The original Blitz: The League provided a much more brutal and down right dirty take on the sport, giving UK gamers an alternative to EA's annual pads and passes affair. While America sees other American Football titles hit the shelves, Blitz finally provided a welcome change of pace, despite its flaws, to the British market. Back for a second stint, Blitz II provides the same low down dirty tactics with some added improvements over the original.

Graphics have been improved for starters, and whilst they may not be at the cutting edge, they are solid and don't let the game down. The weather plays a big part, with muddy outfields neatly rendered and snow drifts added in a simple but effective way. As you would in real life, a feeling of 'aww shit' seems to filter over you as the snow obscures your vision and makes passes harder to catch. Muddy conditions see players slowly become caked in filth, their uniforms transformed from their original vibrant colours to a kind of murky brown affair as the match goes on. Even the ball, or more your players handling of it, is effected – wet outfields and rainy days lead to more fumbles and mistakes that you don't see on dry days. While perhaps a little arcadey in its execution at times, it's certainly a smart touch of realism to a slightly off-the-wall game.

Commentary is pretty simplistic, nay, very simplistic – most stoppages in play simply have (you assume) your team's coach muttering away to himself whilst he looks down on proceedings. While perhaps a more refined set up would have added a little more to the game, it would be hard to pull off without compromising the arcade feel of it all.

The gameplay is not overly taxing either – concentrating more on letting you actually play the game than bogging you down in tactical options. It harks back to a simpler time in a lot of respects, where sports games could just be picked up and played without having to master the instruction manual first! One of the game's stand out features is the injury cam – deliver a big enough hit and you'll be zoomed to an internal view of the unlucky victim to a short, but bloody cut scene, of their body being pulverised. Broken collar bones, trapped nerves, dislocated elbows, all in horrible, bloody, gorgeous graphical glory!!! On the spot injury treatments are turned in to mini games as you attempt to snap dislocated limbs back in to place, or push a precision injection in to your wounded players to help speed up recovery. Even touchdown celebrations have been turned in to a mini game, as combinations of the face buttons are strung together to unlock different, but equally over the top, celebratory dances and moves. All of this brutality and craziness helps you boost your energy meter, and once full, you can unload massive hits when defending or awesome moves to dodge tackles when carrying the ball.

As with so many sports games, the main mode centres around a career, in this case seeing you take on the role of a rookie sensation simple known as 'Franchise'. Via a series of questions, in an interview style mini game at the start of your career, you determine your offensive and defensive positions, as well as boosting some of your attributes – the rest have to be improved via training. It's then straight in to the action. Beginning in Division 3 your aim is to work your way up to become Champions. Along the way you can purchase training aids (tackle bags, weight vests, massage therapy to help heal injuries and so on), give your players performance enhancing drugs, both legal and illegal, and train them in each of the various attributes to help improve your team. It's all pretty straight forward, and once again holds up its more arcade styling – you have to win the Division Championship at each level to progress and so forth.

There are a number of bonus games as well which you can sample, ranging in their madness from players who couldn't catch a cold, fumbling every pass that's thrown their way, to out and out mayhem as players bash each other and scramble around with a ball somewhere on the field. It's all quite OTT, but fun nonetheless.

As you might expect, all this outrageous lunacy provides its own bagful of fun when played against a fellow human being. The AI is OK and stands up well, but it can be pretty rhythmical in its approach. Humans make mistakes, and invariable try and use the 'big hit' buttons every time, leading to as many missed tackles as it does crushing blows! Whilst the AI does make 'errors', it's not as funny watching the computer drop the ball as it is your mate fall flat on his face as he tries to tackle you, leaving you to do a little 'taunt dance' as you cross the line for a touch down.

Overall, Blitz II is a thoroughly enjoyable affair. It's simplified pretty much all aspects of the sport, but not to the point of making it dumb. There are still plays to be selected, but you aren't bogged down in options or left totally confused by what you are doing. It's easy enough to pick up, and the mini games add that little extra zing to proceedings.

Blitz II certainly offers a viable second option to American Football fans, as well as being worth serious consideration to more casual followers of the sport or those who simple like sports games. It probably won't win over any American Football haters but has set out its stall as a respectable alternative to the Madden franchise.