One of the greatest things about the Blitz series is that it has always looked great. The crowds are usually passable while the stadiums are top-notch for the most part. The turf is one of the best you'll see in any video game, with a vivid green parlaying around the freshly painted yard markers. The endzones look realistic, oh so realistic and really top off how well the gridiron has been rendered. Perhaps the nicest of graphics can be attributed to the players and their animations. Wow. Gone are the stocky, ogre-looking men of yesterday's Blitz. NFL Blitz 2002 has realistic looking humans (thanks to RenderWare software) that run as fluid as the most elegant gazelle. Sure, I overlook the fact that the players' triceps are grotesquely huge, but everything else is in proper order nonetheless. Uniforms and helmets look good, and any non-violent animation is top notch as usual for Midway.

The violent animations, on the other hand, look better than top notch. When I say 'violent,' I mean tackles. With 1500 new animations and the revolutionary impact player system, you can bet you'll grit your teeth more than once for tackles. Tackles consist of nothing short of clotheslining someone into next season. Why tackle someone the ol' fashioned way when you can grab them by the arm, spin them around, and throw them on their ear? Perhaps the greatest thing is after you have tackled them, for a few seconds in between plays, you can do a Pro Wrestling type of elbow or leg drop. All of the extreme pain hits are a pivotal part of the gameplay in Blitz 2002, and the animations look so real, it's downright peculiar. From catching a perfectly thrown pass to putting your shoulder down to steamroll someone, NFL Blitz 2002 has only progressed in the top notch graphics it has always brought to the console business.

The sound, for the most part, is good and acceptable. When you first turn on the game to flit through the menus, you hear a very Crystal Method-esque techno tune that gears you right up for the game of intense fun and pain you are about to play. These tunes are provided by the oft loved Methods of Mayhem which are no stranger to being tough themselves. Starting up a game finds the crowd roaring vibrantly in your ears, while the sounds of the field start to hum. Once the game has begun, grunts echo as plastic virtually shatters for every bone breaking tackle that is made. You can feel the players 'fighting' each other for possession of the pigskin, and that is what you need in this type of game. Something that overloads you senses with so much goodness, it's like eating two of Granma's apple pies right off the window sill. Unfortunately, during the game, the music all of a sudden changes. It goes from that lovely techno/rock music of the intro to something downright adult contemporary. Hey I love adult contemporary as much as the next lad, but I needed that hard hitting techno, or at least some rock. It's hard to get inspired while experimental melodies lace themselves upon the field. Thank goodness there's the option to turn that off, but hey this is Blitz 2002 and we shouldn't have to.

You've got most of the Modes that have made Blitz a neat little staple of our sports diets. If you have two minutes to spare before that big meeting, jump into Quickplay Mode. This throws two teams out and lets you duke it out (with yourself or a few friends). Yes folks, NFL Blitz 2002 supports the Multi-Tap allowing you and three of your friends to pull all nighters playing your tight ends off (pun intended). Exhibition Mode will pit you in a practice or pre-season type thing that is good for honing your skills. If you feel that you can lead a team to the championship, then try Season Mode. You have to beat all the other pro teams to be proclaimed the champ. Tournament Mode lets you set up neat little tournaments for folks to play against each other. The only thing that aggravated me, was that my friend and I couldn't play on the same team against the computer in Season or Tournament Modes. The manual gives all indications that you can, and you probably can, but I couldn't figure it out. I was as stumped as an aged, out of place pine tree. All of your options are there controlling things like AI, time, weather, etc. As you can read, it's a well-rounded sphere of gameplay, but I had trouble coming to grips with the fact that you couldn't create a player. Hey, NHL Hitz 2002 let me! I think it would have added a wonderful facet to the game to have some player creation options. Alas, Aladdin didn't hap upon the Genie in his first or second try, thus maybe create a player will be available in one or two future installments of 44.99 a piece.

This all depends on you. Options allow you to set the AI levels to your three common Easy, Medium and Difficult. Easy lets you make some mistakes, but you will lose if you aren't hip to the button configurations and what's going on around you. Once you get that down though, Easy becomes just that. Medium is more of a challenge that is fair. Again, after a lot of practice (and finding your money play), you will be ready for Difficult. No you won't...ever. Difficult is only difficult in that the AI cheats (isn't that always the case these days). Present me with mental challenges, not some crazy catch up feature that makes even the most wide open of passes tip in the air and get intercepted by a defensemen that came out of nowhere. This of course is being nit picky, because Medium will provide you with enough entertainment and fun to where you'll really enjoy yourself.

The manual seems hastily written, yet informative. Probably the most harrowing part of learning to play Blitz 2002 is learning to play Blitz 2002. The buttons are easy to get in order, but it will take a while. It's difficult to explain. It's as if the game is going so fast (and it will) that you can't consciously think about what button does what while pressing turbo to do this. After a few games though, you figure out real quick what does the running for dear life, and what does the hitting. The initial load time is a bit long, but subsequent loads after that are easy and affordable (like owning your own home).

Riot Rundown: As always, this title delivered a lot of fun. Unfortunately it had a lot to live up to as its graphics are top notch, and I recently have been having tons of fun with NHL Hitz 2002. The football is fun, but I think something as simple as the Create a Player feature would really have integrated nicely with me. Yet, on its own, it stands as a darn fine game. It would definitely not be for the sim-football enthusiasts out there, but it's a great little game to take out frustrations of a hard day's work. I would definitely buy NHL Hitz 2002 before this one, but NFL Blitz 2002 is a solid addition to anyone's library.