This is such a strange game. NCAA Football for the Sega Genesis and SNES were both published by Mindscape. These games were released in 1994, and this was a one off game on the home console.
This isn’t some in depth experience. It is similar to other college football games that only have a handful of teams. There are a few interesting things about it, but this isn’t close to what EA or Sega would do in terms of football games.
I’m mostly going to be playing the Sega Genesis version of the game. From the little information that is out there on Mindscape’s NCAA Football, these should be the same thing. I’ll check, but I doubt there will be a lot of difference.
This isn’t a game that I have high hopes for. I’m just expecting it to be decent, and maybe it will be fun for what it is. Let’s get into it and see what the games have to offer.
TLDR: Decent Gameplay and Graphics can’t make up for a lack of features
Gameplay
In many ways, this game reminds me of a Tecmo Super Bowl game. It is a simple game to play, and has a similar control scheme to those games. The playbook is much bigger, though, which should make the game more fun. It is a slow game that just doesn’t have good gameplay.
There are only two game modes in this. You can play an exhibition or a tournament. It’s a little disappointing, but it isn’t all that surprising given the state of other football games from this time.
There are thirty nine teams in this. Now, this is extremely disappointing! Other games like this had way more teams. Still, only having this many teams is very disappointing. They couldn’t even include the top 25 from that year.
As I’m looking over the roster of teams, there are some strange omissions. There is no Michigan, USC, Ohio State, or Alabama. It is a bizarre collection of teams. Some make sense, and others are head scratches, even for 1994. Here is the roster:
| Air Force | Colorado | North Carolina | Texas Tech |
| Arizona | Florida State | North Carolina State | Tulane |
| Arkansas | Georgia | Oklahoma | UCLA |
| Army | Georgia Tech | Penn State | Virgina |
| Auburn | Hawaii | Pitt | Virginia Tech |
| Baylor | Illinois | SMU | Washington |
| Boston College | Kansas State | Southern Miss | Wisconsin |
| BYU | Louisville | Stanford | Wyoming |
| California | LSU | Syracuse | |
| Clemson | Miami | Tennessee | |
| Mississippi State | Nebraska | Texas A&M |
There are quite a few plays in this game. That is something I like a lot. Because it is more of a realistic simulation, the offense and defense have different playbooks. This is close to what you’ll see in the Bill Walsh and Sega college football games.
At the end of the day, I can’t see this game pulling me away from the other football games on either console. I would rather go back and play one of the Tecmo games. It is a competently made game, but with so few features, there isn’t much reason to revisit it unless you want to do a retrospective review of all the football games from the 1990s.
Visuals
The graphics look okay on the Sega Genesis version. You have an overhead side view of the action, similar to how Tecmo Super Bowl looks. This is my preferred way to play retro football games, so that was nice to see.
The character sprites are detailed enough. They look pretty good, and the animations are nice. It is pretty easy to see where the ball is going or who the running back is.
The fields don’t look all that special. I’m not expecting much, but it was a little hard to tell where I was on the field with respect to the endzone. It feels like the camera is zoomed in too much, and there isn’t a marker to give you a frame of reference, unless you run towards the sideline.
There is weather in the game, which is nice to see. Neither of these effects looks very good, as it just adds blue and white splotches to the field for rain or snow It isn’t amazing or anything like that, but I like that it is there. It does break things up from having a pretty boring presentation.
I don’t see anything to write home about the graphics in this game. They’re fine for what they are. I look at them, and I think about playing something else. In this case, I would rather play any other football game.
Reviews at the Time
There aren’t too many reviews for this game archived online. I can completely understand why the game wasn’t reviewed much, as there were several better football games released in 1994. There are two partial reviews on MobyGames.
GamePro gave the game a 3.5/5. The reviewer called this game perfect for novices. I can see that because the game doesn’t have much to it.
All Game Guide gave the game a 2/5. The reviewer wrote highly about the number of plays that you can run, but said this is a slow game. They said Tecmo Super Bowl was a “much, much more enjoyable” game and is the football game everyone should pick up. This was released in 1998.
I didn’t find a review for the Genesis version. It is a little weird, but I guess that is how things go sometimes. Not every game could be reviewed. In this case, I can completely understand why this wasn’t remembered enough to be archived in any meaningful way.
6/10. This isn’t bad, but there isn’t all that much here to talk about. Mindscape’s NCAA Football is a very basic game that lacks many of the features of the other football games on the market. I would rather play the Bill Walsh games or Sega’s College Football games.
Pros
- Pick up and Play
- Nice graphics
Cons
- There isn’t much here.
- Baffling team omissions
Conclusion
There are several other football games I would rather play. The Genesis college football games were all better than this. It is an odd game in both the SNES and Genesis libraries, but not odd enough to really leave an impact.
When I was looking up information on this game, I found a very basic description on SegaRetro and an article on Fandom. The second article is so poorly written that I’m not sure what they were trying to describe. Whoever wrote the few paragraphs did a horrific job of describing the game, and made me wonder if English was their third or fourth language. It is also flat out wrong on some of the things in this game.
When I played this game, I got what I was expecting. An average football game that had a bunch of problems. There has to be a story behind this game, and I’m sure that no one has bothered to ask about it. It is one of the many games that I’m not sure why it exists.
If you liked this post, check out my others on College Football games. Such as Sega’s College Football games or the Bill Walsh games from EA.