Are you ready for some football???! DETAILS Publisher Midway Developer Midway Genre Sports Origin U.S. Number of Players 4 Dual Shock YES Expected Release Date September 1999 Peripherals Analog Memory Pack It's more of the same, with lots more features. And it's for up to four players, too! Make your own plays with the play editor.

May 17, 1999

NFL Blitz redefined videogame football. It's really that simple when you think about it. It proved that console football games didn't need to be slow-paced (if not tedious) simulations in order to be successful. The PlayStation version of NFL Blitz in particular is a brilliantly executed port that runs so fast and looks so good that it makes the competition's games look stale by comparison. And Midway has only just begun.

Even as NFL Blitz 99 makes the arcade rounds, the company is already into development with an update to the series for the PlayStation. Now titled Blitz 2000, Midway hopes to release the pigskin at the end of this year - just in time to combat whatever football offerings EA and Acclaim decide to dish up.

It's still early in development, but it should make quite a showing at this year's E3 where it'll debut to the press. There will be quite a few improvements to the new version, and we got our hands on the list of additions and tweaks that will be made to the game.

The newest feature is "Blitz Passing," an option where you can map one of your buttons to a specific receiver. That way, all you have to do is hold the receiver button down as you pass the ball to get it to the guy you most trust to catch. Midway is also kicking around the idea of a "Defense Change Player" option that will change the currently selected player to the man nearest the receiver. However, this option may make the defense too strong, and the option may be omitted by the time the game goes to print.

There will also be a "punt meter," where you can strategically place a punt to the left, right, or center of the field. And as you kick the ball, a Hang Time Meter will pop up (with a proper code entered) to show how long the ball has stayed in the air. But you also have to keep an eye on the newly-added wind factor, which will cause balls to skew slightly as they sail through the air.

Blitz 2000 will have customized play books, as well as included plays – included for each team will be 27 offensive and 9 defensive preset plays, but you can create up to 9 offensive and 9 defensive plays and save them to a memory card. And each team will have its own custom playbook for unique strategies. And if you don't like what you see on the field, you will now be able to call an audible.

Like the arcade 1999 version, Blitz 2000 on the PlayStation will support up to four players via the multitap, two per team. And from the arcade update comes the side-strengthening "on-fire" mode, where three complete passes in a row to the same receiver will drive up the offense and defense of a team.

There will also be five unique stadiums, eight field and weather conditions (snow, rain, dry, etc). During rain, for example, your players' uniforms will get continuously muddy. The game will also have new, selectable camera positions (top-down, side view, normal, pulled back, higher angle). It will also have more of the crazy hits and animations from Blitz 99, as well as new animation unique to the 2000 version.

The new 1999 rosters will be added to this new version, as well as two new teams: The Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans. And at the end of the game, show off your football knowledge with 1000 of the toughest football trivia questions.

We'll have the first screenshots of the game when Midway shows off the game in Los Angeles at this year's E3. We can't wait.