Blitz: The League

Platform: Xbox
Publisher: Midway
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I'll be honest. I couldn't tell a good football game from a bad one. I'm not a fan of sports. In fact, I sorta hold a grudge against them for acting as a backdrop to some miserable childhood moments. I guess that's why I like the idea of Blitz: The League, a gridiron game made with absolutely no express written consent of the NFL. The result is heavy on seedy underbelly. Players curse, fight and "juice" up with perforamance enhancing drugs. Crooked owners make backdoor deals with politicians. You as coach make extra cash by betting on your own team.

The game could have used some sort of in-game tutorial to school football newbies before throwing them into their first game. I struggled through several games, losing by smaller and smaller margins before finally figuring out how to build a winning strategy for my team, the Los Angeles Pickles. God help me, I actually started to care about winning or losing. After this long weekend and several univited doses of televised sports, I'm surprised as suprised as anybody that a sports game could crack my iron will.