blitz’ was a popular Midway Arcade series, now owned by EA, which was known for taking its own spin on football. The ‘NFL Blitz’ series was never a “true” adaptation of the sport; NFL simulators were meant for EA Sports’ ‘Madden’ and 2K’s ‘NFL Football 2K’ series while Blitz just stuck with the arcade formula and gave something the lighter sports fans could easily enjoy, chaos on the field and “late hits.”

The Blitz games allowed you to enter cheat codes prior to the game starting, which let you change the look of the field, ball, players, and some gameplay codes that can make things a little easier or harder for you. If you want to know more about Blitz’s history, click here.

On January 3, EA Sports released ‘NFL Blitz’ as a PSN and XBOX Live download. Before this, the last Blitz game to be released was ‘Blitz: The League 2’ in 2008. The League games took the most of the arcade elements out of the Blitz series and went for a more realistic style and brought Blitz into a new hyper violent sports game by including real, and sometimes nasty injuries.

It was because of this that the NFL license dropped from the Blitz games and the series took a downward spiral. Though still entertaining, they were no longer the Blitz series that everyone remembered. That is, until EA picked up the rights and returned Blitz to its former glory.

The Gameplay

For those of you new to the Blitz franchise, be ready for illegal moves, unrealistic plays, crazy teams, and the arcade classic invisible walls. In order to understand how and why these work, you have to know the two rules of Blitz:

Rule #1: There are no rules on the field. Any means for you to take out the ball carrier are allowed, including pass interference. If you are in threat of getting tackled, spin yourself to act as a shield or just knock down your opponents like bowling pins (sound effects included). You may also use your turbo meter to assist against your opponents. Though the meter runs out fast and slowly recharges, if you play your cards right, your team might burst into flames (literally) so you don’t have to worry about your turbo running out.

Rule #2: There are no out of bounds or offsides. There are invisible walls that keep you in the playing field and on your side of the field, until the play has started. This keeps the action simple and heated as well as helps give your character, in defensive position, a running start towards the QB as he runs in place on the line of scrimmage until the ball is hiked.

Worried about the two minute clock since you cannot run out of bounds? At the end of every play the clock stops. It’s just part of the rules of Blitz.

With EA’s revival of the Blitz series, they have returned Blitz to its bright colors, arcade controls, as well as the wacky character skins such as, Ninjas, Robots, Hotdogs, and many more including Zombies (Yes, they do the ‘Thriller’). Some of the new features brought into the series are:

• Blitz Gauntlet, which is where you face three sets of three teams in order to battle the bosses to unlock them as playable skins.
• Blitz Battles, where you go head to head with people online or even join up with a friend to battle others in two on two team battle.
• Elite League, where you build your own personalized team using your favorite players as well as banners and logos from your favorite teams to make your own personalized Blitz team.
• Online Coop, where you join up with an online friend to battle other online teams.
• The Blitz Store, where you use Blitz Bucks (earned through online play) to purchase logos and players for your custom team, gallery images, Fantasy Character skins, or cheat codes (All cheat codes can be used without having to purchase them, except for the fantasy characters).

EA’s ‘NFL Blitz’ is a true revival of the Blitz series and a fantastic game with solid gameplay for both sports and arcade fans. The only complaint I had with the game is that they did not allow late hits at the end of the plays. Besides that EA did a great job with reviving the Blitz series and the game itself does not disappoint.

Score: 4/5

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