Blitz: The League Review (no fat)

Game Description

When a games developer focuses on the negative side of a niche sport, the results will always bring forth mixed reactions. Blitz: The League is a title that exemplifies the violent nature of American Football and interprets it in an arcade gaming context. The action is fast paced and addictive with a liberal dose of intentional carnage and broken bones thrown in for good measure.

Blitz the League does it without the backing of an NFL license (which belongs to the sports game giant, Electronic Arts). The characters, teams and leagues are all freshly created for the game and add a nice touch. Bottom line, it's all about maiming your opponents and making winning plays to secure your future as one of the top football players.

Blitz: The League Gameplay

It all boils down to how many bones you can crush and people you can take out without being a victim yourself. The game is football at it's darkest best. With a small learning curve and arcade style graphics that perform well, the game sports eight-on-eight football action that is fairly easy to sink into. However, this is in no way a complete football experience. For starter, there is no Franchise or Career mode. More importantly, the amount of plays is limited.

For all it's shortcomings, the game delivers crisp gameplay and plenty of action. Controls are fairly simple and making passes and selecting plays are a breeze. The highlight is the violence factor as you can maim, injure, deliver cheap shots and attack anyone who stands in your path. When a player gets injured the scene cuts to an X-ray Vision mode where the cracking bone is depicted in detail.

Injured players can either be treated or pumped with steroids and painkillers and thrown back into the thick of action. If they are lucky, they'll live. The violence part might not go down well with everyone but if you can skip the purist's outlook towards the game and focus on the arcade action, it's pretty amusing. Excessive violence pushes a player into unleashed mode where they become almost invincible.

The game has a campaign mode that depicts the rise of a team in the ranks and revolves around building your team and unleashing some serious carnage on the football field. It sets well with the game's central theme.

Blitz has a decent multiplayer option that offers great action as you go head on with other players.

Blitz: The League Graphics & Sound

As an arcade game, Blitz packs fast, functional graphics, decent cut scenes, an innovative x-ray vision and decent frame rates. The load times are slightly on the higher side but the action more than makes up for it.

The game also scores high in the sound department with plenty of agonizing grunts and authentic sound effects for each aspect of the game.

Blitz: The League – Final Tackle

If you are looking for a serious football simulation that gives you an authentic feel of the game, skip this title. But if it's arcade style amusement and plenty of action that you seek, Blitz: The League will give you the thrills. Even with the vile side of Football as the focal point, the game scores on the sheer merit of the entertainment value. Sure, you need to be a bit twisted to enjoy it, but then again, it's only a game right?.

Given the fact that its rated mature, the game is definitely not for kids… it probably won’t do their vocabulary much good either.

Blitz: The League Cost

The game currently retails at $39.99