NFL Blitz, the cartoonishly-violent football video game that took arcades by storm in the 1990s, is making a comeback with NFL Blitz: Legends -- created by home arcade company Arcade1Up, in collaboration with the NFL and the Football Greats Alliance. No agencies were involved in setting up this project. This package will be the first time the arcade versions of the classic games are available at home. Legends debuts as an arcade cabinet, coming with three versions of NFL Blitz on one machine. The Blitz franchise has a deep history in arcades: According to Tom Lyons, CMO at Arcade1up, the first year NFL Blitz was in arcades (1997), it pulled in $650M of revenue -- all in quarters. The first title, NFL Blitz 97, won Arcade Game of the Year from Electronic Gaming Monthly and a smattering of other sports game of the year awards from other publications. Legends is a throwback to another era of football, with multiple old-school uniforms and players making a return to the franchise. NFL Blitz: Legends will have Wi-Fi multiplayer and leaderboards, and like most Arcade1Up machines, will be a bit smaller than traditional arcade cabinets. This is the third retro sports machine that Arcade1Up has put out this year: The company also shipped Golden Tee 3D and NBA Jam: Shaq Edition in 2022. Preorders are available now for $599.
KEEPING THE GAME'S SOUL: The appeal of the Blitz franchise is threefold: tight, crisp and easy-to-learn gameplay; an almost retro-futuristic aesthetic; and gratuitous flaunting of football’s most basic safety rules. But with the NFL embroiled in a safety crisis -- chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been devastating to former football players -- some of the elements that once gave NFL Blitz its charm, like after-the-whistle hits and other tackles, have been removed from the updated versions in this package, in accordance to new NFL safety guidelines. According to Lyon, though, Blitz’s soul hasn't been removed: 84% of the old animations have made the leap from the 1990s and the early 2000s to 2022. “There are parts of this game that have been remastered out, and the NFL was involved in driving those decisions,” Lyons said. The Blitz franchise has always had a square to circle: how to make the violence fun and believable enough for a football game without encouraging over-the-top violence. According to Lyon, the game nails all aspects with its soon-to-be available form. Promotional materials show Deion Sanders playing with his son, and NFL legend Jerry Rice is enjoying it as well.
BRIDGING THE GAP: Arcade games are relics of the past and are the domain of collectors and museums, and for Gen Z, NFL Blitz’s early days might as well have been in the 1950s. Lyons thinks that Blitz is one of the franchises that can bridge the gap through something he calls “the Star Wars effect.” “When you go to these new Star Wars movies, you see a lot of dads and moms with their kids. It’s a shared experience … I think we see families enjoying our games intergenerationally,” he said.
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NFF’s Steve Hatchell on what’s next after amazing start to college football season With so much happening around college sports off the field, it seemed almost too much to hope that the opening weekend of football season would live up to expectations. “Finally, we got to cheer for our teams,” said Steve Hatchell, CEO of the National Football Foundation, in an SBJ Spotlight interview looking at the college football landscape. “There was some great attendance at games … some real excitement and just some terrific games. I’m hoping that this type of enthusiasm goes on for the entire year.” Hatchell talked with SBJ’s Ross Nethery about the big stories in college sports and what might come next. On the CFP expansion to 12 teams: “Football is played in all 50 states … and we work with all 774 colleges and universities around the country. So if we can have a playoff that reflects on the investment in coaching and on the players from around the country, I think that’s for the betterment of the game.”
With opening week quickly approaching, Ben Fischer, Reggie Walker, and Xavier Hunter were joined by Jabari Young of Forbes to preview the upcoming NFL season. Topics discussed included the Deshaun Watson suspension, Denver Broncos ownership, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, and the league’s advancements in media.
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