{"id":46249,"date":"2022-08-15T19:37:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T19:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nfl-blitz-legends-arcade-cabinet-coming-soon-without-the-late-hits\/"},"modified":"2022-08-15T19:37:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T19:37:43","slug":"nfl-blitz-legends-arcade-cabinet-coming-soon-without-the-late-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nfl-blitz-legends-arcade-cabinet-coming-soon-without-the-late-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Blitz Legends arcade cabinet coming soon \u2014 without the late hits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NFL Blitz, the faster, more aggressive, and concussive version of NFL rules football that took arcades by storm in the late ’90s, will return this year \u2014 and in throwback arcade cabinet form. But cabinet-maker Arcade1Up’s surprise revival of Blitz will also reflect the modern NFL’s sensitivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFL was warm to the idea, because [NFL Blitz<\/em>] was loved by fans,\u201d Davin Sufer, Arcade1Up’s chief technology officer, told Polygon. But if they were going to re-release three of sports video gaming’s most memorable arcade adaptations in a new package, they had to be cleaned up for modern sensibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, ‘Guys, if you want to do this, you’ve got to address these issues,’\u201d Sufer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese issues\u201d are the violent collisions, some of them gratuitous, after the play, and, of course, unpenalized, that both defined Midway’s NFL Blitz<\/em> and have aged very poorly in the 25 years since. A quarter-century ago, the league and its media partners were actively selling the violence \u2014 even the comedy \u2014 of senses-shattering collisions served up on Sunday. <\/p>\n

But over the past decade, scientific studies, several highly publicized deaths of retired players, and a $765 million settlement of claims reached in 2013, have made issues like concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) Monday morning watercooler topics, and no laughing matter for the league or its players. It’s not an exaggeration to say that crisis has been the biggest barrier preventing 1997’s NFL Blitz<\/em>, NFL Blitz ’99<\/em>or NFL Blitz 2000: Gold Edition<\/em> from reappearing or being remastered.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo clean this up, you have to change the game code to some degree, even if it’s a small degree, you still have to change game code,\u201d Sufer said. \u201cAfter the whistle, there’s a certain amount of time where [players were] still able to perform moves. It was a long time period, like, several seconds, if I’m not mistaken. We had to really shorten that timeframe. Once the whistle blows, that’s it. [\u2026] You can’t perform another tackle. And that’s something that you can’t change by playing with the ROM.\u201d<\/p>\n

NFL Blitz Legends<\/em>, launching through retail partners later this football season, is the third throwback sports cabinet that Arcade1Up has made this year. The company added NBA Jam<\/em>: Shaq Edition <\/em>and Golden Tee 3D Edition <\/em>to its collector’s item catalog back in May (and announced the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 2<\/em> <\/em>on Aug. 5). NFL Blitz Legends <\/em>houses the original game, Blitz ’99,<\/em> and Blitz 2000 <\/em>in one unit and supports online multiplayer among those who have the cabinet.<\/p>\n

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Deion Sanders was one of the fastest guys in NFL history when he played from 1989 to 2005. A 49-way joystick will help Prime Time recreate his speed in NFL Blitz Legends<\/em>.<\/figcaption>Photo: Arcade1Up<\/cite><\/p>\n

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Those features, Sufer says, help keep the games fun and worthwhile even if some of their more memorable traits have been edited out. \u201cWe’ve kept it a lot of fun; it’s still a really addictive, fun game,\u201d Sufer promised. \u201cI won’t say that you won’t notice [the changes], but I will say that you’re still having a lot of fun, and it’s almost not affecting the gameplay. All the original plays are in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, the 49-way joystick used by the original arcade games has also been recreated for NFL Blitz Legends<\/em>. Broadly speaking, that kind of joystick recognizes positions a short, medium, or long distance from its center, allowing for movement at variable speed and acceleration. A four- or eight-way joystick has, well, only four or eight directions and moves the player to them at the same speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith any of the plays, you can always kind of diverge from the play,\u201d Sufer said \u2014 meaning roll the quarterback out and just turn the play into an improvised run. \u201cWith this joystick, you can really have amazing control of the players. You’re pretty much always able to diverge from passing and just go run it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an important distinction, as arcade-style NFL football has typically been very passing focused, with very few running plays (if they even exist in the playbook) and all of them easy to defend. It was one of the issues making EA Sports’ NFL Blitz <\/em>revival of 2012 bland and forgettable, and therefore called attention to what it didn’t have \u2014 namely the late hits, elbow-drop gang tackles, and other cartoon violence.<\/p>\n

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