Midway Sports

Background

Midway Sports was the sports video game division of Midway Games. From 2005 onward, future sports games were just released under the regular Midway brand.

Logo (February 7, 2002-June 21, 2004)

NHL Hitz 20-03 (GBA)
MLB SlugFest 20-04 (GBA)
NFL Blitz 20-02
MLB SlugFest 20-03

Visuals: On a black background, many flame-like comets (possibly representing Midway's "On Fire" identity) fly away from the screen while doing loops, twists, and zigzags. They then spin around to form the Midway logo (including a refined arched "M" in 3D with a metal outline), surrounded by a white-outlined black-colored parallelogram with the sides of it lumped by the arch, with the "MIDWAY" text on the top-left of it and a small part of the parallelogram with the text "SPORTS" in a Spider-Man movie-like font underneath. Right after the logo appears from the flame comets, another flame comet fly past underneath the logo, causing the words "IGNITE YOUR GAME" zoom out one-by-one, as the logo shines for a while.

Trivia: "IGNITE YOUR GAME" was the slogan for the Midway Sports brand.

Variants:

An early variant exists on MLB SlugFest 20-03, where the logo is animated differently. The comet also reveals the slogan below instead.
On GBA games, the logo is still, and it can be either of these:
- NFL Blitz 20-03 and NHL Hitz 20-03: The logo is set on a black background. On the latter, it also has a glowing light behind it.
- MLB SlugFest 20-04: The logo is set on a white background, and a trademark symbol is seen on the bottom-right corner of the logo.
Most games have the logo in-credit, before/after the animated logo plays.
- On some games, including NHL Hitz 20-03, the words "A MIDWAY SPORTS PRODUCTION" are placed below the logo.
- On MLB SlugFest 20-03 and MLB SlugFest 20-04, the logo is a horizontal lock-up, with "SPORTS" beside "MIDWAY" and said logo.
On NFL Blitz Pro, the transparent logo becomes the background for the memory card checking screen after the logo is complete. When the memory card checking prompt is completed, it turns normal and switches off in a TV turn-off effect, segueing into the copyright notice screen.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A series of whooshes as the comets fly, a bass blast when the logo is formed, and then one more whoosh sound.

Audio Variant: For the still version, either none (NFL Blitz 20-03 and MLB SlugFest 20-04) or the opening theme of the game (NHL Hitz 20-03).

Availability: Seen on all Midway Sports titles from the period, including the NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz and MLB SlugFest series, RedCard 20-03 and NBA Ballers.

It made its first in-credit appearance on NFL Blitz 20-02 (excluding the GBA version), despite the Midway Games logo used at the beginning and on boxarts. This was also the case for RedCard 20-03.
The animated early variant debuted on MLB SlugFest 20-03, while the normal variant debuted on NFL Blitz 20-03.