NFL Blitz 20-03
Midway's flagship extreme sports title makes strides towards becoming a more well-rounded sports experience. Hands-on impressions inside.
Published: July 14, 2002
Midway's sports games aren't exactly the deepest in the genre. They're known for arcade action, mainly because, well, they were arcade games first and foremost and then ported to home consoles. Because of this, they were never really that deep. They offered multiplayer options (which, of course was the real fun of the game), but by and large if you're playing by yourself, you're going to be mired in the arcade mode.
With each successive year, however, Midway's games have slowly gained depth and added more to the game experience than just a quick and dirty port of their arcade counterpart. While the majority of them still lack options for things like drafts and create-a-player, elements like these are slowly getting worked into the mix. It the latter of those two that has found its way into Blitz 20-03, and from what we've played it's been integrated in one of the most significant ways possible for the game.
Right now, Blitz 20-03 is largely Blitz 20-02 with a create-a-player option. The same animations, plays, graphics engine and overall feel is identical to last year's game, but you've now got the option to work with your own player. Your created player can then be drafted onto an NFL team and you can take them all the way to the Superbowl or use them in games against friends. In a rather innovative twist, as you progress through the season mode, you'll be given the opportunity to answer trivia questions which earn you points that you can use to upgrade your player. Should you be a walking football encyclopedia, you'll jack your hand-crafted player up to bulldozer status in no time.
Other than the create-a-player option, it doesn't appear anything else has fundamentally changed for Blitz 20-03. The controls have been tweaked slightly, there are some awesome new fantasy stadiums that you'll have the opportunity to play in as you move through the career mode, and the rosters have been updated to reflect this year's season. The expansion Texans team has been thrown into the mix, and there are very small, subtle tweaks to animations for tackles and breaks that make things more fluid. As I said, at this point it appears little has changed at the core of the game from the base that was laid with Blitz 20-02, which isn't necessarily since the game itself was good, but lacked some serious depth or something that set it apart from the rest of the series.
With the usual updates that come with each successive year (rosters, stadiums, teams, etc.), some creative additions to the tried and true formula that's helped keep Blitz interesting and a more console-specific take on the whole experience, Blitz 20-03 will likely be regarded as one of the best of not the best games in the series' history. While the build we received was still early, it showed that Midway (and developer Point of View) can still inject a little freshness into a series that could have gotten mighty stale a long time ago.
With each successive year, however, Midway's games have slowly gained depth and added more to the game experience than just a quick and dirty port of their arcade counterpart. While the majority of them still lack options for things like drafts and create-a-player, elements like these are slowly getting worked into the mix. It the latter of those two that has found its way into Blitz 20-03, and from what we've played it's been integrated in one of the most significant ways possible for the game.
Right now, Blitz 20-03 is largely Blitz 20-02 with a create-a-player option. The same animations, plays, graphics engine and overall feel is identical to last year's game, but you've now got the option to work with your own player. Your created player can then be drafted onto an NFL team and you can take them all the way to the Superbowl or use them in games against friends. In a rather innovative twist, as you progress through the season mode, you'll be given the opportunity to answer trivia questions which earn you points that you can use to upgrade your player. Should you be a walking football encyclopedia, you'll jack your hand-crafted player up to bulldozer status in no time.
Other than the create-a-player option, it doesn't appear anything else has fundamentally changed for Blitz 20-03. The controls have been tweaked slightly, there are some awesome new fantasy stadiums that you'll have the opportunity to play in as you move through the career mode, and the rosters have been updated to reflect this year's season. The expansion Texans team has been thrown into the mix, and there are very small, subtle tweaks to animations for tackles and breaks that make things more fluid. As I said, at this point it appears little has changed at the core of the game from the base that was laid with Blitz 20-02, which isn't necessarily since the game itself was good, but lacked some serious depth or something that set it apart from the rest of the series.
With the usual updates that come with each successive year (rosters, stadiums, teams, etc.), some creative additions to the tried and true formula that's helped keep Blitz interesting and a more console-specific take on the whole experience, Blitz 20-03 will likely be regarded as one of the best of not the best games in the series' history. While the build we received was still early, it showed that Midway (and developer Point of View) can still inject a little freshness into a series that could have gotten mighty stale a long time ago.