Midway for Dreamcast

Extreme Football

1-4 Players

The only football game I can really enjoy.

Yes. I’ve been rediscovering my love for Midway’s extreme sports series, so you can expect to see a review of the best NBA Jam game here in the near future as well.

The Blitz series has been around for a long time, and just about every system out there will get a new entry later this month when NFL Blitz 20-02 hits the stores. Basically, it’s no-penalty, fast-paced football. First downs are 30 yards instead of the usual 10, and plays often turn in 20-40 yard passes and dashes. Tackles are big and painful, and players can leap over defenders, spin and turbo-dash their way to the end zone. Midway’s familiar "on fire" system is in effect here – offensive "on fire" players can drag defenders behind them and must be double-tackled before they go down, while "on fire" defenders are faster and tougher as well.

4 man multiplayer games, easy to select and read playbooks, create-a-player, create-a-team, create-a-playbook… Blitz 2001 is one of the first Midway sports games to really get the additional options right. The recent NHL Hitz on PS2 is the only other game in their series to offer as many options. There are also franchise and season modes, single game, and a handful of mini-games designed to hone your skills. Controls are simple – there are only 2 buttons to remember in addition to the turbo button. The graphics are the best we’ve seen in this series as well, with better player models, fields and weather effects.

Midway’s insistence on including the infamous sliding scale AI opponent. Games will almost always come down to one touchdown, and can go either way no matter how well you play. If you’re doing really well, expect to see your players fumbling or giving up interceptions so the AI can catch up. One train of thought might think that closer games are more exciting… I missed that train, though – I find this sort of thing very annoying and cheap. This is also why I try to stick to multiplayer games, which aren’t as badly skewed by this "catch-up AI."

Post-play hits! After making the tackle, you have a few seconds in which you can quickly pile your defenders onto the fallen opponent, or just run around tackling other players at will.

Graphics – 8 (Nice player models, much better fields than before)

Sound – 8 (Great hit effects, announcer and player comments are sometimes funny)

Replay – 8 (If you can get some pals together for multiplayer matches, the replay skyrockets. There are also a lot of single player options to keep you occupied as well)

Overall: 8