Blitz:The League
Blitz drops the NFL and adds the ESRB-M!
Tags: Blitz:The League Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Nov 14th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Blitz:The League (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Sports | Yes | ||
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EA Sports’ piggishness with the NFL license didn’t just hurt Sega/2K Sports; Midway’s decades-long NFL franchise, NFL Blitz, which got its start in coin-op arcades, also had to be redesigned from the ground up if the company wanted it to survive, after the Madden crew garnered exclusivity of NFL-branded videogames last year. The result is Midway’s newly-rechristened title, BLITZ: THE LEAGUE. Without any NFL franchises or real players to offend, the game is set free to become the GRAND THEFT AUTO of football games, which is pretty much what the ambitions were at the outset.
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The result is a game that has some interesting ideas but is sadly still addicted to its arcade roots. In Blitz: The League, you have the equivalent of a season-story mode which places you in control of a “league franchise.” After storyline segments set up the disasterous previous season, you are given control to rebuild a franchise from scratch; you get to choose the team name, logo, uniform colors and design, coach, draft a key veteran and a key rookie, and start from the bottom to earn your way to the top of The League. The storyline segments are frequent and well-enough produced to add some between-game intrigue.
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The trouble is, Blitz: The League’s idea of a story mode isn’t a game that’s full of intriguing plot twists so much as the storyline seems to be the product of a writing team who is working for HBO for the first time after a long stint on The Family Channel, and has just realized they get to use words like “boobies” and the F-bomb for the first time in their career. Upshot? The story mode isn’t bad in terms of portraying an XFL-style, ultra-violent football league, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. It’s too bad that Blitz: The League’s M-rating isn’t used for a truly mature storyline, instead of just an excuse to show a lot of sex, swearing and drug use. For my money, even though the rating says “mature,” all the cussing and such comes off as pure juvenile fare – and juvenile delinquent, at that!
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The game play itself isn’t so bad, but unfortunately is still too intrinsically linked to the franchise’s arcade predecessors. It plays more like Arena League Football than a real pro game. For example, this is nine-man football with only three offensive linemen, and instead of earning first-and-10s, you’re going after first-and-30s. If you don’t score in about five plays per possession, you’re basically sucking wind in the game. Also, the running game is rendered mostly useless by this design, since the running game usually nets far fewer yards than the passing game, and there’s really no incentive to “eat clock” with a running game. Even with quarters that only last two minutes (and can only be lengthened up to five minutes), games can easily feature outrageous scores like 58-47. Nearly every play, by necessity, becomes a pass play and if you’re in a close contest and think you’ve won , because you inched ahead 56-54 with about seven seconds left: think again! That’s enough time for a kickoff return and a couple pass plays in this game, especially when the CPU team is in control; you’ll likely get burned for a TD pass as the clock expires.
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Scoring-saavy CPU AI aside, such a disregard for what can actually take place in seven seconds of game time roots Blitz: The League firmly still in the arena of arcade football, not a more realistic, enjoyable game. Sure, there’s an online feature that’s pretty smooth for quick games against remote opponents, but the arcade style will only appeal to those who want to play football as a bloody action game, not as a sport. While that type of game has an audience, it’s usually not a mainstream one. Blitz: The League is football for the Mortal Kombat crowd, as every injury is highlighted with a freeze-frame and then a close-up of X-rayed bones showing the breaks. You can get your injured players back out on the field quicker if you “juice” them, but it’s one of the only “rules” imposed in this game, so if you do it too much, you could face penalties. In all, the game almost calls to mind an EA Sports classic from the Sega Genesis era, Mutant League Football. The worst part is, there’s really no defense to the game at all, since whether you control a player or not, the D basically either picks off a pass or – more often then not – falls around like dolts as the offense scores.
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Former New York Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor is the celebrity endorser of Blitz: The League, and considering some of his legal history, he’s a natural for the role. The play-by-play is spiced up by cussing rather than anything really interesting, again showing the game’s juvenile tendencies while skating in the land of M-rated toys. Stats are light and little sense of realism is maintained. About the only really interesting aspect on the field is the design of the kicking game, which relies on the user to hit a series of buttons on time, a sort of “Parappa the Rapper” interface, which is a fresh idea for handling the kicking duties.
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But in the end, the novelties of the game are outweighed by the paper-thin depth of the game. If Midway wanted a sports equivalent to Grand Theft Auto, Blitz: The League is it. If gamers want a sports game that plays more like an action game than real sports, Blitz: The League is it. But if you’re looking for a viable alternative to Madden, you’ll be better off hoping for the return of Tecmo Bowl than you will be playing Blitz: The League.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ The kicking game has an intriguingly fresh approach. + Story mode has potential – most of it unrealized. |
6.8 |
| What Doesn't | |
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– The M-rated content is actually pretty juvenile. – The gameplay is strictly arcade-style pigskin; think Arena League, not NFL, at best. – Nonexistent defensive AI. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Blitz: The League is to football what Grand Theft Auto is to racing game; but not in a good way. | |
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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Nov 14th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
