
	Platform N64 Genre Sports Publisher Midway Developer Point of View ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q3 2000

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NFL Blitz 2001

nfl-Blitz-2001-1.jpg (29989 bytes) nfl-Blitz-2001-2.jpg (23927 bytes)

NFL Blitz is the series of insane football action released annually by Midway since the mid 90's. You know the game, it's the one where up to four people can play an outrageous game of football where the refs serve no purpose other than keeping the score. The game is anarchy and simplicity combined - score more than your opponent and do whatever is necessary to do to score - late hit, pass interference, and unplug neighbors controllers (not an available option on the controller - you do it yourself). A game will invariably involve all sorts of high paced action namely invented plays and all sorts of gaming frustration - especially when you burn one of your friends for a long play and they deliver a barrage of late hits to remind you that you still suck.

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The game is a relatively easy one to start - there are only three buttons to worry about: turbo, pass and jump. Not exactly splitting the atom and therefore a beginner can readily jump into a game and match wits with the computer. Although it is easy to jump into the game, mastering the intricacies of the game take a long time namely the skills with the turbo button which can turn a short loss into a forty yard gain. These details are ones which I cannot relate to as I was bored

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with the game in around 30 minutes and pulled it for something of greater substance (Southpark was on Comedy Central). I can verify that this is possible because I saw the game do it on me - whether the feats can be duplicated by humans is still under investigation.

The updates from NFL Blitz 2000 include updated rosters so you get all of the players that your team has acquired in off season trades and signings and more importantly, new cheerleaders to ogle during intermissions (they actually mentioned this in the manual), and newer rants from the commentators (file this under "whatever"). This game is exactly the same as every other Blitz incarnation - except I wouldn't spend $40 to $50 bucks on it when I can get the same satisfaction playing it once in a blue moon at my arcade.

One of the undesirable traits that remains on this game is the ridiculous AI - one minute the game chooses to run the same play for 3 and out the next minute the quarterback turns a loss of twenty yards into a touchdown from his own thirty and does so by outrunning every player on the team including safeties 15 yards downfield. The other annoyance is the insistence of the announcer to call some players’ names wrong - I'm pretty sure that Griese was my starting quarterback for the Broncos. Whenever the announcer says, "Frerotte just picked up 35 yards for the first down" you should have heard the spew of obscenities hurled at the Nintendo 64 - it wasn't a pretty sight, let me tell you.

Bottom line: This game has no replay value, unless you are a huge fan of the series don't go out of your way to get it, or if you have an earlier version avoid it there's nothing new for you in this game.

Tazman