Blitz: The League II

Last updated
Blitz: The League II
Blitz - The League II Coverart.png
North American PlayStation 3 cover art
Developer(s) Midway Games
Publisher(s) Midway
Series NFL Blitz
Platform(s) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release
  • NA: October 13, 2008
  • EU: October 24, 2008
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Blitz: The League II is an American football video game developed and published by Midway as part of its NFL Blitz series. It is a sequel to Blitz: The League . The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 13, 2008. There are five new teams included in this installment: The Los Angeles Riot, Houston Riders, [1] Vancouver Beavers, Milwaukee Hounds, and Atlanta 404; and four older teams have been relocated. Lawrence Taylor (L.T.) is featured in the game, reprising his role as Quentin Sands.

Contents

The game also alludes to real-life scandals involving NFL players, as former Washington Redhawks quarterback Mike Mexico is now serving time in prison. This situation is similar to that of Michael Vick, who used the pseudonym "Ron Mexico" when seeking treatment for herpes, as well as Vick's conviction for running an illegal dogfighting ring. There are also allegations of the New England Regulars cheating in a championship game, a reference to the New England Patriots' "Spygate" scandal. The game also features an incident with the Minnesota Reapers, reminiscent of the Minnesota Vikings boat scandal.

Plot

The game starts off during the league expansion. Two teams are joining the league. The first team is the player-created team, in which the player may choose the city, team name, and team colors. The second team is the Los Angeles Riot. This team is the main rival team in the campaign mode, and is led by Bruno Battaglia, the former player from the player-created team in Blitz: The League. The Riot are the commissioner Clive Hanson's pet project, as he desires to have them win the championship in the future. He has fortified this by having the Riot start in Division 2 and stocking up the team with star players.

The only player left to add to the Riot is the projected #1 draft pick Kid Franchise. But Franchise surprises the entire league when he announces that he will be playing for his home team, and only his home team (the player-created team). This puts Franchise on the commissioner's bad side, and immediately creates a rivalry between the player-created team and the L.A. Riot. Franchise is the only player in the league to play both on offense and defense. During a pre-season interview, Franchise is asked nine questions that will determine his position on both sides of the ball and his player attributes. Each answer gives higher attributes early on in the campaign.

Division 3

Because there are a lot of teams, the game will take place over 3 seasons (a season per division). The commissioner notices that he will need help to put away the player-created team so the Riot have an easy Championship victory, so he tells New York Nightmare LB star, Quentin Sands, to destroy any hope for the player-created team of advancing. After Game 2, Quentin Sands joins the player-created team. The team must win at least 5 out of 7 division games to reach the Division 3 championship. The player-created team plays the Milwaukee Hounds and Conrad Damon at the division championship. After the win, a cutscene will be played, in which Quentin Sands is seen spiking Franchise's drink.

Division 2

Before the start of Division 2, Franchise is put in the Milltown Correctional Facility because he "violated" the league's drug policy. Luckily, Milltown plays football as well. The warden tells Franchise that if he can lead Milltown to a win against the rival Super Max Facility in their annual football game (without getting injured), he will be released early. After defeating Super Max, Franchise returns to play for the player-created team preparing for their season in Division 2. The player-created team is allowed to draft one team captain from Division 3 to play for them in Division 2. The Riot have made upgrades as well by adding Cleveland Steamers WR Justin Jonas (who was also a rookie from the first Blitz game) to the team. During a cut-scene, Riot captain Bruno Battaglia informs Franchise that Quentin Sands spiked his drink and sent him to Milltown. This results in a fight between Sands and Franchise, and a feud that lasts throughout Division 2.

Once again, the player must win 5 out of 7 division games to enter the Division 2 championship. Surprisingly, the Riot do not make it, and instead the Miami Hammerheads make it through MVP Julius Williams (unless Franchise wins the MVP). After the win, it is revealed that seven Minnesota Reapers players were killed in a boat crash, leading the team to fold. Therefore, another team besides the player-created team must advance into Division 1. And in a "random" drawing in the commissioner's office, the L.A. Riot will be the second team to advance into Division 1.

Division 1

During the off-season, Karl Tirpitz, who played as captain for Super Max, joins the player-created team. The L.A. Riot, despite the controversial advance into Division 1, are favored to win the championship. They have added Washington Redhawks captain (and rookie QB from the first Blitz game) Clayton Wescott, Kelvin Diggs and Tyrell Price of the Kansas City Crossfire, Justin Jonas of the Cleveland Steamers and Kimo Talofa of the Atlanta 404. Once again, the player needs to win 5 out of 7 games to reach the League championship. The Riot, however, go undefeated (unless they are defeated by the player-created team).

During division play, the player-created team will face off with the New York Nightmare, Quentin Sands' former team. Before the game is played, Sands tells Franchise to forget what happened between them and work together to defeat his former team and win the league championship against the Riot. Franchise and Sands decide that they will also get back at the corrupt commissioner. Sands offers the commissioner to give him the captain spot on the L.A. Riot if he tells him important information (which is fake). The information is that Franchise has an injured Achilles tendon and will not be the same player on game day. The commissioner agrees and tells the other men in the room to buy stock on the Riot. Sands, however, records the entire conversation outside of the office.

After the player-created team defeats the L.A. Riot in the League championship, the commissioner is arrested for insider trading, money laundering and extortion, thus ending the season for the player-created team going from Division 3 to Division 1 and getting the League Championship.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average reviews" on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>FIFA</i> (video game series) Video game series

FIFA is a discontinued football video game franchise developed by EA Vancouver and EA Romania and published by EA Sports. As of 2011, the FIFA franchise has been localized into 18 languages and available in 51 countries. Listed in Guinness World Records as the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world, the FIFA series has sold over 325 million copies as of 2021. On 10 May 2022, it was announced that EA and FIFA's partnership of 30 years would come to an end upon the termination of their licensing agreement, making FIFA 23 the last entry to the franchise under the FIFA name. As a successor to the FIFA series, EA launched the EA Sports FC franchise, with EA Sports FC 24 being the first installment under the new name.

<i>Blitz: The League</i> 2005 video game

Blitz: The League is an American football video game developed and published by Midway as an extension of their NFL Blitz series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2005, after the National Football League (NFL) signed an exclusive licensing deal with Electronic Arts. Lawrence Taylor, who provides voice acting for the game, served as its official spokesman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spokane Shock</span> Arena football team

The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won division titles in all four seasons and ArenaCups in 2006 and 2009 before they joined the Arena Football League (AFL) in its 2010 relaunch. The team advanced to the playoffs three times after joining the AFL, winning ArenaBowl XXIII in their first season, making them the only arena football franchise to win both the ArenaCup and the ArenaBowl.

<i>Deathrow</i> (video game) 2002 sports video game

Deathrow is a 2002 sports video game developed by Southend Interactive and published by Ubi Soft for the Xbox as an exclusive. Deathrow's development began in May 1999 as an online PC game. In early 2001, Southend transitioned to an Xbox console release, which let the team use pixel shaders, bump mapped textures, and specular lighting. Deathrow was built on an in-house 3D game engine and was Southend's first full release.

<i>Madden NFL 08</i> 2007 American football video game

Madden NFL 08 is a 2007 American football video game based on the National Football League that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the 19th installment in the Madden NFL video game franchise. It features Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young on the cover; San Diego Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo was the cover athlete for the Spanish-language version. This was the first Madden game made for 11 different platforms, it was released on August 14, 2007, for Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, GameCube and Microsoft Windows. There was also a version for Mac released on September 1, 2007. This was the last version of Madden to be released for Microsoft Windows until Madden NFL 19, and the last video game for the GameCube produced and released in North America.

Call of Duty, also referred to as (COD), is a video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was released on November 10, 2023.

<i>Major League Baseball 2K8</i> 2008 video game

Major League Baseball 2K8, or, in shorter terms, MLB 2K8, is an MLB licensed baseball simulation video game co-developed by Blue Castle Games and newly renamed 2K Los Angeles and published by 2K Sports for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, and Xbox 360. It was released on March 4, 2008. A demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace the next day on March 5 for Canada, United States, and Asian markets and features the 2007 World Series opponents.

<i>All-Pro Football 2K8</i> 2007 video game

All-Pro Football 2K8 is an American football game for seventh generation consoles. All-Pro Football 2K8 is the first football game to be published by 2K since EA Sports purchased exclusive licenses to the intellectual properties of the NFL and NFLPA. John Elway, Barry Sanders, and Jerry Rice appear on the cover.

Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.

<i>Skate</i> (2007 video game) 2007 video game

Skate is a skateboarding video game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and mobile phones. It was developed by EA Black Box and released in 2007. Two sequels, Skate 2 and Skate 3, have been released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as Skate It, a spin-off for Wii, Nintendo DS and iOS platforms. In 2020, EA announced plans for a new Skate game.

<i>MLB 08: The Show</i> 2008 video game

MLB 08: The Show is a baseball simulation video game developed by San Diego Studio published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable systems. It is the longest-running officially licensed Major League Baseball game series on the PlayStation systems. MLB 08: The Show is the third edition of the MLB: The Show series of video games. The game was announced for all three PlayStation consoles on December 11, 2007, and released on March 4, 2008 in North America. Ryan Howard, all-star first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, is featured as the game's cover athlete.

<i>Blood Bowl</i> (2009 video game) 2009 video game

Blood Bowl is a 2009 fantasy sports video game developed by Cyanide, loosely based on gridiron football, and adapted from the board game of the same name, which is produced by Games Workshop, using the CRP ruleset. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iOS, and Android.

<i>NBA Live 09</i> 2008 basketball video game

NBA Live 09, sometimes called NBA Live 2009, is the 2008 installment in the NBA Live series, developed and published by Electronic Arts. The original release date was October 7, 2008. The game features Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs on the cover in most markets. The Wii version of the game, developed by HB Studios, is titled NBA Live 09 All-Play and launched under EA Sports' new All-Play brand exclusive to the platform. This was the final NBA Live game to be released for the Wii as well as the final game in the series to be generally available on a Nintendo platform and the last for the PlayStation 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 USFL season</span> Second season of the United States Football League

The 1984 USFL season was the second season of the United States Football League.

<i>League of Legends</i> Multiplayer video game developed by Riot Games

League of Legends (LoL), commonly referred to as League, is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by Defense of the Ancients, a custom map for Warcraft III, Riot's founders sought to develop a stand-alone game in the same genre. Since its release in October 2009, League has been free-to-play and is monetized through purchasable character customization. The game is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS.

<i>NBA 2K9</i> 2008 basketball video game

NBA 2K9 is a 2008 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It is the tenth installment in the NBA 2K franchise and the successor to NBA 2K8. It was released in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics is the cover athlete of the game. NBA 2K9 is the predecessor to NBA 2K10 in the NBA 2K series.

<i>Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands</i> 2010 video game

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands refers to a group of 2010 action-adventure video games developed and published by Ubisoft, with each version handled by different internal teams. The main version was developed for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows; other versions were developed for Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, mobile and web browsers, and a notable version for the Wii. It forms part of the Prince of Persia series, and is set within the continuity of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003).

<i>FIFA 11</i> 2010 video game

FIFA 11, titled FIFA Soccer 11 in North America, is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released on 28 September 2010 in North America, 30 September 2010 in Australia, and 1 October 2010 in Europe for all platforms, except the Wii and Nintendo DS. The Wii version was released on 1 October 2010 in North America and Europe and the DS version on 8 October 2010. The PC version of FIFA 11 is the first in the series to use the same game engine as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. The game received positive reviews and was awarded 'Sports Game of the Year' at the Golden Joystick Awards after a record-breaking 2.05 million votes. This was the last FIFA title to be released for the Nintendo DS.

<i>Pro Evolution Soccer</i> Association football video game series

eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer, known as eFootball World Soccer Winning Eleven in Japan, is a series of association football simulation video games developed by Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and published by Konami.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League Championship Series (esports)</span> Professional League of Legends esports league

The League Championship Series (LCS) is the top level of professional League of Legends in the United States and Canada. The esports league is run by Riot Games and has eight franchise teams. Each annual season of competition is divided into two splits, spring and summer, which conclude with a double-elimination tournament between the top teams. At the end of the season, the winner, runners-up and third-place team of the summer playoffs qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship.

References

  1. ↑ Friedland, David (July 8, 2008). "Blitz: The League II - Welcome to the League". IGN . IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved July 9, 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Blitz: The League II for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Blitz: The League II for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Bertz, Matt (November 2008). "Blitz: The League II: Over-the-Top, Drama-Packed Football at its Arcadey Best". Game Informer . No. 187. GameStop. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  5. ↑ Kim, Tae K. (October 13, 2008). "Blitz: The League II (PS3)". GamePro . IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Hunt, Geoffrey (December 31, 2008). "Blitz: The League II Review". Game Revolution . CraveOnline. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Miller, Jonathan (October 23, 2008). "Blitz: The League II Review". GameSpot . CBS Interactive . Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Berman, Steve (October 20, 2008). "GameSpy: Blitz: The League II". GameSpy . IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 22, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  9. ↑ Olson, Jeremy (December 5, 2008). "Blitz: The League II - PS3 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  10. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (October 21, 2008). "Blitz: The League II - 360 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  11. ↑ Mitera, Tony (October 12, 2008). "Review: Blitz: The League II (X360)". Hardcore Gamer. Hardcore Gamer LLC. Archived from the original on January 30, 2009. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  12. 1 2 Ahearn, Nate (October 15, 2008). "Blitz: The League II Review". IGN. Ziff Davis . Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  13. ↑ Amrich, Dan (December 2008). "Blitz: The League II". Official Xbox Magazine . Future US. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Review: Blitz: The League II". PlayStation: The Official Magazine . No. 13. Future plc. December 2008. p. 84.
  15. 1 2 Curry, John; Garmer, Sean (December 17, 2008). "Blitz: The League II (Xbox 360, PS3) Review". 411Mania. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.