Legend Bowl Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · August 11, 2023

For our Legend Bowl Review, we play a throwback to the classic 8-bit and 16-bit football games of the past. Take to the gridiron and fight your way to becoming a football legend! Enjoy sim-style gameplay, realistic weather, detailed stats, franchise mode, tournament mode, fully customizable rosters, and much much more!

Legend Bowl Review Pros:

16 Bit graphics.
339.3MB Download size.
Platinum trophy.
American football gameplay.
Six difficulties – rookie, semi-pro, pro, veteran, superstar, and legend.
Graphics settings – v – sync, zoom, screenshake, and screen flashes.
Blood can be turned on and off.
Nine football skins to choose from.
The tutorial section explains the basics of gameplay and a game setup.
Advanced tutorial scenarios go into more depth on tackling, formations, and special teams.
In-depth team editor where you can change the uniform, colors, icon, name, shorthand name, stadium, each individual player, edit all three kits, the end one text and art, type of stadium surface, the color of the stadium surface, and the team photo.
In-game text commentary.
News ticker at the bottom which is more used in the franchise mode.
Ask the coach button to display a handful of ideal formations for the particular play.
Uses a power bar system for kicks and throws whereby you press to stop the direction and hold it down to set the power.
Arcade-style text pop-ups over players’ heads like gassed, good kick, or stiff-armed.
Has a wide range of tackles from big boom hits, holding tackling, diving, swatting passes, etc.
The face buttons or the right stick can be used for tackles.
You don’t have to press a button to catch a pass.
Coach mode lets you choose the plays.
By default, the controls are very close to being the same as the Madden games.
Four game modes – exhibition, franchise, tournament, and practice.
The exhibition is to choose two teams and play.
Each team has a unique set of stats for – offense, defense, special, and overall.
Tournament mode is a 16-team Knockout competition.
Franchise mode – create a coach complete with bio, you get access to news, schedule, your team, stats, and the front office.
Franchise milestones are like in-game achievements.
You can see all trades in the league through the player wire in franchise mode.
Hall of Fame shows off trophies and achievements of players and teams in franchise mode.
Your stadium can be upgraded and customized in franchise mode from the money you earn. From the stadium to the training and rehabilitation facilities which can add bonuses and penalties to player’s stats/performance.
Stats in franchise gets broken down by team, player, league leaders, and all-time leaders and shows images and text.
Franchise news gives newspaper Headlines, infirmary reports, power rankings, and playoff pictures.
You can hit players’ helmets off.
The difficulty has three sections – CPU, kicking, and QB vision.
Assists options for – mobile QB, QB assist, and kicking assist.
Controller settings – Invert axis and deadzone percentage.
When setting up a stadium you set the chance percentage of each weather type.
The help guide serves as a game manual.
On the menus you see all the players of every team running around, this shows your edited teams as well.
Three weather types – sun, rain, and snow.
Handy wind strength and direction marker on the screen.
Offers 32 teams.
On-screen button prompts for passing.
So much fun to play.
The passing and running is difficult even on easy with assists but this honestly gives the game that sense of realism.
The commentary is humorous and gives details on the last play.
Bars appear over players which helps a lot with tackling.
You can edit player stats.
The franchise mode is so deep and rewarding that it’s not all about just winning, the scenarios that can pop up are a real game changer.

Legend Bowl Review Cons:

Has this horrible onside conversion mechanic that you can only use twice a half but it allows you to score and basically keep the ball.
The Ai is tough on any difficulty.
Takes a while to get used to the kicking/passing power bar.
At times it can get so hectic you can’t see which player is which and where the ball is.
No online multiplayer.
The stats are offline only.
Not the fastest loading time.
Is not an official product with Official names. Take this as an FYI.
Does have a few instances of hanging on screens like restoring the roster or when editing a team.
Cannot edit tournaments like how many teams or tournament type etc.
No editing tools for celebrations or trophies.
The game doesn’t really have celebrations.
Doesn’t have a random football skin option and you can’t see a preview of the ball beforehand.
No indoor stadiums.
The bar at the bottom of the screen is not ideal for quick glances like seeing how much time is left etc.
Replays are not a huge emphasis and it would have been cool for a way to save them.

Legend Bowl:

Official website.

Developer: Super Pixel Games

Publisher: Super Pixel Games

Store Links –

PlayStation

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
9/10
Length - 9/10
9/10
Fun Factor - 9/10

8/10

Summary

Now this is a fantastic football game! Outside of a good Madden year, this is one of the deepest and most compelling football games I have played in years. You get so much control over creating teams and leagues that it feels and looks like the American football version of Sensible Soccer. The timing of the power bar for passing and kicking is tough but it kind of helps keep the game balanced in a way. The tackling is so good that Madden could use a few pointers from them, just having a progress bar type system that Legend Bowl uses makes the block tackling and D line a lot more manageable but also gives a more complete picture of how you are doing. Regardless of all the dropped catches and touchdowns the bottom line is Legend Bowl is a Superbowl-worthy edition to the genre and other games could learn a thing or two from them. You don’t need big licenses, commentators, and flashy gimmicks to stand out. You just need solid gameplay a robust editor and fun easy-to-learn gameplay. Legend Bowl is a pint return touchdown for the ages and could be the next Tecmo Bowl.