If you follow indie sports games in general, you probably first heard of Legend Bowl a few years ago. The 2-D indie football title was released on Steam in early access in November 2020, followed by the full release in September 2021. The game was well received and currently sits at a Very Positive rating on Steam with over 700 reviews. We took a look at Legend Bowl when it was in Early Access, but never did an official review. Now that the game is coming to consoles on August 9th, this is the perfect opportunity to take a look at everything this game has to offer. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s find out as we dive into Legend Bowl.
Gameplay
I’ll say this right up front: Legend Bowl can be a very difficult game at first. This is especially true if you don’t have much experience with old-school 2-D football games. If you want to succeed in Legend Bowl, you need to play to your team’s strengths. The ratings of your players make a huge difference in how the game feels and plays. For example, if your QB has a high skill rating, the camera will zoom out to keep all your receivers on screen at all times. If their skill rating is mid-tier, you’ll only see up to 20 yards from the line of scrimmage. And if your QB is fresh off the streets, you’ll only see 10 yards past the line of scrimmage.
This feature, as well as a few others, can be toggled through the settings. Legend Bowl offers several different settings options to help tailor the game to your skill level. Which I highly recommend you do because, as I said earlier, the game can be very difficult otherwise.
Offensively, Legend Bowl has tons of different formations, plays, and schemes to help you catch the defense off guard. One of my favorite things about offense in this game is it just takes one button to put players in motion. And it shows you in the play art who is going to move and where they are going to move to. It makes using motion to figure out the defense much quicker and easier.
On the field, passing the ball is fun and fast. You won’t have much time to throw, so you’ll have to take the check down more often than not. But when you do get the one on one and take a shot down the field and connect, it’s one of the most satisfying feelings in a football game I’ve had.
Defense is also a challenge that can be very rewarding. If you take your time and make sure to match your personnel to what the offense has on the field, you should do alright. Defenders do a good job of keeping up with their assignments and playing their coverage. One thing I will say though is don’t expect to get too many sacks. Even when I’m playing with all 90-plus overalls across the defensive line, I can hardly ever bring the QB down. It feels like every play I’ll be just an inch away and the QB will get rid of it just in time. This pressure does often force either inaccurate passes or short check-downs, so bringing the pressure can still pay off a good chunk of the time.
Kicking the ball on special teams can be pretty tough. You hold the X button on PlayStation to fill your kick meter. If you hold it too long though, you get an accuracy penalty. It can be a little difficult to get the timing down. You’ll probably want to hop into practice mode to get some reps in until you get the hang of it. If it is still too difficult for you, there is an option in the settings that remove the accuracy penalty for holding the button too long. The tradeoff with this though is that the kick power is capped at 75. Personally, I enjoy the kicking mechanic in this game. It keeps me engaged with plays that in other football games are pretty easy and mindless.
Game Modes
Legend Bowl has three main game modes outside of the basic play now option: Franchise, Tournament, and Practice mode. Franchise mode is really fun in this game. Outside of playing your games and trying to win a championship, some fun features make the mode more interactive.
First, you can buy upgrades for your team’s facilities. These upgrades give you different boosts depending on what type of upgrade you purchased. You can get upgrades to player skills, team morale, injury recovery, or even revenue generation to help you buy more upgrades as soon as possible. However, these upgrades take up parts of your limited square footage. This makes you have to pick and choose which ones are most important to you. Some of these upgrades also have a risk associated with them, that could cause negative effects if you don’t keep them in good condition.
During the season you’ll also have waiver wire moments. These pop up during the year when players want a salary increase. You’ll see all of the players throughout the league that want a pay bump. If their team chooses not to give them one, there is a chance that team will offer to trade them to you. You can’t manually jump into trade negotiations though, which stinks when you see a player that would absolutely help your team get traded to another team.
These waiver wire moments can also happen with players on your team. You can give only three players a pay raise each year, and you don’t know which players will end up asking for a raise. You may have no players ask for more pay or several. If you decline a player’s request, they are automatically traded to another team for a player at the same position with a lower overall rating.
I had one season where I had already given raises to three other key players when my 91 overall QB asked for a raise. Because I had already used my three raises, I had to decline his request. He was then traded away for a 59 overall QB, and I ended up missing the playoffs. It would be nice if there was some way to increase the number of requests you were allowed to accept, maybe through a facility upgrade.
One small issue I did have is that you can’t just reorder your depth charts however you want. You’re only able to put a player at the top of the depth chart. So let’s say you have a rookie as your number five receiver and you want to move them up to three to get them more playing time. You’ll have to put that guy at the top, then scroll and find your number two receiver and put him at the top, then do the same again with your number one receiver. It’s not an awful system, just kind of inconvenient for the player.
The offseason is pretty simple but still fun. It features retirements, free agency, progression, and a draft. These are all pretty straightforward. The design here seems to be focused on plugging whatever holes you have in your team and getting back into the action.
Outside of Franchise mode, the other two game modes are tournament and practice mode. Tournament mode is exactly what you would expect. You select a team and play your way through a 16-team tournament. Practice gives you several tutorials, as well as a good sandbox to practice and get the hang of the gameplay.
Presentation
Presentation and customization are where Legend Bowl really shines. The gameday experience has tons of small details that add to the experience. From having the referees and TV camera crew on the field to having blood splatter everywhere when someone gets injured, the atmosphere in Legend Bowl is a lot of fun. I really enjoy the advertisements that the developers came up with. There were a lot of these that gave me a good chuckle.
The customization options in this game are also impressive. The entire league of 32 teams is fully customizable, as are all the players. You can change player appearance and ratings, team colors, name, location, and even the design on the end zones. There is even an option to completely regenerate the league in case you get tired of playing with your current set of players. This is a great feature that I haven’t seen any other sports game have before. This feature adds almost limitless replayability to the game. If you get bored with the players you have, just generate an entire league of new ones.
Verdict
Legend Bowl is a really fun game. The gameplay challenges the player to learn the mechanics and play to the strengths of their players. Any hardcore football fan will appreciate the atmosphere and attention to detail. The customization options give limitless opportunities for players to create the football team and league of their dreams.
There are a few small things that could be improved. Being able to reorder depth charts and increase your salary increases would make the experience more enjoyable.
At the $25 price tag, the game is easy to recommend. Whether you’re looking for a fun couch co-op game to play with your friends, or a good nostalgic throwback to get completely lost in, Legend Bowl has a little something for everyone.