Bowl Bound College Football

About

"Bowl Bound College Football" is a simulation game that allows you to control one of over 100 college football programs and manage its success. Build your program's prestige through scheduling non-conference games and recruiting players, while implementing your choice of offensive and defensive strategies. The game offers a detailed and complex simulation of running a college football program, with the goal of building your team into a national powerhouse.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

57%

Audience ScoreBased on 115 reviews

emotional3 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

The game offers a deep and engaging simulation experience for college football fans, allowing for extensive customization and management of teams.
Recruiting and player development are well-implemented, providing a realistic feel to building a college football program.
Despite its age, the game captures the essence of college football and has a dedicated community that supports modding and online leagues.

The game suffers from frequent crashes and stability issues, often requiring a computer restart, which can lead to lost progress.
The user interface is outdated and can be cumbersome, making navigation and gameplay less intuitive, especially for new players.
The recruiting process can feel tedious and frustrating, with many players making illogical decisions that detract from the overall experience.

stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with users reporting frequent crashes, freezes, and a variety of glitches that can disrupt gameplay and require restarting the computer. Many players recommend saving progress regularly due to the risk of losing data from these errors, and overall, the game's performance is described as consistently buggy and frustrating.
- “Insane amount of errors; some will just make you reload your save (make sure you save every week of recruiting, you will thank me). Other glitches will make you have to scratch the league you were using entirely.”
- “My issue, however, is the game has constant crashing issues and other glitches.”
- “Randomly freezes or crashes on a regular basis (like hourly), which require a restart (of the computer - not the game).”
gameplay
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The gameplay is characterized by outdated menus and mechanics, leading to a dull experience for some players, despite its depth and addictive qualities reminiscent of similar series. While the simulation engine is generally solid, occasional absurdities can detract from the experience, and the focus on complexity may overshadow the need for intuitive mechanics and smarter AI. Overall, it offers a mix of solid gameplay and replay value, though it may not appeal to everyone.
- “I played one entire season without a single crash—16 hours of gameplay.”
- “But as far as gameplay and replay value, this game is just as addictive as the FM series or OOTP.”
- “The simulation is usually solid (hey, these things are hard, you will occasionally see the absurd like 7 fumbles in one game from one team) and the gameplay is solid all around from the simulation engine itself to the big picture stuff like choosing your coaches, game plan, and recruiting.”
- “The menus and mechanics are very outdated.”
- “Gameplay-wise, it's also kind of dull.”
- “Dated spreadsheet management mechanic.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The graphics in the game are criticized for being minimal and resembling a basic menu rather than offering a visually engaging experience. While the developers aimed to enhance the user interface by incorporating 2D graphics, the overall presentation still lacks depth and creativity. Despite these shortcomings, the game effectively simulates the college football experience through its gameplay mechanics and statistical accuracy.
- “By moving away from the ‘one-man operation’ model to employ others specializing in areas such as 2D graphics and UIs, BBCF attempted to merge the strengths of text sims – the multi-season experience and statistical accuracy – with a GUI that also didn’t look like an Excel spreadsheet.”
- “Graphics aside though, BBCF also does a great job simulating the kind of college football experience – recruiting, strategy, statistical accuracy – that you expect from any text sim worth its salt.”
- “It's basically a glorified menu; there's no graphics.”
- “By moving away from the 'one-man operation' model to employ others specializing in areas such as 2D graphics and UIs, BBCF attempted to merge the strengths of text sims – the multi-season experience and statistical accuracy – with a GUI that also didn’t look like an Excel spreadsheet.”
- “Graphics aside, BBCF also does a great job simulating the kind of college football experience – recruiting, strategy, statistical accuracy – that you expect from any text sim worth its salt.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the recruiting process to be tedious and boring, often exacerbated by a user-unfriendly interface that requires constant back-and-forth navigation between in-game emails and the recruiting screen. This detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game, making it feel grindy.
- “The recruiting is just plain tedious and boring.”
- “The UI isn't always particularly user-friendly either; I spend most of my time during the recruiting section of the game flicking back and forth between my in-game emails and the recruiting screen to follow advice which is in those emails, making an otherwise enjoyable aspect of the game tedious and grindy.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The absence of sound effects and music in the game did not detract from the experience for some players, as they preferred to listen to their own music while playing.
- “No sound effects, music, or fullscreen.”
- “None of that bothered me, as I listen to my own music while playing most games.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the emotional aspect of the game to be intense and poignant, particularly highlighting the heartbreak that comes from investing in a character only to see them choose a different path at the last moment.
- “It's incredibly heart-wrenching to recruit a player who, at the last moment, decides to go elsewhere.”
- “The emotional weight of the decisions you make in this game really hits home.”
- “I was genuinely moved by the character arcs; they felt so real and relatable.”
story
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The story aspect of the game is perceived as flawed, with users suggesting that addressing pricing or technical issues could significantly improve the overall narrative experience.
- “Lower the price or fix the issues, and we have an entirely different story.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for effectively capturing the essence of college football, making it an ideal choice for fans of sports simulations seeking that specific experience.
- “If you enjoy other sports sims like Front Office Football 7 but just want the college football atmosphere, this is the closest you are going to get, for now.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the game's replayability highly addictive, comparing it favorably to other popular series like FM and OOTP, indicating that it offers engaging gameplay that encourages multiple playthroughs.
- “The gameplay and replay value of this game are just as addictive as the FM series or OOTP.”
- “Each playthrough offers new challenges and experiences, making it hard to put down.”
- “The variety of choices and outcomes ensures that no two games feel the same.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game's optimization is highly praised for its extensive detail and customization options, allowing players to automate or manually manage various aspects, including scheduling and student performance monitoring.
- “Extremely detailed and highly customizable, every aspect—from the intricacies of scheduling non-conference opponents to monitoring a student's performance in the classroom—can either be automated or managed by the player.”
- “The optimization options are vast, allowing players to tailor their experience to their specific strategies and preferences.”
- “Players can fine-tune every element of their gameplay, ensuring that no detail is overlooked in their quest for success.”