{tab=Review} 

Heads up, fellow gamers, this is Ben Hernandez aka the Infraggable Zoob from Tigar Knee and New Gen Gamers dot com. For the first time, Tigar Knee gets out of the ring and onto the gridiron with NFL Blitz The League 2.

Unlike all the football simulators, Blitz focuses on the meat and bones of the American past time and tackles the juicy raw appeal of the game, without all the micromanaging. Madden fans will find little love here for their stat fixing and number memorizing, but for the casual fan, there are plenty of back breaking, spine stinging, and vomit inducing carnage to go around. The first football game I can think of to earn an M rating, Blitz’s true ugly colors shine through the campaign mode and lampoon the seedy underbelly of the game beyond the locker rooms, highlighting a young upstart nicknamed the Franchise. As cheesy as it is for a sports game to have a story mode, Blitz pulls it off, though between all the team backstories, drafting melodrama, and bedside “negotiating,” the concept can come off a little strenuous for the average bloodthirsty linebacker.

In the game itself, there are a few glitches in the system that will have the player calling foul. For starters, it is very hard to switch to the right player on the fly, meaning that you will have to cycle through the entire team before you get control of the right person on defense. This will lead to extra point situations that would be easily preventable had the cursor system been better developed, but even in a game about colliding bodies, the whole method of picking seems, well, a bit primitive.

Seriously, the best parts of the game are off the sheer detail in demonstrating exactly how you broke that quarterback’s foot and collar bone, down to the most fist curling frame. Some of these hits would make even the most hardened halfback want to hurl.

All things aside, the passing and the running game on offense are decent, when you consider that the highlight of this game is simply to see how hard you can hurt someone. There are over 100 different plays that have their strengths and weaknesses, which gives you a fair amount to chew on before the snap.

Blitz also incorporates some interesting elements into the subgenre, keeping the mainstay Gamebreaker system created and mastered in the Street series, and adds its own spin on it. Unleashed moves are controlled through a super meter that increases with every bone crunching hit and 50 yard pass you make, giving you combo bonuses depending on stiffarms, tackle conditions, and post takedown beatdowns. When you gather enough gold juice, it’s time to put the hurt on the opponent, or grab that hail mary pass.
The system is solid and allows some very brutal and interesting spins on the time-tested formula.

Blitz is hard hitting and absolutely frustrating, which eeks of old arcadey goodness, but still manages to squeeze out a good time, though some aspects of the game seem little more than gimmicks. After all, you pop one shoulder into place, you’ve done them all.

All and all a good addition to a late Sunday scrimmage with the guys, so gather up your mouthguards and game on.

{tab=Images}

{gallery}/xbox360/blitz_the_league_2{/gallery}

{/tabs} 

Developer:

Midway

{mosimage}

Publisher:

Midway

{mosimage}

Genre:

Type

Release Date:

10/2008