"No refs. No rules. No mercy." With a tagline like that, you knew that Midway's NFL Blitz bore little relation to Monday Night Football. Though the fundamentals of the game stayed the same, sportsmanship was discouraged in the raw, no holds barred arcade game.

With the blessing of the NFL, Blitz featured all the professional teams and many of the sport's superstars, like John Elway, Emmit Smith, Brett Favre and Deion Sanders. The goal was to guide your team to the Superbowl, maiming as many opposing quarterbacks as you could along the way.

There were some differences from the real world game: only seven players took the field at any given time; quarters lasted two minutes; a 30-yard gain was required for the first down. After converting a fourth down during offensive play or sacking the quarterback twice on defense, players were "on fire" and enjoyed a period of extra strength and speed.

Choosing which NFL team you'd guide to the Superbowl was a matter for some thought, after perusing the extensive stats provided by the game in five categories: Passing, Rushing, Linemen, Special Teams and Defense. The players at the control could also keep track of their own game records and accessed the information by entering a password into the console.

NFL Blitz was as popular as other pro sport arcade games and led to many follow-ups like NFL Blitz '99, that went from two- to four-player mode. It also included a Play Editor that allowed gamers to custom design their own offensive playbook. NFL Blitz 2000 followed with updated team rosters, new endzone dances and trash talk (crucial to the game) and a choice of different field conditions.