There are few sports games as fondly remembered as NFL Blitz. It first debuted in 1997 in arcades, but the very next year, NFL Blitz made the move over to home consoles like the N64 and PlayStation. Like many of its contemporaries such as Twisted Metal, WWF No Mercy, and others, NFL Blitz fully embraced late 90s consumers' desire for over-the-top, violent video games. The original NFL Blitz fulfilled fans' wishes with bone-crunching tackles, borderline criminal late hits, and players' abilities dialed up to the max.
So, when Arcade1UP announced NFL Blitz as one of its latest projects, fans of the series rejoiced. However, the revelation that the NFL had requested that late hits and other egregious depictions of violence be removed from the game has now given fans pause.
Violence Can't Be Removed If Violence Is The Point
The biggest issue is that violence is not incidental to NFL Blitz; it's the whole point of the title. Much like one of its spiritual predecessors, the beloved NBA Jam, NFL Blitz is intended to be completely removed from reality. While it's certainly arguable that aspects of NFL Blitz are at odds with modern tastes, any attempt to tone it down is a slippery slope. If developers have to remove late hits—as was one of the actual sticking points with the NFL—there's very little rationale for including any of the original violence in the title, at which point fans are met with another generic football title.
When the NFL Blitz series was first toned down a decade ago, the move was criticized by fans for being at odds with the history of the series, and further bolstered the recent negative reception of the franchise. As Madden NFL 23 faces criticism from players and fans alike, the censoring of Arcade1Up's NFL Blitz cabinet is likely to have the same impact. While an NFL-branded title in 2022 with late hits and other illegal moves may be a non-starter, an NFL Blitz title without the original violence is doomed to be unsuccessful.
Censoring NFL Blitz Doesn't Distract From Real Life Issues In The NFL
It's likely that the reasoning behind the decision to tone down NFL Blitz is directly related to the NFL's history with concussions and NFL players' physical and mental health. While there's no question that it's an admirable issue for the NFL to address, an obviously unrealistic two-decade-old video game seems like an unusual target to say the least. Unfortunately, the move may be viewed by fans as an insult to their ability to parse out fiction from reality. Worse, it's equally likely to be seen as a superficial gesture that highlights the lack of meaningful progress toward protecting players' health during and after their NFL careers.
The violence in NFL Blitz is a non-issue. In the interim—even during the heyday of NFL Blitz—plenty of titles like Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, God of War, and the like have completely eclipsed even the most brutal hits found in the original title. If the underlying issue is that the NFL believed that fans would infer that the NFL was endorsing violence, it needs to extend more credit to its audience.
The reality is that players are easily able to distinguish between the cartoonish violence of NFL Blitz and acceptable real-life behavior. They are also unlikely to criticize an organization for an association with a video game that was released over two decades ago. By censoring NFL Blitz in an effort to modernize the title, the NFL is catering to an audience that simply does not exist.
NFL Blitz is available on Game Boy Color, N64, PlayStation, and PC. The NFL Blitz Legends arcade cabinet is available for pre-order now from Arcade1Up.