NFL Blitz 2000

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howtoloseatvideogames

On:

September 7, 2026

Developer: Midway Games Publisher: Midway Games

Released: August 17, 1999 Rated: E 9/10

As much as I personally can rant and rave and go on ad nauseum about the pure, unspoiled joy of NFL Blitz, the series does leave me without much to say in each of its successive entries. It’s the type of dismissal that sports games typically receive in hindsight. One year to the next, we’re used to companies phoning it in, feeling like it’s just the same game with a roster update, and without a lot of enthusiasm for them, it can be difficult to find folks who don’t do the same across generations. I try really hard to give the full assessment to sports titles year over year, during a time period when we actually had competition and effort amongst multiple series, but when it comes to the NFL Blitz series, a franchise that thrived on the Nintendo 64 with four entries, starting with ports and ending with rental-only console exclusives, it does actually fit the cliche: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

No matter the uniform, all of Randall’s TD dances are synced up to “Buddy’s Watching You”

If you’re asking for gameplay tweaks or graphical updates, NFL Blitz 2000 is not going to give them to you. If you showed me some footage of any Blitz title of this era and took away the playbooks and player names, I’m not sure I could identify the year. On that same note, though, I could pick up any Blitz of this era on any system, hop right in, and have a blast. It’s the video game equivalent of riding a bike, and no version from the fifth generation fails to elicit a primal response to those familiar with them. There are some features added in to address a few things, it’s just that they’re far from mandatory parts of the experience.

The main menu suggests one of the first additions, in fact, with the promise of a tournament mode shown front and center, though this is actually just made easier to set up, rather than being locked behind one of the simpler cheat codes from the previous year. What is a new feature, though, while it may not sound like it, is the ability to make your team “on fire” like in NBA Jam — three consecutive sacks or three consecutive completions to the same player will light up your whole squad on both sides of the ball until you turn the ball over or allow a first down. Playbooks are expanded to three pages at a time, with some new defaults in there, of course, and players can even call audibles. The single biggest addition in Blitz 2000, however, would probably have to be the option of up to four players instead of just two in a game. This was a key feature of NBA Jam and its two-on-two format, but according to Mark Turmell, was kept out of Blitz originally due to the more uneven gameplay on offense, where Blitz obviously puts a lot of focus. Still, it was clearly a desired feature, and if anything, can be appreciated simply for being added when requested. For adding these handful of key, but still completely optional features, I’m often inclined to say that 2000 is the best the series has to offer, but really there’s no going wrong here at all, and even the stripped-down charm of the first and the light variety of 2001’s minigames may give a slight edge, albeit not enough to justify going after the whole series.