NFL Blitz Review – Not Quite A Touchdown

Jan 15th 2012 4:30 PM by Chris Ullery

When former arcade-darlings Midway closed their doors back in 2009, the rights to their intellectual properties were sold off to various names throughout the gaming world. Electronic Arts, which owns exclusive video game rights to the NFL, wound up as the proud owners of the much-loved NFL Blitz franchise, an adrenaline-fueled, over-the-top take on football (the American kind, not the one that uses actual feet). Much like 2010′s NBA Jam relaunch, EA is hoping to rekindle people’s love affair with the arcade classic.

After having spent a great deal of time at MAGFest last weekend on the NFL Blitz ’99 machine (and putting on a hell of a clinic to anyone unfortunate enough to challenge me), I was excited to sit down with EA’s take on the franchise, encouraged by what initially seemed like a heartfelt attempt to remain faithful to the action-packed excitement of the 90′s original.

Is NFL Blitz a worthy successor to an all-time classic, or is it a bit of a false start? Hit the break to find out.

At first glance, NFL Blitz seems like a faithful recreation of the arcade title we all know and love: 7-on-7 action, 30 yards to a first down, even the playbooks are practically identical (though plays called “Cruisn’” and “Sub-Zero” feel a bit out-of-place in a game not made by Midway). But the devil is in the details, and a number of factors combine to really hold Blitz back from realizing its full potential.

At its core, it simply feels as if a bit of Blitz’s soul has been removed. Late hits, a staple of the franchise, have been removed entirely at the NFL’s insistence. Instead, players just stand around awkwardly between plays, as if wishing they could do something interesting to one another. The general game speed feels slower as well. Passes don’t have the same zip to them, and quarterbacks have the frustrating tendency to lock into a lengthy animation before launching a pass – even when just dishing the ball to a running back – leading to a number of unwarranted sacks.

Problems with the controls only exacerbate these issues. The Blitz of old had a simple, three-button control scheme, combinations of which would give you access to all sorts of maneuvers. These special moves have now all been remapped all over the controller, and keeping tabs on them is an exercise in frustration. Maddeningly, none of these controls can be manually remapped, which means something as simple as a jump pass will have you twisting your thumb along the controller. Defensively, changing players mid-pass can produce wonky results, and it’s incredibly frustrating to give up huge yardage on a pass because the game decided to swap to an illogical player.

Despite these issues, Blitz can still provide a solid experience when you get used to its shortcomings, and this translates well to the surprisingly lag-free online arena. Winning online matches provides in-game currency which can be used to unlock cheats and cosmetic bonuses, as well as player cards for the Elite League mode. This online-only gameplay option has you collecting cards to form a dream team of NFL superstars. Theoretically, this could provide a bit of depth, but it’s ruined by a lack of any sort matchmaking. The game has no compunctions against matching your underpowered, just-starting-out squad against a team with fully maxed stats, limiting this mode’s appeal.

The Blitz Battles mode, however, is much better implemented. Taking a page from Starcraft II’s Battle.net ladders, you’ll fight your way up state, regional, and national divisions by earning points from matches. Games in this mode feature traditional Blitz the way you know and love – no power-ups or custom teams to speak of. The sense of progression here is done well, and this will likely where you will spend the majority of your online time.

Blitz’s presentation is something of a mixed bag. Player models are nice and comically chunky with exaggerated features. Crowds, however, are blurry 2D images, and not in the clever throwback-way the crowd was rendered in the NBA Jam reboot – here, it just smacks of laziness. Tim Kitzrow reprises his role as the energetic announcer and is every bit as charming as ever, but for whatever reason, EA decided to add a color commentator to the mix, whose predictable shtick of “say incorrect things constantly” wears thin almost immediately.

While Blitz fails to hit the mark in a number of areas, it still retains enough of the original arcade formula to be a good bit of fun. At $15, it’s a bit steep for a downloadable title (though significantly cheaper than the NBA Jam relaunch’s retail asking price), so give the demo a spin before you commit. Blitz purists like myself might find a lot to balk at, but if you want a quick burst of adrenaline-fueled pigskin, you could do a lot worse than NFL Blitz.