Essentially, Blitz understands that it is a video game. The rules of the sport are tweaked or even tossed out entirely to give you the most exciting plays of any NFL season over and over again. In arcades, laundromats, bowling alleys, and bars, it did just that. But that beautiful arcade stickiness remained just as potent in home ports for consoles like the Dreamcast and the Nintendo 64.

It is a thrillingly addictive, wildly competitive, and simply wonderful game. At the risk of sounding like an old man, it is the sort of sports game they just generally do not make anymore. It is joyous in its silliness and steadfast in its refusal to waste even a second of a player’s time.

This has also made a Blitz revival difficult. Some would tell you that the masses really want simulation titles like EA’s Madden, and that is why those get made. That is true enough. However, a great deal of the barrier is the league itself.

What is acceptable within the sport has shifted massively. There is a meme about how if you watch the highlight reel that used to open NFL games broadcast on CBS in the late seventies, every play highlighted would be a foul today. Some of them would even result in player suspensions! The league has tightened up the rules and rightly made the game a lot safer for those who put their bodies on the line every week. But rocked by scandals over harrowing injuries, concussions, and terrible repercussions into retirement, the NFL really does not want to talk about or acknowledge the old ways.

That extends to video games, even when the players are digital avatars with over-the-top superhero-like builds who spontaneously burst into flames when they are on a hot streak. The in-your-face hits and tackles of Blitz, designed to be eye-poppingly big on screen, are no longer acceptable. They look too much like the sort of banned moves that, in real life, might leave someone paralyzed. Blitz never cared; it is a video game. But after a deluge of proof that the sport left many players with irreversibly changed lives, the NFL of 2026 cares.

When the classic Blitz games were reissued in a home arcade cabinet, the skittish NFL made the new publisher strip out certain content. This marked an otherwise pretty serviceable re-release of the original as inferior unless you hack it. I have one of these in my house, and reader, I hacked it. When EA attempted a Blitz reboot as a download, it had no teeth at all, and it also just was not very good. The modern NFL, terrified of reputational damage, would never allow any modern release to be exactly as the originals were. That is something we have to accept.

So the late hits might not actually be possible in a modern licensed game. But honestly, I think Blitz is about a lot more than that. It is totally possible to make a game that is a little more respectful about the bodies of the digital representations of the NFL’s athletes while maintaining a snappy, arcade-like feel in-game.

The feeling this style of game design evokes is, for my money, truly unbeatable. There is an immediacy to the action, a breadth to the wild swings in momentum matches take, and just an overall vibe that is impeccable arcade perfection that is effortlessly compelling. It is totally possible that a game could get out of the humdrum of simulation, plus ultimate team and all that nonsense, and deliver something magical.

So, today, that is my Super Bowl Sunday prayer. That and every year until we get a true successor. We have had a few near-misses of a sort, including the excellent 2D pixel-based titles Retro Bowl and Legend Bowl. But those are closer to the NES era titles like the soon-to-be a movie Tecmo Bowl than Blitz. But you know… there now at least appears to be a path to a Blitz descendant.

Back in 2020, it was announced that 2K Sports had reached a licensing agreement with the NFL to make their own American Football game. 2K used to make a Madden rival, but backed out in the early 2000s. But now, after decades, there should eventually be another big-name rival to Madden. 2K’s deal secured them the teams, the stadiums, the uniforms, the players – everything needed to be authentic.

But here is the exciting rub: the 2020 deal stipulated that 2K’s game has to be non-simulation, per the terms of the deal, because EA’s Madden series retains the exclusive rights to make simulation football titles. What is the most successful non-sim American Football game? Blitz, of course. Even with the excessive violence stripped out, it remains the template to follow. Approaching six years on from that announcement, I wait with bated breath – is it even still in production? And if it is, can 2K finally give us what I have been craving since 2001? I want that almost as much as I want my team to make the Super Bowl next year. Almost.