A Spiritual Successor to Classic Football Games: A Legend Bowl Review

By Manuel

Players: 1-4
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBox, PC

Legend Bowl is a retro-inspired football game that takes sports video games back to their roots, and is something of a spiritual successor to games like Tecmo Bowl. Originally released on Steam, it's now available on all major consoles letting gamers of all types experience its unique mix of arcade-style gameplay with sim-based mechanics. Legend Bowl promises a lot of things, and even mixes two styles of gameplay that can be pretty contradictory to each other. Does this mix come together well? Does a football game without a big license have what it takes to compete with the Maddens of the world? Well, let's tackle this game and find out!

First of all, I must say that I am not a fan of football at all. I don't think I've ever seen a game from start to finish in my life. Don't all come at me at once though, there's a specific reason why I wanted to review this game myself. While I don't care about keeping up with leagues and teams, I am a fan of casual football games and used to play games like Tecmo Bowl, Play Action Football, and Mutant League Football when I was a kid. Legend Bowl looked right up my alley as it promises a similar experience to at least one of those games, and its lack of a license made it less intimidating than other sports games. With that said, I don't really understand the ins and outs of the game, and I'll probably refer to things in an odd way, so excuse any odd wordings here and there.

This is how I thought I'd play the game actually.

I made the coach my D&D character!

Legend Bowl is a football game, so it goes without saying that there's nothing to talk about when it comes to story. I guess the biggest thing to mention is that it features 32 original teams, and all original players and coaches. I'm pretty sure that some of these have obvious counterparts with actual NFL teams, but I don't know enough to speak on that. I for one like that it doesn't have an IRL gaming roster as those are what tend lead to the slippery slope of microtransactions. No real-life roster means no needs to update it yearly, and no need to track current stats and the like. The game exists as is, and can be adjusted by the player as they see fit. I saw mention of mods for the Steam release when looking up the production of this game, and I think adding in official teams and the like totally destroy what makes Legend Bowl unique. I can't think of any other casual sports game like this, outside of maybe the Mario Sports series, and I hope that Legend Bowl marks a return to these kind of games.

Always ask the coach!

That isn't his shoulder!

Football is football so I won't try to explain how it’s played, not that I can really do that anyway I guess. You have offensive and defensive plays, and you can choose them as you see fit. I mainly went with the coaches recommendations as I don't know what constitutes a "proper" play at most points. That isn't to say that I just went with whatever the game suggested, I eventually discovered a style of play that worked for me. I quickly found that I relied on passing plays far more than I did on running plays, as the former usually are far more reliable. I'm not sure if this is something that occurs in real life games as well, but the game seems to expect passing plays more than running ones as I witnessed many botched runs even when both teams were computer controlled. Meters, bars, and the like help with power and accuracy of throws and kicks (with other things affecting them that I'll explain in a bit), but I think that the window to land a good field goal is very small, this means that I often went for more risky plays than attempting a kick that would probably be no good. By default each quarter of the game last five minutes, but I found that this was a bit too long for what I wanted. Thankfully you can adjust just about everything related to games as the idea of 30+ minute games was not my idea of fun, and I usually lost interest halfway through.

There's lots of ways to play football here with the Franchise Mode being the flagship "main" gameplay mode. Franchise Mode lets you create a coach, pick a team, and go through an entire season. It actually lets you go beyond just playing football as it features many off-season mechanics. It may be a bit too deep for some, as the micromanagement of things like roster management and drafts can overtake normal gameplay, but it definitely offers a lot of variety. If you don't want to go that deep you can try out Exhibition Mode, which are single games where you can play against the computer, against other players, with other players, or even see two computer-controlled teams play against each other. It's the simplest mode of gameplay, but also the one I probably played the most. If you're looking for something a bit in-between those two you can try Tournament Mode and go through a sixteen-team tournament, complete with the same player options as Exhibition. You can also fully customize all the teams in ways that I never really quite messed with (mainly since I quickly latched onto favorite teams/players and didn't want to mess that up), but the options are there if you so desire. After you eventually put in dozens of hours, which even I might given the time, you can check out your milestone achievements, trophies, and more in-game as well. Stats on top of stats, but these are the good kind.

All pass, no play.

I'll never forget my first touchdown!

My big problem with Legend Bowl actually lies in the fact that it still leans heavily on stats and sim gameplay which kind of run against its arcade-styled inspirations. While there are lots of arcade mechanics, none of that really matters when stats come into play. Some players will always throw better than others, run faster than others, be more powerful than others, and so on. You can play your best in every game and still have to face some harsh RNG at times. This led to several moments of frustration, and made me wish that all the stats and numbers weren't a factor at all. I wonder if the game would still have the same level of longevity without these stats, but they seemed to ruin the experience more than help it. It never really matters how well you play as RNG rules all. It felt similar to playing a fighting game where the computer controlled opponents are able to read and react to each and every input you make. Simply put, it feels very unfair at times. Similarly, I get the realism of your star player being out on injury for weeks on end, but that wasn't something I thought I'd have to deal with in-game. I originally was hoping that Exhibition Mode offered a different take on gameplay, perhaps ignoring all the numbers outright, but not only is that not the case, but as far as I know there is no way to completely rid yourself of the constant stat reliance. I understand that there were definitely behind the scenes stats in even the most arcade-y of games from back in the day, but they did a better job of hiding them and not making it feel like they dominated how most games play out. This does not keep the game from being fun for the most part, but it was something that I never really reconciled with during my time with the game.

Look at those stats!

This my boy though. #15!

Do I need to talk graphics here? I mean, you can tell that they're good right? Legend Bowl's graphics are some of the best pixel art I've seen in a game in a long while. Not quite 8-Bit, more of a 16/32-Bit style, they really evoke the retro arcade feel and are all well-animated. Every move has an animation, and they're all as detailed as you'd expect from a game with more modern graphics. Admittedly when actively playing a game the players might start blending together due to the zoomed out camera, but when you check out the individual players on end game screens their individual characteristics begin to shine through. It's actually funny how many of my favorite players I eventually was able to recognize over time, even if they were a small blob of pixels sometimes. There's also a lot of action going on some of the time, with lots of players, referees, and sometimes even night lighting and weather effects. I played this game on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode and did not experience a single issue when it came to performance. It just ran smoothly and everything looked great, and I imagine that it would look even better on more powerful platforms. There's even some creativity when it comes to the team's logos, and I found myself wishing that actual IRL teams had logos that were as unique as the ones here. (I'm looking at you Houston Roughriders.) My only slight complaints would have to be the limited options when it comes to creating a coach for the Franchise Mode, and the general lack of variety when it comes to the stadiums themselves. Perhaps a sequel will have more customization options, but that's more of a wish list type suggestion.

I can't wait to play more multiplayer games!

I love when I win so decisively.

While graphics are the strongest aspect of Legend Bowl, music is probably where the game fails the most. I want to start by saying that the game has a decent soundtrack, but it's drowned in the mix by default. I had to turn it way up to even hear it, and only realized that the game featured music at all when I began to write this review and realized I'd not really heard any. What's weirder is that the music only plays once plays are in action, so that means that no matter how high you crank it, it's going to be quiet for most of the game no matter what. When you DO eventually get to hear it you'll find that shares the same retro feel of the graphics. I don't know how else to put it though, but the music doesn't really drive the gameplay along, and I feel that that's an important factor in any arcade-style game. The lack of any truly blood boiling tracks is somewhat upsetting as the music of Tecmo Bowl lives mostly rent-free in my head to this day. The thing is most players won't ever get to notice any of this since you'll have to do all the aforementioned adjustments to make the music audible in the first place. There's an odd focus on the in-game voices and sound effects, and while these are all well-done, they're not as important as the music in my opinion. Speaking of voices though, there are a lot of quips, audible calls, and more that are quite amusing to hear and gave a chuckle or two when you hear players get frustrated with botched plays too. I just wish the game delivered more when it came to music since it delivered well in just about every other aspect.

Let's get ready!

The timing of these different throws...

Controls are probably the most important aspect of a game like this, and thankfully there's lots of good to talk about when it comes to Legend Bowl. There's a surprising amount of dodging, jumping, power moves, etc. when it comes to running, defending, and tackling. So many that I never got used to using them all and would often be surprised when the computer-controlled team slipped from my grasp by using a move I typically ignored. This is more of a failing on my part as the variety of moves is there if you want to take advantage of it. Things get a little more complicated when it comes to kicking or passing. By default there's quite a bit of timing to both of them, and they require a lot of mastery when it comes to nailing said timing. The big problem with this system is that a perfectly timed button press can mean nothing if your controlled player has low stats. This is probably more of a complaint about the gameplay itself, but the frustration of a perfect throw being randomly screwed up thanks to RNG made me just change the options for these to be more simplistic. What does timing matter if you can still botch everything because of stats? Also, I can't say this for sure, but I think RNG will occasionally screw up a play from even the game's best players. Stats aside, I wish there was more recourse when you run out of stamina during running plays. You can press the A button for small boosts of speed, but once you become "gassed" you're a sitting duck. This means that it's very rare to pull off full field returns or long touchdowns. I guess some of these complaints with controls are a bit nit-picky, but they're otherwise so tight that it was quite noticeable when things weren't working as you think they would. In short I found myself wishing that there was a way to simplify the controls in general, not the timing of the throws/kicks but like combine some of the offensive and dodging actions. Similar to the game's reliance on stats, things seem just a bit more complicated than they need to be at times.

Legend Bowl obviously isn't a game that one "beats", so I found it hard to determine where I would stop to write this review. After a rather long tournament (where I still lowered quarter times), the better part of a Franchise run (where I DIDN'T lower the quarter times), and a handful of exhibition games where I learned and practiced, I figured I'd experienced as much as I plan to in this current sitting. That's where things lie here as it's a game that will probably come in and out of rotation as the mood takes you. There's lot to experience here, lots to customize, and you can do just about everything with a group of friends too. Oh, and I should mention that this game features local multiplayer with up to four players, but no online modes. Even though there isn't anything to unlock, or an end goal beyond maybe completing Franchise Mode, I can easily imagine players sinking dozens of hours into this one. Even as a non-sports game fan I found myself looking up things about football, and even trying to figure out who some of the in-game teams were meant to be emulating. The retail price of $24.99 feels like a shockingly low price point for how much game there is here so I really can't fault its value at all. You're definitely going to get a lot of football bang for your buck, and you and your friends will most likely be coming back to this one again and again.

Legend Bowl kicks it out of the field!

I still don't know what this means.

I never thought that I'd recommend a football game here at A-to-J, but here we are. It really reminds me of the old arcade-style football games, and the lack of real world NFL trappings really helped me get into the game. It runs well, it's fun, and you can pick up and play it pretty much at any time. I do perhaps wish that it were a bit more casual in terms of controls and mechanics, and focused less on stats, but it's a nice mix of approaches to the sports genre. This is a game that I'll be playing as long as I have my Switch and I look forward to anything else that Super Pixel Games put out. With all that said, run out and get this one, and be sure to try out the New England Minutemen as they're my new favorite team!

For More Information on Legend Bowl:
https://tophat.studio/games_legendBowl.html

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Story: A
Gameplay: A-
Graphics: A-
Music/Sound: B-
Value: B+

Overall: B+

Pros:
+ Really fun and fast moving gameplay, even if you're not particularly a fan of football.
+ Exhibition, Franchise, and Tournament modes offer lots of variety in what could otherwise be a simple game.
+ Just about every option of gameplay is adjustable, making it easy to tailor the game to suit your preferences.
+ Lots of multiplayer options make this a great party game of sorts.
+ Pixel graphics, and overall presentation, are well-done and harken back to older titles like Tecmo Bowl.

Cons:
- Feels far more stat-based than a true arcade-style football game.
- Character stats can ruin any game, no matter how well you are playing it.
- Customization feels a bit clunky at times.
- A more upbeat soundtrack, and overall better sound mix, could've added to the experience.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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