NFL Blitz

NFL Blitz is a series of American football themed video games by Midway featuring National Football League teams. It began as a 1997 arcade game that was ported to home consoles and spawned several sequels. Rather than being designed as a realistic interpretation of the sport of football, like Madden NFL or NFL 2K, the Blitz series was created as an over-the-top, exaggerated version of the sport, inspired by Midway's own NBA Jam basketball games.

In 2005, following the loss of the NFL license, the Blitz series was relaunched as Blitz: The League, featuring fictional players and teams in a fictional league with slightly more realistic (though still exaggerated) on-field play and a focus on the seedy behind-the-scenes lives of the players.

The series rebooted January 4, 2012 on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The game took the series back to the original style of NFL BLITZ, but removed the late hits due to input by the NFL.

Creation

The game was created by Midway Games and headed by lead artist, Sal DiVita and lead programmer, Mark Turmell.

NFL Blitz (2012 video game)

NFL Blitz is a downloadable video game by EA Sports featuring the teams of the National Football League. It is a reboot of the NFL Blitz series, the first Blitz game officially sponsored by the NFL after a number of releases in the Blitz series which did not bear the NFL's official license. (There is debate among fans as to whether Blitz: The League I and II are canonical) . It was released in North American territories on January 4, 2012 on both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was selected to be the virtual cover athlete of the game.

Development

Following the liquidation of Midway Games in 2009, EA Sports acquired the NFL Blitz intellectual property. In order to emulate the original gameplay elements, EA Tiburon held tournaments with the original arcade version of NFL Blitz.

EA Tiburon worked in relation with the NFL. While the league was supportive of many gameplay elements, they did request that late hits be removed from the game due to their stance on player health and safety.