NFL Blitz ‘99
Release Date - August 28, 1998 (NA)
Developer - Midway Games
Publisher - Midway Games
Platform - Arcade (Seattle System)
1998 saw both NFL Blitz get ported to home consoles, as well the sequel, NFL Blitz ‘99 appear in arcades. The first sequel in what would become a long running and iconic franchise.
Before NFL Blitz thundered onto the scene, most football (or gridiron if you prefer) games had gone down the simulation route, with the focus being on not just the game, but also selecting plays and players to best tailor your team for the situation. While there had been exceptions to this rule before, such as 1993’s Mutant League Football, when people thought of the sport and video games they were more likely to be thinking of something akin to the realistic Madden NFL series.
Even if you don’t quite understand all the nuance and technicality of gridiron, NFL Blitz ‘99 lets you have of a lot of fun.
The NFL Blitz franchise was conceived to be a wild, over the top football action game by Mark Turmell and Sal Divita, who were known for a similarly wild take on the sport of basketball with the iconic NBA Jam series. Much like NBA Jam, NFL Blitz would change the game to better suit an easy to pick-up, fast paced arcade game; games were played with teams of seven on seven, each quarter is only a few minutes long to guarantee fast-paced games and there is more focus on passing the ball around your team rather than making a running play. There are no substitutions and perhaps most importantly; there are no penalties! As such, some of the tackles in this game look more like pro-wrestling moves than they do traditional football tackles!
Uhhhhhhhhhh… Suicide Blitz sounds good. I think? Choosing plays can be intimidating to newbies to the game, but it adds important strategies.
The game moves very quickly, with the ball in particular moving super fast, and in another feature lifted from NBA Jam, you have access to a turbo button to speed up your players and generally soup them up for a limited time.
In addition to the turbo feature, successful plays could result in the ball becoming ‘on fire’. Another feature added from NBA Jam, a player who was ‘on fire’ would have heightened abilities and skills, and a slick flaming ball effect that left trails of fire and smoke when being passed around the field.
They’re on FIRE! Take advantage of the burning energy for some powerful plays.
Perhaps the major addition to NFL Blitz ‘99 over the predecessor was the addition of a four-player mode in the arcade cabinet. The addition of two extra players brought the action to a new level as friendships were tested with the ability for two players to be team-mates against another two-player team.
There’s a lot of teams to choose from, being officially licensed by the NFL, no less!
The graphics are suitably chunky, with big, 3D player models and some colourful stadiums. Midway’s Seattle System arcade board was 3DFX powered (3DFX primarily being known for their Voodoo series of 3D cards at this time) and had suitably impressive looking graphics that looked more impressive than the usual home console fare. Animations were fast with some ridiculous athletic moves going on around the field, especially when they’re flashing white with turbo activated. Defensive players will show off some superhuman looking hurdle jumps to evade offensive players. The offensive team, meanwhile, can pull off bone crunching tackles and perform long range dives to catch the player with the ball. When they collide, there’s often hilarious knockdowns with players going head over heels through the air. If you manage to make it to the endzone safely for a touchdown you’ll even get some celebratory dances and taunts from the successful player.
“I’m going to Disney World!”
Players who are truly mean (or just want a good laugh), can continually attack the downed opposing player, with all sorts of pro-wrestling inspired attacks like frog-splashes and elbow drops being par for the course. It won’t win you any awards for sportsmanship, but you’ll be guaranteed a chuckle.
Likewise, the sound effects are suitably cartoony with the ball whizzing around the field and players constantly letting out animalistic grunts. The highlight is most certainly the now legendary Tim Kitzrow commentary, famed for his NBA Jam appearances and has since become the voice of these types of sports games. Comedic player voices were the order of the day, with some ‘Arnie’ impersonations going a long way to add to the silly nature of the game.
The big, chunky 3D models and loud graphics perfectly fit the bone-crunching action of the game.
Despite the wild style of this game, NFL Blitz ‘99, like it’s predecessor, features the NFL and team licenses, meaning that you can play with real teams and player names! In another nice attention to detail, you can still create custom plays as well. The arcade cabinet for NFL Blitz ‘99 featured a slot for a Nintendo 64 memory card, so that you could load created plays that you made on the Nintendo 64 port of NFL Blitz.
NFL Blitz ‘99 would eventually make it to home consoles under the name NFL Blitz 2000. Offering a suitably unique football experience, the series would go on to spawn multiple more sequels with the most recent being in 2012.
Ah yes, Push-downs. Look, just pass the ball to the big guy and mash the turbo button, OK?