NFL Blitz (XBLA/PSN) Review
Posted by Sean Garmer on 01.20.2012
Go on fire! Once again with EA´s recreation of this classic franchise.
Game: NFL Blitz (2012)
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Inc.
Genre: Arcade Football
No. of Players: 1-4 Local and Online
Rating: E + 10 for Everyone 10 and up
Price: 14.99
I remember going to a movie theater, my local Cici´s Pizza, or the mall arcade and shoving a number of coins into two games. The Simpson’s Arcade Game and NFL Blitz.
Both games were great because they brought out the best in two of my favorite things to watch on television.
The Simpson´s Arcade Game has never been eclipsed as the premiere showcase for how to best use the four fingered animation trendsetters in a game. Meanwhile, NFL Blitz was eventually brought to consoles where the game managed to actually set its own trend of getting hardcore gamers to play a football game.
I have always been a player of Madden and FIFA, so heading into the arcade arena for sports was not a strange step for me. For many others it was not an easy transition. So, they had to be persuaded with late hits, simple play selection and no pass interference.
The game sold well on consoles and got a few sequels, too. Success does not always bring approval along with it though, and the NFL suddenly did not approve of the “Blitz” way of football. So, the NFL meddled with the product and eventually even forced Midway to have to give up the NFL license all together because of low sales.
EA has decided to take over the reins and bring back Blitz to its classic combination of accessibility and fiery fun gameplay. You might even say EA has thrown a “Hail Mary,” hoping the old fans will catch the ball for the game winning score.
Graphics:
NFL Blitz looks very similar to how it did back in the late 90´s. The players are muscular cartoon versions of themselves, with trash talk included. The stadiums are all named individually by the announcer, but except for the unique end zones, they all look the same from the inside. The cheerleader load screens and fast transitions all bring back happy memories for fans, too.
The game is just a flat out homage to the old Blitz titles, complete with the same 18 plays on offense and nine plays on defense. I do not remember the kicking game being this hard, but at least old school fans will be happy to know that you can still input special codes at the load screen as well.
There are only a couple of subtle changes on the field of play that really matter. EA made the right decision by putting in directional passing as the default format to connect with wide receivers. They also made the right choice in making icon passing available in the options menu.
Even though chucking the ball to the highlighted receiver is the old school style, it is a total letdown to know you missed a big play because the game highlighted the wrong guy.
Icon passing makes the offense a wonderful joy to play every time because you only have yourself to blame if you press the wrong button. If your team uses a boost or an input code, that boost is now present on certain areas of the field. This is actually a cool idea because it makes the boost available the entire game, instead of something that is only available at the beginning of each offensive drive.
There does not seem to be as much trash talk as in the previous games, but the players do still try to punk each other out verbally a few times a drive. All the crunching hits and thuds are loudly audible as players hit the turf with definitive authority, and the announce team is as spot on as ever.
EA has brought back the announcers from their earlier revitalization of NBA Jam and they deliver humorous lines on almost every play. There were quite a few times I waited to hike the ball just to hear what the announcer was going to say.
The only issue I had with the whole presentation was that they did not give fans the option of changing the time limit of the games. I know this was not something in the original game either, but having the option to have games be longer than two minutes a quarter would have been nice. An option to make five minute long quarters would have really added some depth to local and online play.
They did add this option into some of the sequels and it made for some awesome games between friends. Sometimes, the games feel like they end a little too quickly and that you may not have had a chance to compete. I do understand that this is a downloadable game and that they also were going for quick match-ups. You can actually play a best two out of three with a friend in less than an hour, which is not a bad thing if you are just trying to kill some time.
Overall though, EA did a terrific job in recreating the franchise to its classic roots and hopefully I am not the only one that noticed.
Gameplay
EA has brought back everything that was awesome about NFL Blitz except one thing, late hits. I have seen many a review complain about the lack of suplexing and slamming opponents after the play. Even though the late hits were fun, I always found them annoying as the game wore on because I wanted to just get on with the next play.
When the game is on the line, I could really care less about dog-piling the quarterback after a sack. Anyone that has watched the NFL in the last five years should not be surprised by this decision either. It would be hypocritical for the NFL to be fining players thousands of dollars but allowing late hits in video games bearing their insignia on the front cover.
The rest of the gameplay is as fun as it was in 1998. The first downs are still 30 yards away, players can still whack wide receivers in mid-air and players can go on-fire after doing something great multiple times. I did not find the A.I. as intrepid as it used to be with making sure every game ended up close. The A.I. still makes ridiculous interceptions seem common and they do get convenient fumbles to happen when the game gets out of hand, but it is still all about the player.
If you play on normal difficulty, the A.I. hardly blitzes or even goes after your wide receivers until around the fourth quarter. So, if you play defense and keep them from scoring, it takes a while before the “super A.I. syndrome” takes effect. You might be up by three touchdowns by then and as long as you do not have a meltdown, the A.I. should not catch-up with you.
Even though it can be frustrating, I do not see why everybody hates on the A.I. being that way. Arcade games are supposed to be fun and give you an escape from those simulation sports games that cater to diehard fans that spend hours every day playing online. Not to mention if you won every game by 40 points it would probably take away a lot of the fun of Blitz. The comeback A.I. also keeps Blitz from turning into Madden, where normal difficulty is too easy and all-pro difficulty is too hard. Blitz tends to keep things at a happy medium, which is a very good thing.
The game changes a bit when you are playing against a friend or someone online. An actual person will probably knock out your wide receivers before you even think about throwing the ball. For some reason, almost every person online loves sacking the holy crap out of QB´s before you can even take a three step drop too. This is where you have to develop a strategy to counter that, and where you will get the most fun out of this game. There is nothing quite like finding the one play that infuriates your overly aggressive opponent over and over. So, all of you hardcore blitzers beware that the “Dawg Hook” is wonderfully effective in stopping any pass rush dead. Everything in the game is kept simple, so that even the total football neophyte can pick up and play NFL Blitz. It breaks down the intricacies of the game into one nice package, instead of making players feel like they have to know rocket science to beat their opponents´ “Tampa 2” defense.
EA´s version of Blitz does not just bring back the classic gameplay and presentation. EA actually pays homage to Midway itself with the local single player mode “Blitz Gauntlet.” After choosing your team, a ladder will begin to form showing you all the teams you will play against. Every fourth game will be a boss fight with fantasy characters like clowns, cowboys, and the hot dog man. Similar to the season modes in the previous games, the boss match-ups are meant to be harder than the regular team versus team games. Victory not only grants you advancement to the next set of teams in the gauntlet mode, but you get to unlock the fantasy team for use in the rest of the game as well.
Online Modes
The old Blitz games were around in the era just before online console gaming exploded. Fans never got to truly experience what could have been with the Blitz franchise. If online had been rampant around the time of the original blitz games, I think Blitz could have been a huge moneymaker for Midway. To compensate for the inabilities of the past, EA decided to give the fans many ways to play with random people or friends online.
“Blitz Battles” gives fans two options. You can go into a regular team versus team matches against anyone or you can participate in a mode called “Blitz Teams.” The game is also complete with leaderboards that track your progress in the random head-to-head matches.
“Blitz Teams” allows you to create-a-team and customize them to your liking. Your “favorite team” will compose the players on the team, so there is not much freedom in that department. However, gamers do get to choose a custom logo and banner for the team. If you do not like the default selection of banners you can purchase more of them in the Blitz Store as well.
Everything you do in a game, regardless of the mode you play, earns you “Blitz Bucks” that can be used to purchase anything from extra cheats to special cheerleader loading screens. Blitz Bucks can also be used to purchase fantasy character teams, concept art, and something else I will discuss later. The point of Blitz Teams is that you have to find a local friend or an online friend to co-own the team with you, so that you play in co-op battles against other created teams. The game has battleboards that showcase your ranking in local, regional, and national boards. They are then split into four difficulty levels with 25 teams per difficulty that you must compete against. Once you reach the top ranking for that difficulty, you play a RANK UP game that by winning, grants you access to the next difficulty level in the rankings.
EA has also included a regular version of online co-op that allows you to play solo with three other random people. Players also have the option to invite online friends or local ones to play each other in “friends´ co-op.” Do not fret though, as you can also open the friend game to the public in case you only have enough friends to fill up one side of the team select screen.
EA´s biggest inclusion is the Elite League mode, which mixes fantasy football with EA´s immensely popular “Ultimate Team mode.” The player is given a starter card pack similar to EA´s Ultimate Team concept. Blitz makes this better by allowing you to actually play real games with the players. You gain points for almost anything that you accomplish while playing the game. Even losers can still gain anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 points for playing hard and making the game competitive. Those points are then turned into Blitz Bucks, which you can use to buy more card packs. The packs come in three formats: a 5 card pack for 2,000 bucks, a 12 card pack for 4,000 bucks, and a 25 card pack for 8,000 bucks. The players included are random and any player is available. So, it is quite possible to get a pack with superstars Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, and Drew Brees with one click.
Every team includes: one QB, one RB, 2 WR spots, and 1 O-Line spot on offense. The game gives you freedom to play around with the RB and WR spots similar to the flex play in fantasy football. You could choose to have a WR play as your RB or have three running backs be your wide receivers. Except for the 1 D-Line spot, you have total control over your 1 LB, 2 DB spots, and 1 Safety spot on defense. You can literally have 4 Linebackers if you so desire, or have 4 Defensive backs take up those four spots. Even if you get lucky and find all the players you want in the first couple of card packs, make sure you always check your team. The players all have contracts that diminish with every game played while they are in your starting lineup. So, make sure you are not letting them all run down at the same time because it costs 500 Blitz Bucks to renew a contract.
The game also has plenty of rewards for card pack collectors. If you complete an entire team you receive a “pro player card” of a teams´ best player. These 32 pro players have infinite contracts and better overall ratings than the same player you received from a regular card pack.
If you complete an entire division or conference of teams, you unlock “Ultimate Players.” These 12 ultimate players have maxed-out ratings and infinite contracts. Players can also unlock ultimate power-ups in this mode as well.
Once you receive each of the eight power-ups in card packs, you will unlock the ability to have ultimate power-ups. These power-ups have an infinite amount of uses, and can prove to be very handy when the game is on the line. Players can battle it out in a random quick game, against a friend, or play in a risk versus reward game.
In the latter mode, players choose which card they want to risk losing in order to choose a card they want. I think this is a terrific way to trade cards in the game. This makes me wish they had this type of battle mode in Pokémon when I was younger.
Online play in Blitz is fantastic. There is a small amount of lag sometimes, but it never becomes an issue. Having the opportunity to have so many different modes to play online is terrific. Blitz Teams and Elite League are something that any sports game should strive to have because it makes the game great. I think the inclusion of Elite Leagues puts this game over-the-top for me. I have never had so much fun playing online by myself in a sports game.
PROS:
+ This is a fantastic recreation of the original game.
+ The inclusion of icons takes the chore out of passing.
+ The gameplay is still as fun as it ever was.
+ Blitz finally gets to go online.
+ Elite League and Blitz Team modes are great additions to Blitz.
CONS:
- No ability to lengthen the time of games.
- The A.I. is still infused with a little bit of artificial comeback injections.
The 411: NFL Blitz is a faithful recreation of the original game. It is packed full of things to do both by yourself and with a friend. Blitz Gauntlet is the type of long single player mode the game needs. NFL Blitz finally gets to go online and it shines brightly on that stage. Elite League is the best addition to a sports game I have seen in years. It blends real life fantasy football with a collectible card game to perfection. I have a blast playing this every time I turn on the game. I could not ask for a better recreation of one of my favorite games ever.
Graphics
9.0
Everything in the game is a modernized version of the original game, even the hot dog man is back.
Gameplay
10.0
Anyone can pick up and play this game. The games are no longer than 15 minutes and it is fast paced.
Sound
9.0
The bone crunching hits and trash talk is all here. The NBA JAM 2012 announcers are back as well.
Lasting Appeal
9.0
Blitz has plenty of online and off-line modes to keep you busy. Elite Leagues could keep you addicted for a long while.
Fun Factor
10.0
This game is a blast to play every time you select it on your console. If you find friends online or off-line it is even better.
