Believe it or not, the original “NFL Blitz” video game was almost even more violent than the version you played in the late 1990s.
Early prototypes of the classic video game, which actually were tested in some arcades, featured splattered blood, a “neck-breaker” tackle and other ultra-violent animations, the game’s developers recounted in an interview with Vice Sports. Midway Games reportedly toned down some of the hits after league representatives viewed the game and remarked, “You guys can’t do this.”
After promising to remove the most violent collisions, creative director Mark Turmell still had to resort to some chicanery to get the league to finally approve the version of the game we all know and love.
“The league … wanted Turmell to send it a video of all the motion-captured moves before launch,” Vice Sports’ Aaron Gordon writes. “Rather than sending a gameplay video, he made a decision that may have saved ‘NFL Blitz’: he sent the league all the animations as depicted in an editor tool, which only shows the outline of a motion-capture figure moving against a dark, dimensionless background.
“Without any context, the over-the-top hits and tackles were neutered. The NFL either didn’t have a problem with what it saw or never watched the tape, because it never said anything to the ‘NFL Blitz’ team about it again.”
The game that ended up hitting arcades and systems therefore lacked the “Mortal Kombat”-worthy gore, but it still had the senseless collisions that made the game so thoroughly enjoyable to play, despite — or possibly because of — its simplicity.
Image via YouTube/Se7eN2727
