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.
