Arcade1UP Moves ‘NFL Blitz’ Censorship Info, Missing From Retailer Listing


This week, before the hurricane hit, I polled my office to see which Arcade1UP cabinet the various teams would like to see me put in our cafe. Turns out that NFL Blitz was the big winner. So, I headed over to Arcade1UP’s website to review the cabinet’s specifics. Not long ago, I had covered the NFL Blitz announcement and noted that the ports of the classic Midway games would be modified due to the NFL’s Player Health and Safety initiatives and removing certain players’ names due to what I expect are rights issues. The biggest concern was that ports of the three included games would be censored to remove certain tackles.

However, when I checked the latest link on the official site, the info about the late tackles was gone from the front page. So, I headed on over to Walmart.com and checked the listing there, too. Again, no information was shown immediately on the product’s page letting me know that the NFL Blitz, NFL Blitz ’99, or NFL Blitz 2000: Gold Edition ports were modified to remove any content. Walmart does cover its backside by having a disclaimer at the end of the specs saying that the information provided has not been verified. Sadly, Walmart does not link directly back to Arcade1UP’s product page, so a customer can quickly check for his/herself.

Walmart.com

 

I had figured that Arcade1UP may have received enough backlash to back peddle on censoring the original titles, or some sort of arrangement was worked out with the NFL. Oh, I was wrong. While waiting out hurricane Ian, I was going over the cabinet’s specs again while I cleared a space for it in the cafe. Then I noticed a link to an FAQ. The first question had the wrong answer, which was a red flag. So, I kept scrolling until I saw the question, “Can you still tackle people after the whistle? AKA late or ‘after the whistle’ hitz?

NFL Blitz Legends gets straight to the fun with easy-to-understand gameplay that highlights the best parts of the game including Hail Mary’s, interceptions, game-changing tackles, and touchdowns. To support the NFL’s current Player Health & Safety initiatives, a specific set of tackles and after-the-whistle hits were removed or edited in the remastered versions of NFL Blitz, NFL Blitz ‘99 and NFL Blitz 2000: Gold Edition while maintaining the level of excitement in the original games. And, for the first time in the Blitz franchise, players can play on a home arcade machine and compete online with Wi-Fi multiplayer and leaderboards.

Note: >84% of the tackles we all remember (99/117 total tackles) are here to stay.

Why wasn’t this info on the main page?!

Oddly, the original page that we used for our initial coverage of NFL Blitz Legends is still live but is not used when you click on the product from the main page. Why remove the FAQ and put it behind a link rather than on the product’s landing page? The official video for the NFL Blitz cabinet also fails to mention these changes.

My previous attempts to reach out to Arcade1UP were unsuccessful. Over the years, I’ve reached out to the company multiple times with zero response. However, the company’s support portal worked perfectly when the issue was with a faulty product. For whatever reason, Arcade1UP doesn’t like answering questions from journalists.

[Source: Arcade1UP] [Source: Walmart]
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Mike Phalin

Longtime problematic entertainment journalist. The former workhorse for Dread Central, ScienceFiction.com, and Fanbolt.

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