And ultimately, Blitz is great because it’s so outlandish. Blitz has aged awfully, but that actually helps it. It’s fearless and shameless, more so than any other game of its kind or era. It was actually going to be even more ridiculous, with blood splatters, bleeped-out cursing, and actual wrestling moves, but the NFL – who signed off on the game sight-unseen and forgot to check on it until a week before its release – finally intervened and Midway was forced to scale it back a bit.
Blitz makes no attempt at realism. You have to gain 30 yards for a first down. Late hits aren’t a thing, as you can literally jump in the air and sit on the other team’s players after you tackle them. The best play in the game is probably “QB Post,” in which the quarterback flips the ball to his running back and runs deep. If you complete three straight passes to a receiver, he catches fire and can drag multiple tacklers all the way to the end zone.
Moreover, there’s not a whole lot of skill involved. My friend Ben’s strategy was to always enter the 4th quarter down by a touchdown, because the game’s AI would always equalize. If you’re up by a few touchdowns, your next pass will inevitably bounce off of your wide open receiver’s hands, casually plucked out of the air by a defender who teleports from about 30 yards away. If you’re down by 21, no worries — your opponent is probably fumbling on the next three plays.
That goofiness – aside from the nostalgia that calling “Da Bomb” on every play inevitably produces – is the appeal of Blitz. It’s comfortable in its own skin. And in an era in which everything feels engineered and optimized, NFL Blitz is a blast from the past in every sense of the phrase.
“Woke” sports fans or gamers may feel a bit of cognitive dissonance while playing Blitz. But it’s like eating sugar, or buying meat, or sneaking a cigarette: you know it’s bad for you, and maybe even for society as a whole, but for a few minutes, it’s exactly what you want.
