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I’m well aware that most of the people who frequent this site don’t give a damn about simulation sports games like Madden, which are very close to my heart. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t play arcade sports games as well, and one of the foremost examples of that genre (and one of my old favorites from “back in the day”) comes in the form of Midway’s Blitz series (known as NFL Blitz before EA won the exclusive NFL license). Today sees the release of the latest entry in that long-running football franchise, Blitz: The League II.

I’m sure many of you guys and gals love the hard-hitting, “outside-the-lines” version of football that the first Blitz: The League brought to the table. Seeking to provide a parody of sorts of the NFL, the game’s campaign mode was a rough-and-tumble trek through The League, and now, Midway is back for more. I was able to conduct an interview with the Lead Game Designer of Blitz: The League II, David Friedland. Hit the jump for his explanation of the game’s feature set, including thoughts on how to turn a shoulder stinger into a broken collarbone, and the best way to play multiplayer Blitz.

In addition, be sure to check out the Blitz: The League II-related contest that we’re currently running on Destructoid. You can win a PS3, a copy of the game, and many more sweet prizes -- all you have to do is get off your ass and make a simple video (somewhat like the one above, only not nearly as vicious)!

It’s obvious that you guys have put a ton of effort into the single-player Campaign mode. Can you set the scene for us and explain what it’s all about? And what roles do Jay Mohr and Frank Caliendo play in the story?

We really went all-out on the Campaign mode this time, creating an entirely new story and experience for the players. You take on the role of Franchise, the first two-way player in modern League history. As the story begins, Franchise and his agent are meeting with the League Commissioner to discuss Franchise’s future. The Commissioner informs Franchise that the League’s new expansion team, the Los Angeles Riot, will be taking him with the first pick of the draft. Franchise throws these plans into disarray by announcing that he’ll only play for his hometown team. The Commissioner is furious but has little choice but to acquiesce, as Franchise is a two-sport athlete and could make millions playing baseball.

At this point you get to design both Franchise and his hometown team from the ground up. You’ll participate in a press conference with Franchise where you’ll get to pick his offensive and defensive positions, tweak his statistics and give him a name. Then you’ll pick a city and name for your team and design their home and away uniforms. Your offensive and defensive playbooks will be tailored to take advantage of Franchise’s strengths.

As the story continues to unfold, you’ll get to manage, train and support both Franchise and the team as they work their way up from Division 3 through the ranks to the elite Division 1 over the course of three seasons. You’ll run into conflicts, both on and off the field, undertake challenges to attract sponsors and potential girlfriends, and learn that forgiveness is not in the Commissioner’s vocabulary and he’s actively working to ruin Franchise’s fledgling career.

Jay Mohr plays Franchise’s agent and does his best to help land sponsors and keep Franchise out of trouble. The versatile Frank Caliendo undertakes a number of roles, including the voices for our color commentator during the campaign, our offensive coordinator, and a prison warden that has a role to play in our story. We are also excited to have Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor reprising his role as Quentin Sands in Blitz: The League II. We really enjoyed working with LT last time around and one of the first decisions we made for Blitz 2 was to give Quentin Sands a larger and more important role.

Midway was able to get Peter Egan, of Playmakers fame, to come back and write the game’s script again. Was there anything that he came up with that you guys deemed, perhaps, a bit too salacious? Or was there more of an “anything goes” mentality in the game’s design?

Peter did a great job on the script. We worked closely with him from the early concept stages all the way through to its completion and he came up with some great twists and turns. There really wasn’t anything in this script that was “too hot for Blitz”. After all, just look at what’s going on these days in real world professional football. Dog fighting rings, shootings at strip clubs, sex boat scandals... Every time we think we are taking things too far, reality comes along and lowers the bar.

The Clash system is back for another go-round, but what’s different about it in Blitz: The League II? How does this tie in with the Unleashed mode?

The core functionality of the Clash system is unchanged from Blitz: The League, but we have fine-tuned the system, given you a ton of new ways to earn clash icons, and given you more things to do with your Clash and Unleash. Hit Targeting, which allows you to pick the location of your injury, is based around the Clash system. Also new to Blitz: The League II is group tackles. If you time your Unleashed tackle so that you have a second defender in range, you will deliver an absolutely brutal group tackle that has a chance to cause an injury and a fumble on the same play! We’ve also given the offense some love with the inclusion of defensive injuries. Scoring a touchdown is good. Scoring a touchdown after you fractured a cornerback’s skull with a vicious stiff arm or planted your cleats in a linebacker’s spleen is even better!

There were a lot of gripes about perceived “rubber band A.I.” in the original Blitz: The League, but there’s another school of thought that accepts it as “part of Blitz,” and just seems to think that it adds another layer of insanity to the experience. What would you say to that?

This always makes me laugh. I know that no amount of denials will ever convince some gamers, but there was no rubber band AI in Blitz: The League. The computer AI, when losing late in the game, did exactly what any human player would do; throw the ball deep and use its Clash and Unleash to make a big play. That being said, the AI did take advantage of players who stuck to one play over and over, with its defensive awareness going up each time a player called the same play repeatedly.

I’ve seen some pretty gruesome animations for injuries caused by Hit Targeting -- the foot-breaking one was particularly sickening. How does Hit Targeting work in the game? And how did you guys put together such wonderfully bloody sequences?

Our art team did an amazing job on our injuries! We have over 30 in the game and they are on par with what you would expect to see in your typical detective show. Creating them was a long and detailed process, which started with building an anatomically correct 3D body. This gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted to it, making each bone snap and organ burst in just the right way, with just the right camera angle.

The hit targeting occurs when an injury result has been determined due to a Dirty or Unleashed tackle.

Which area can be targeted varies depending on both the angle of the tackle and the height. Hit someone high up on the body from the side, [and] you are likely to get targeting circles on things like the head, shoulder, neck and elbow. Hit someone low from the front and you might get knees, ankles, legs... Maybe even the groin (I’ll let you imagine what that one might look like). The number of targeting options varies depending on what body parts make sense for each angle/height combo.

You perform a quick flick [of] the left stick to pick your circle, then rapidly press the A/X button [360/PS3] to pump up the intensity of the injury. The more you fill it in the brief moments we give you, the greater the chance of getting a more serious injury. So, what might have been a Shoulder Stinger could become a Dislocated Shoulder or even a Broken Collar Bone.

The Triage system seems to work as a sort of counter to Hit Targeting. Is it easier to cause injuries, or to heal them?

It’s definitely easier to cause injuries than to treat them! In fact, only around two thirds of the injuries are treatable at all. Serious injuries, like a fractured spine, broken collar bone or torn ACL, knock you out for multiple games. Lesser injuries, such as pinched nerves, dislocations and minor breaks, can be treated on the field. For muscles and nerves, you break out the juice and try and get your needle stick as accurate as possible while the injured player writhes around, throwing off your aim. For breaks, you actually get to set the bone, using the left and right sticks to align the two ends of the bone before wrenching them back into place. Speed and accuracy is important in both Triage mini-games. The better you do during triage, the faster you get your player back on the field.

Online head-to-head play has already been confirmed, and that’s definitely a must-have feature for current-gen consoles. But all of my fondest memories from NFL Blitz 2000 back on the PSOne come from the frenetic four-player action it offered -- you know, guys sitting in front of the TV, yelling at each other and punching each other after huge hits and deep bombs -- so what are you guys offering with local multiplayer modes?

I love online play and spent a great deal of time online playing Blitz: The League against fans who had no idea they were up against a developer. But nothing compares to playing Blitz shoulder-to-shoulder with a friend, especially when you have other friends watching. The trash talking is intense, and new features such as late hits, injury targeting and custom TD celebrations really let you add insult to injury. Quick Play offline matches are back, with your choice of 23 different pre-made League teams or any of your campaign custom teams. New to Blitz: The League 2 is a tournament mode where up to 16 players can participate, picking their teams, seeding the brackets and then competing against one another in single elimination action.

Now that you’ve read up on Blitz: The League II, you can check out the game’s official Web site for more. And don’t forget to send in an entry for our tackling video contest!