The Vectrex offered players two sports titles to chose from in its short life span, Blitz! and Heads Up. As you’d expect from the title, Blitz! is a football game where player 1 as the Xs takes on player 2 or the computer as the squares. You can run 4 offensive plays by pressing one of the 4 controller buttons prior to snapping the ball. You can try to pass it but good luck. Your best chance to score is to run a QB sneak on every play, seriously. On the defensive side of the ball, I really have no idea what to do. For some reason my computer opponent kicked field goals on first down almost every time they had the ball (I threw a lot of interceptions). There’s some merit here as I was interested enough to finish the game (and rush for 268 yrds in a 14-9 victory) which is more than I can say for Heads Up.
Heads Up suffers from two fatal flaws. One, it’s a soccer game. Two, it’s a slow, difficult soccer game. Your players take way too long to run up and down the field and if any defensive player gets near you while you’re holding the ball, he WILL still it. You must control the goalie when the defense gets closer but blocking kicks isn’t difficult. I was too impatient, frustrated and bored by the 0-0 score over halfway through the game that I turned it off before finishing. Not a good sign. Heads Up is for Vectrex completists only.
Currently in my collection:
Blitz! – game, manual, overlay and box C
Heads Up – game, manual, overlay and box F
Cartridge Corner 