Reviewed: November 20, 2002
Reviewed by: JoLene Lark
Publisher
Midway
Developer
Outlook Entertainment
Released: August 12, 2002
Genre: Sports
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone
1
1
5
2
1.8
Supported Features:
NFL Blitz 2003 joins the many other football games on the market today and is Midway’s fifth attempt at releasing this franchise on the Game Boy system. Midway enlisted Outlook Entertainment to create this year’s GBA football game – if you can even call it a game. For those who don’t remember, this is the same developer who was “responsible” for last year’s atrocity of the same name. Apparently Midway didn’t learn their lesson.
Blitz has a very good premise however the graphics and horrible gameplay do not even come close to competing with any other football games let alone any GBA games for that matter. The NFL Blitz series is available on other gaming platforms and I encourage you to check those out and steer very clear of the GBA version. If you need a portable football game you’d be better off folding up a piece of paper and flicking it through your friends hands.
Here’s the features list:
- All the NFL Teams
- Password Save for season play
- Link Cable Support for two players (assuming you find someone else who bought this game)
Who would have though Blitz could actually get any worse than last year’s release, but somehow Outlook managed to do just that. The graphics and horrible framerate make playing this game all but impossible. Characters are undefined blobs of pixels with jerky animation and the over-use of the 180-spinning camera is so distracting it becomes annoying after the first dozen plays.
There are a few varieties to Blitz including:
- Exhibition: No records are kept but this is a good way to practice and learn the controls
- Season: Play a full NFL season as the team of your choice
- Practice: Contain rules and tips, play book, 4th and goal practice
- Trivia: Test your NFL trivia. In my opinion the best part of this game
Overall the game play is very bland and unoriginal. It is a continuation of the tried and true football game without much flare except for when your team is “on fire”. It is when you are “on fire” your player has super strength and unlimited turbo.
The AI, which was incredibly easy in last year’s edition is incredibly difficult in this years. Normally a challenging game is a good thing but Blitz 2003 borders on cheating AI – well not really cheating, but it doesn’t play by conventional football tactics.
The save function on this game also follows a common type, saved passwords. The password is comprised of nine spaces to fill with letters or numbers. You’ll probably forget where you put your Blitz game cartridge before you forget the password.
Blitz is by far the worst example of graphics I have ever seen on a GBA game. The players looked like fisher price figurines as they consisted of colored blocks with white blobs as their heads. The grass color is almost glowing with neon green creating a high contrast and visually unappealing presentation. Even the somewhat fancy playbooks of last year’s game have been replaced with a simple interface that is awkward and ugly.
Most football games show their player actually falling down; this one did not. There were times where the nearest player was not even close and I was called down on the field. Thus, I would have to say in conclusion that the resolutions of the graphics were downright despicable.
The sound was the best part of this game. Interesting tunes accompany the gameplay and menus. The trivia game’s music included snippets of voice that at time were indistinguishable, but most of the other voices were surprisingly good, although the speech samples were few and far between.
The background music helped the action of the game progress. However it was hard to overlook the lack of graphical quality so no matter how well the audio was it can not save the game in this situation.
You are able to adjust the game length to make the game (and the pain) as short or long as you desire. The trivia area is about the only value found in this game, but if you want a sports trivia game there are better place to find it. This game has no redeeming value whatsoever other than perhaps a gift for someone you don’t like.
Even the optional multi-player game can’t redeem this title. The only thing harder than playing this game yourself is finding another sucker who bought it.
If one can get past the mediocre graphics and horrible gameplay you will still want to avoid this game like a dirty needle in an alley dumpster. If you think I’m kidding then go try it for yourself but by all means RENT IT first. Do not reward Outlook for this total lack of effort, and hopefully your refusal to buy this game will encourage Midway to seek another developer for the 2004 version.
