NFL Blitz: A Retrospective
December 1997. Mariah Carey’s “Honey,” Mase’s “Feel So Good,” Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” LeeAnn Rhime’s “How Do I Live?” and Chumbawamba‘s “Tubthumping” are dominating the music charts. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls are having a “Last Dance” season. The Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Pittsburgh Steelers are battling for NFL supremacy. Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson are battling it out for the Heisman Trophy. College Basketball is seeing the likes of North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Utah, UCONN, and Kansas battling it out for supremacy, and my last month living in New Bern, NC as a then-eight-year-old anticipating my family moving to Raleigh, NC the following month.
https://youtu.be/RhwOus7eLac – Gameplay of the Arcade version of NFL Blitz
But, that’s not the point. More importantly, during this time, Midway released a legendary Arcade Classic where there were over-the-top tackles and leg drops separated from real-life football – the game was called NFL Blitz.
NFL Blitz can be played by either one-or-two players. Your main objective is to defeat all 30 (at the time) NFL teams to win the Super Bowl. The game is seven-on-seven and has no-holds-barred gameplay, where there are no penalties or rules in the game.
According to Mark Turmell, who worked on the game, “We’re trying to do for the NFL franchise what we did for the NFL franchise.” NFL Blitz takes inspiration from the 1993 Arcade Classic also by Midway – NBA Jam. And that’s what Midway succeeded in, thanks to it containing faster gameplay than other football games at the time, with more acrobatic moves, such as flying catches and jumping throws. Also, there are trick plays that are “college-like,” such as the “Statue of Liberty,” that you can use with a combination of using a joystick and pressing a button. Maybe that’s where Boise State was inspired for their 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma!
Also, in Blitz, you are unable to run out of bounds. In order to get the first down, you must make 30 yards, instead of the normal ten in an actual football game. Just like NBA Jam, the play-by-play announcer is Tim Kitzrow, who would later be on games such as NHL Hitz, NBA Showtime, and MLB Slugfest.
NFL Blitz would be a rousing success, spawning six sequels and being remade in January 2012 by EA, where it was only available online on XBOX Live (XBOX 360) and PlayStation Network (PlayStation 3).
Unfortunately for diehard Blitz fans, the 2012 version had late hits removed, due to the NFL’s stance on player safety.
Also, the 2012 version is no longer available on PS3. It also spawned “Blitz – The League” and “Blitz – The League II,” without the NFL license since the league signed that atrocious exclusivity deal with EA in 2005.
NFL Blitz won Electronic Gaming Monthly’s “Arcade Game of the Year Award” in 1997. Its success in the arcade led to the game being released to the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation on Thursday, September 10th, 1998, where both ports were very successful and gained critical acclaim!
https://youtu.be/eRGlZRpCgwY – The Sony PlayStation port of NFL Blitz
This was not the first time Midway made Arcade Football games. During the early 90s, they were behind the “High Impact Football” and “Super High Impact” football games, as well as the game “Pigskin,” which was considered a football version of the 1989 Arcade hit, “Arch Rivals,” also developed by Midway. “Pigskin” would later be released under “Jerry Glanville’s Pigskin Footbrawl” for the Sega Genesis in 1992 by Razor Soft.
On the other hand, “Super High Impact” would be released in late 1992 for the Sega Genesis from Arena Entertainment (a label Acclaim acquired to make for Sega games), while a Super Nintendo version was made by Acclaim in May of 1993.
So, go to your local Barcade or pull out that PS1 or Nintendo 64 and get ready for some Blitz action!