By Ned Jordan

Madden's monopolistic grab of the NFL license was a blessing in a disguise for the NFL Blitz franchise, even though many would have thought that it would have been Blitz's death knell. Blitz may have lost the ‘NFL' from its title, but it gained the freedom to emphasize whatever aspects of the sport it wanted to without the watchful eye of the NFL looking over its shoulder. Bone crunching tackles, gruesome injuries, excessive taunting and celebrating, expletives, backroom deals, ... Blitz: The League II (BTL2) revels in everything the NFL censors would squash without hesitation.

Central to BTL2 is its campaign/career mode. You begin the mode as a multisport phenom known by the nickname ‘Franchise'. Your sport of choice is football, but you'll sign with the league only if you can play for your hometown team. In this case, your home town can be anywhere you want it to be; it's just a way to segue into the game's team creation tools. The team creator is pretty and lets you choose your team name and select its logo from a large library of available logos, most of which are actually really cool. You can also select up to three team colors and apply them as you wish to a variety of mix and match helmet and uniform styles. As for Mr. Franchise, you select his positions (he plays both sides of the ball, of course) and starting stats by selecting answers to a series of ten questions asked by reports at the press conference announcing your signing with The League. Once you're on the field you'll be able to control any player, though, so your selection of a position won't keep you out of the action on half of the plays like in some other games in which you take on the role of a single player.

There's a story that accompanies the campaign game as you play your way through it. The story is related through cutscenes and ‘phone calls' from your agent and other characters. The story is surprisingly interesting for a sports game and it touches on everything you'd probably find clinging to the dark underbelly of professional sports. You don't have any interaction with the story scenes, though; your goals in this are all tied to your success on the field both as a team and for your superstar athlete. You can have an overall goal such as winning the majority of your next string of games, or individual game goals such as scoring a given number of touchdowns with your star player. You can also put a wager on each game which usually involves betting on the point spread for the game, but you can only bet for your team and not against it.

Now it's time to look at the gameplay on the gridiron, because that's where you'll be spending most of your time with the game. The football in this game doesn't mirror the game played by the NCAA or NFL. First of all, this is 8 on 8 football and not 11 on 11. The second major difference is that it takes 30 yards to get a first down. Further more, this is no-holds-barred football – there are no penalties for pass interference, late hits, or deliberately injuring an opponent. Each player in the game is rated in a number of categories, and while these ratings do have some effect on the gameplay, there's no doubt that you're playing arcade style football rather than a realistic sports sim – and that's before you even look at the game's Clash and Unleashed system. Good plays on the field cause your Clash meter to fill, while even better plays reward you with special Clash icons. The power stored in the Clash meter can be used to briefly slow down time – a little less for the player you're controlling, a little more for those around him – giving you that extra edge to dodge a would be tackler or bring down the ball carrier. Collect six Clash icons, and you put the Clash meter into Unleashed mode. Using Unleashed at the right moment will cause an offensive player to shed tacklers and burst into the clear or a defensive player to slam the ball carrier to the ground with a high likelihood of causing an injury or a turn over. It's a showboat feature that makes for some cool-looking action on the field, but the game would probably be better without it. It's very frustrating to execute a brilliant play and then right before the payoff have your opponent engage Unleashed and instantly erase your hard work and all of his mistakes. It's also possible for one team to maintain an unfair advantage over the other by keeping their Clash meter in Unleashed mode for an extended period of time. An Unleashed play can earn several Clash icons putting the meter back into Unleashed mode again. In the mean time the other team's Clash meter will remain empty as they have their helmets handed to them on one play after another, and all they can do is watch the scoreboard light up for the other team.

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