PlayStation 2

Blitz: The League

On either system, though, Blitz: The League is a must-own for any football fan, and anyone who has been feeling nostalgic about the olden days of playing NFL Blitz at the arcade with your buddies.

If you ever played Blitz in its arcade heyday, the core mechanics of The League will be immediately familiar to you. This is eight-on-eight football with an incredibly quick pace, 30-yard downs, and the kinds of barbarous hits that would snap a typical human being in half. But really, anyone with a basic understanding of football ought to be able to pick up The League's simplistic mechanics quite easily. You still call plays as you would in any football game, and you can run, pass, and tackle at the press of single buttons. Just don't expect any fancy audibles or defensive scheme shifts to be available. You'll call a play, and that's the play you'll run, dammit.

If you’re a vet of football games or the Blitz series, you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Blitz: The League. The injury system provides an added adrenaline kick to gameplay, and the campaign mode, while not fully as explored as it could be, is more than enjoyable for most players. If you’re looking for a good alternative to the standard sim fare, tackle Blitz: The League. Literally beating the hell out of opponents on the football field never felt so good.

Blitz: The League is just about as entertaining as a sports game can get. It harkens back to the days when the original Blitz dominated arcades and really, dropping the NFL license was the best thing that could have happened to the franchise. There are some issues with the gameplay and the experience isn't without flaw, but man is it fun. The graphics and audio are great; maybe not "out of this world great", but they certainly add a lot to the game. I wish the Campaign mode was a little more fleshed out, but the addition of online play makes up for it, especially if you have a buddy with the game.

I sure applaud any game that doesn't take itself too seriously, especially a sports game. I find it ironic that what is essentially a game itself, is taken so seriously by players and fans alike. At least Blitz puts some fun back in the sport, however temporarily. Recommended for a rental.

As a "football" game featuring team brawls, betting, illegal drug use, prostitutes, and superhuman special moves (without any sign of referees), its no wonder why Blitz: The League isn't an officially licensed sports title. Unsurprisingly, this latest series installment maintains the Midway legacy of remarkably unsportsmanlike sports entertainment games. Though it may lack the polish and panache of mainstream football franchise games, Blitz: The League plays to its strengths as an over-the-top, hyper-aggressive action-sports experience.

When EA picked up the exclusive licensing rights to the NFL, gamers around the world let out a collective gasp as they realized this meant the death of some of their favorite football franchises. However, while fans were in mourning, Midway was hard at work revamping, retooling, and reinventing its hit Blitz franchise. The result is a game with new teams, no rules, and a unique look at the dark side of the gridiron that's definitely not for the kiddies. For football fans burnt out on the "Madden Experience," this could be exactly the change of pace they've been looking for.

The gameplay needs tuning, but if you've got a mind to crush some skulls on and off the field, than I think you're gonna be pretty happy with this title.

Treat or juice, that's the question. Do you send your player to the bench and lose him for the game or inject him with a substance neither of you really want to know about and throw him back in the lineup at any cost? Real life…I'm sitting my player out. Blitz: The League? You're getting a needle in that polygonal ass, best believe it. And these are the types of decisions that you'd never see in a game like Madden. The types of things that a licensed game would never allow you to do. And I think the designers behind Blitz did an amazing job in the initial planning stages of the game. From the substances you can purchase for your players to "juice" their abilities to watching player profiles that include stars who just got out of jail, it's a clever concept, and probably one of the only ways that a non-licensed sports game will ever compete with the big boys (why isn't Jose Canseco Baseball already in development, anyway?).