Some of you may remember Midway's Blitz series from the 90s. The over-the-top football franchise settled its roots strongly at the local arcade and had soon found its way on to home consoles for a second wind. Until now though, not a lot had been heard about the series in recent years and with the next generation looming on the horizon, Blitz: The League comes out and fills a void that has been sorely missing in other more realistic football franchises.

The concept is simple, "win at any cost". That means if you have to break someone's arm, fracture a hip, or even shatter a vertebra in order to stop that first down, then by all means, do it. Dirty hits are a part of the game, so is juicing (kind of a form of steroids and painkillers), but the really nice thing about Blitz is the lack of rules and officials. You don't have to worry about getting a penalty called on you for a late hit, pass interference, or grabbing a facemask. The only rules on the field are to play the best, be the meanest and most importantly, to humiliate your opponent and win.

Prior to this edition, Blitz had used the NFL brand much like the Jam series used the NBA license. With contracts and such the way that they are, The League has severed all ties with the NFL and crafts its own history, laws and teams. There is a story behind it all, but do you really care about that? Or do you want to just get on the field and break some bones. Yeah, me too...that's why I pretty much skipped the cut scenes after I realized how lame they were.

Gameplay:

Once you get started with the game there are so many options that it's pretty easy to get overwhelmed. I suggest that you start with the training sessions though, because without them you're going to get ripped apart on the field. Fortunately the training is very user friendly and even though it is fairly limited about what it teaches you (there's a lot of room for experimentation while playing), you'll know the fundamentals once you're finished.

Once you're done with that you can do one of three things. You can get started right away with Quick Play, build a team from scratch with the Campaign mode, or go Online to play against another gamer. I suggest either Quick Play or Campaign first because if you go straight online to test the waters, you're going to get your butt handed to you and have a sour impression about the game. I started off with the Campaign mode, which has a relatively stupid story to tell, but it's very rewarding building a team from scratch and customizing them as you see fit.

You start out by selecting everything from offensive and defensive coaches to your rookie and veteran players. From there you have the ability to train your players, buy them new equipment, as well as tinker with logos and uniforms. It's not the most involved system in the world, but it's entertaining enough that there is a sense of reward for doing a good job. Oh, you can also win "accolades" like magazine covers, unlock new cheerleaders with some cheesecake imagery and even adjust their outfits. This mode proves to be a lot of fun to tinker with and once you go through it to unlock stuff you can just play the Quick Play mode, which is just straight out game time.

As far as the gameplay itself is concerned the same Blitz arcade feel is completely intact, though the hits feel much harder this time around. If you've ever played the franchise before, then you will probably notice addition of something called "Clash". Let me just tell you that this feature is going to be your new best friend because once you press the L2 button to initiate this your hits become dirty, your jukes become better and all around performance is increased. Unfortunately it only lasts for a limited amount of time but you can fill up the meter depending on certain actions on the field.

Clash is probably most useful (in my opinion) on defense because with it you can land Dirty Hits and injure players out of the play, quarter or even the game. Of course the same rules apply to you and if one of your guys gets hammered by a hit, there's a decent chance he will get injured. Once that occurs you can treat him properly and give him time to heal, or juice him up on drugs just to get him back out on the field. Sure it's unrealistic, but you're playing a videogame that is designed to be outrageous anyway.

While the NFL license and rules have been dropped, the scoring system has been left in tact, though with the way the game is set up you're almost always better going for the two point conversion after a touchdown. Quarters are broken down into two minutes each and each team has a limited number of time outs at their disposal. When you have a first down though, it doesn't mean you only have to get 10 yards to get another. Instead you have a whopping 30 yards of turf in front of you until you get your next set of downs. This means that the game boils down to a constant barrage of big plays in a quick consecutive manner.

The controls are responsive and you can change your player on the fly in order to get closer to the ball carrier. There are a few of the tidbits here that feel a little out of place to me and I couldn't really get used to them. For one thing, in order to kick the ball you have to play Simon Says and press the corresponding button at the appropriate time. Compared to the rest of the gameplay style present here this felt very out of place. The second thing I didn't care much for was the ability to use the right analog stick to evade a tackle. You aren't "forced" to use it, but doing so gives you greater control as far as where your player moves to. With the intensity of the action it just felt strange to take my thumb away from the button pad in order to juke in a certain direction.

While it is nice to have the ability to play online, the single player experience is really what's most important (in my eyes at least). Playing the game solo is a lot of fun, though I did come across some dumb as rocks AI at times, both on my team and the opposing. There were times that my teammates stood there and did nothing while the ball carrier sauntered past them for an 85 yard touchdown. Other times the opposing team would either stand there and be hit or create a super soldier that broke six tackles and outran everyone on my team. This doesn't happen all the time, but even though it's rare it can be pretty frustrating.

Graphics:

Blitz: The League may not be as pretty to look at as some games on the market, but it is easily the best in the series. There are quite a few player skins though it's not uncommon to see particular ones repeat, especially coaches and the like (or which there is only one). The animations are lifelike however and there is a certain thrill in blowing through a defensive line with jukes, leaping over a tackle and eventually showboating your way into the end zone. Some of the more severe tackles are wince inducing, but that's mostly thanks to the special effects that show a zoomed in x-ray of bones shattering.

The textures are smooth and there are some very nice weather effects as well. Without the NFL license, Midway was free to create new stadiums to play in and they each look realistic. Unfortunately the framerate drops significantly at times, though it is usually during play calling and prior to the snap. Cut scenes also offer some repeat animations and while you can skip them you still have to wait for them to initiate before you can do so. There is also an ugly blur effect that is very distracting and often casts an outline around characters.

Audio:

Bones crunch, swears fly, crowds cheer, and the soundtrack blasts hip hop and rock tunes. This is undoubtedly a great sounding game with an audio experience that only adds to the arcade-like nature of the gameplay. While I felt there weren't enough character voices and some of the phrases were repeated too often, there were several that got a chuckle out of me every time I heard them. The PS2 version also utilizes some Dolby Pro Logic II to get some extra oomph behind the effects.

Conclusion:

Blitz: The League is just about as entertaining as a sports game can get. It harkens back to the days when the original Blitz dominated arcades and really, dropping the NFL license was the best thing that could have happened to the franchise. There are some issues with the gameplay and the experience isn't without flaw, but man is it fun. The graphics and audio are great; maybe not "out of this world great", but they certainly add a lot to the game. I wish the Campaign mode was a little more fleshed out, but the addition of online play makes up for it, especially if you have a buddy with the game. Recommended