After a successful relaunch of the much loved NBA Jam franchise, EA Sports is back with another Midway arcade sports franchise that hasn’t seen a game with its NFL branding since 2003.
That’s right, NFL Blitz is back! While it’s only for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, don’t count it out. The digital release of NBA Jam was met with critical acclaim and NFL Blitz comes from the like-minded design of an arcade sports title that’s appealing to fans of the sport as well as fans of old-school arcade sports action.
The new NFL Blitz features 7-on-7 matches, an offline single-player mode called Blitz Gauntlet, the online mode called Blitz Battles and the ability to mix and match players to create a dream team by collecting player cards in the Elite League mode.
“We look forward to introducing the over-the-top football action that made NFL Blitz a classic arcade hit to a new generation of gamers,” Cam Weber says, General Manager of American Football for EA SPORTS. “And we are excited to deliver to fans of the original game, the new NFL Blitz complete with online features and in high definition for the first time.”
A first for a digital sports game release, EA had the fans vote for the cover athlete for the new NFL Blitz during December’s Spike TV “Video Game Awards.” Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was chosen over fellow Pro Bowlers Roddy White and Patrick Willis.
NFL Blitz was first released as an arcade game in 1997 and quickly became a fan favorite among fans of the sport, and arcade gamers. In 1998, the game moved to the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation consoles which granted the game its biggest fanbase yet. There were various console versions released between 1998 and 2003 until Midway lost the NFL license.
Midway attempted to bring the Blitz franchise back in 2004 with Blitz: The League. The game was a massive departure for the franchise by not only losing the NFL franchise, but adding a story that had the player managing a team in which they could force steroid use on the players and other illegal activities.
The release of NFL Blitz marks the first Blitz game since 2008 and the first Blitz game to feature the NFL license since 2003.
NFL Blitz was developed by EA Tiburon which most fans associate as the developers of the Madden and NCAA Football games.
NFL Blitz will set you back 1200 Microsoft Points on XBLA or $14.99 on the PSN.