When it comes to football, there are the people who admire the sport for its elegant execution, dependence on teamwork, split-second decision making, and the absolutely heart-pounding, hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat, down-to-the-wire intensity. And then there are those of us who just love to watch grown men get paid exorbitant amounts of money to beat the hell out of each other. While I do admire the sport for all of the aforementioned motives, that last one is particularly enticing to my gamer alter-ego. And bar none, no franchise has ever been as amusingly over-the-top as the Blitz series has been.
Compared to serious football sims such as Madden 2005, the Blitz series is the equivalent of playing backyard football with rocket launchers (which, come to think of it, would be friggin' sweet). To be honest, the only football games that I could ever stand to play for more than five minutes have all been in the Blitz line of titles. There's something genuinely enchanting about downing a receiver with a diving leap, then piledriving him as he attempts to get up, then switching control to another player and taking the same guy out with a sliding tackle. And, unlike real life, there's no ruined careers or joykill refs to ruin the party.
As a matter of fact, Blitz fans may be the only people outside of EA’s board of directors to benefit from this whole “exclusive rights” fiasco. Freed from the baggage of the No Fun League, Midway is finally free to craft their creation in any manner they please, with no dissatisfied governing body to tell them otherwise.
Getting back to the issue at hand, the next game in the Blitz series (which up to now has been
referred to as Blitz: Playmakers) has just been
granted a new name and logo, and will henceforth be answering to the title Blitz: The League. The game, slated
for release in late 2005, will explore “the on-field violence, off-field fallout, and
front-office politics of professional football.” Count on a story mode in the same vein as ESPN’s short-lived and
controversial Playmakers series, in which you take control of an ailing football franchise and coach it back
to number one—via any means necessary, of course. Expect this title to draw back the shroud of glitz and glamour
surrounding the sport, allowing us to explore a darker side of football than we’ve ever seen before. Trust me, this is
not your daddy’s football sim.
Finally, the Big Question for all my fellow Blitz fans out there: is parting from the NFL the
best thing that could have happened to the Blitz series? And will the Blitz line serve to keep the football genre from
stagnating with only one other major player to compete with? Remember, there aren’t going to be many football titles
out there to choose from for the next several years, that is, unless you plan to while away your time playing
Backyard Football. I know I won’t. But I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for those rocket
launchers.
