This is the 5th installment in the Axis Football series, and the game as well as its community continues to grow each year. The game gets better every year, as this small dev team works hard to listen to its community, and mold the game into what the players want. If you want the Football game industry to be competitive again someday, please support these guys, as every penny goes into improving the next game. With enough support, we will again have more football sim options and EA will no longer have a monopoly on the industry.

This will be my third year buying and playing Axis Football. Every year, there are big, positive changes. This year is no different. The franchise mode got a huge upgrade as it added coaches (HC, OC, DC and position coaches). It also added team facilities and finances. They added a morale meter that helps see how your team is feeling about your changes. You can simulate practices which impact the team's performance, injuries, and morale. You choose what to practice such as working on rushing/ball security, pass rushing, film study, and more. These will impact the yearly progression as well. Scouting was also added as well as a draft board that you can use to monitor the players you scout. Trades also got an upgrade and you can now trade draft picks as well as players.

Overall, the game has a deep franchise features, decent game play, and good player progression. The game play did not receive any major overhaul this year but it's not bad. Simulation in the game is pretty solid and statistics are reasonable.

Is the game a Madden killer? No by no means. Play and enjoy Axis Football 2019 for what it is: a great simulation football game that offers a deep franchise mode and enjoyable game play. I recommend the product as a fun alternative.

In its current state, its impossible to recommend this game at a 30$ price point. The Franchise mode is its main selling point and while it appears to have depth on the surface, it's extremely easy to manipulate the franchise features to your advantage. I started as the lowest ranked team in the league (Washington Senators) and within 3 seasons I had a Tier 1 team built and won the league championship. Draft and free agency are stacked with high rated players that the AI teams never seem to pick up and trades are easily manipulated to go in your favor. There are no bonuses that have to be paid out upon signing and you have a ridiculous amount of cap space every season. No career stats for players, either. On top of that, if you keep your training facilities well maintained you'll pretty much never have to worry about injuries. (During all the seasons I simmed through I never went into the playoffs with any injured players)

Games themselves just aren't worth playing. The mechanics are sloppy at best and coach mode is just flat out broken. Most teams don't have their own home stadiums. At the beginning of each game (even in franchise mode) you have to select a stadium to play in and you have to decide on what the weather will be, so no random weather putting a damper on any aspect of your team's game plan.

That being said, the game does have potential. The team names are interesting and the college-style ranking system is refreshing. Disappointed to see that the developers rush out a new version of the game every year... they could do this game a lot of justice by switching over to a 2 1/2 to 3 year release schedule. We need a non-Madden football game with a franchise mode that isn't about number crunching and endless menus, and this game could very well be it. A lot more attention needs to be paid to the finer points in this game because, while good in theory, most of the features don't stick the landing.

Drop the price down to 10$ and I'll change my recommendation to a yes.

Franchise season 1 - The Portland Devilcats buy a slew of high priced free agents on the open market in a gamble to win the tier three championship and advance to tier two. Losing means my team will go bankrupt... I make it to tier two.

My offseason allows me to improve slightly by uncovering a couple of hidden gems in the draft - I power through tier two and win the championship. The next offseason gifts me nothing meaningful.

Season three tier one... I am undefeated halfway through the season when I realize that my entire secondary will be gone or incredibly expensive if I win the AXIS Bowl. I trade away my starting cornerbacks, my best linebacker and my starting QB and running back as well as a D lineman and my best O-lineman. I also trade away every draft pick for the next two years - except the first rounders.

In return I piece together a secondary of younger cheaper, but still talented fast ballers on longer contracts. I also own the first five draft picks in the next draft. After barely winning the axis bowl I drafted a generational level QB, RB, LB, O lineman, and D Lineman - and put them all on 6 year contracts. I rebuilt my entire team on the fly in the middle of a championship season and started a dynasty.

It was fun. The football is almost as fun, but now I only play about 1/2 of the games and sim the rest. If this experience sounds like what you want - an arcade football game with a deep franchise mode, then I recommend Axis 2019!

This can be a good buy, but don't expect it to be something it's not. Don't buy this game if you're looking for a graphic gameplay simulator. It's too clunky for that. Buy it if you want a franchise mode with an easy interface and a slight visual component.

For years, I've been on the hunt for a front office game with a deep franchise mode, fictional leagues and decent visuals. Logos, faces, games. I'd be fine with N64 level graphics or "electronic football" from back in the day. I've played Front Office Football for years and while it's amazing in its depth, it's text-only and an eyesore. Pro Football Strategy has an excellent Tecmo-like 2D simulator you can spectate, but beyond playcalling, there's not much depth there. OOTP is working on a football game that sounds very promising, but who knows when it will come out.

So I'm going with this for now. Historical career tracking for players is something they definitely need to add. I'll get by without it for now because it makes me adopt more of a "What have you done for me lately?" approach that I think is closer to the truth.

The franchise mode depth and UI make Axis a good buy for me. As far as gameplay goes, there's just not enough meat on the bones. I will just simulate.

Coaching a team in franchise mode was my goal - learning how to build a football dynasty is a lot of fun. There are one or two shortcomings, main one being (currently) that the passing game (in Coach mode) does not seem to be working correctly. Looking at some forum posts, it seems like this is about to be fixed in the latest edition coming soon. I hope so because I enjoy playing this game and if the kinks can be knocked out of it, it would be pretty addictive

So... where do I start. I guess I'll start with the franchise mode. You cannot play more than six seasons with one team. It is impossible. The game will not let you continue your franchise and will just freeze up. Not even to mention sometimes when you press "start next season" It'll bug out and you'll have the same game, and schedule as you did last year. Overall it's fun but its just extremely de-moralizing whenever you've built a juggernaut and then you have to start alllllll over again.

Now, other than those annoying issues I mentioned, the franchise mode is very deep. Much faster and more organized than Madden's by a long shot. Trades can be difficult, scouting the right player so you can save money by paying a rookie as opposed to a 34 year-old veteran. It can be very strategic and may be hard at first, but is fun nonetheless.

As for the gameplay, there are still some really really really annoying bugs. At kickoff, if you're not selecting the player who is receiving the ball and you're on some other player, when the kicker kicks the ball it will teleport you inside of the receiving player and force you to return a kick with a lineman who's speed is a D-. Sometimes when you pass the ball, the receiver can be wide open, and he will duck in a very strange and jacked up motion and completely miss the ball. The AI can be hard, but they don't even try to prevent 2 point conversions. Some of the tackling isn't quite there yet, but it is an improvement over '18 I would say.

To summarize, if you're not to keen on spending $60 on a scripted madden game, which has been to be quite honest, terrible in recent years, and you are willing to put up with some issues until they presumably are fixed, then i recommend this game. As there are NFL mods to make it feel like the NFL.

This is my second time purchasing a game from this series/developers. First time being Axis Football 2017. I've also played the original Axis Football League online with Flash. And it's nice to say that this series has come a long way since then and I'm thoroughly impressed with this current game and excited for the future games. There aren't many options to the game currently with only a play now and franchise, but honestly that's all there's needed to have a good game. *Glares at the other football franchise game that won't be named* I've gotten a fairly decent grasp on the game. I haven't fully uncovered all of the nooks and cranies yet, but I figured this is a good time to start on the review for the game.

Let's start with the Pros:

The franchise in the game is deeeep like the ocean. The ability to basically control everything as a GM is something I've always been looking for in a football game. You can control things such as what the team will be practicing for the week to hiring/firing who's on your coaching staff.

If the franchise is deep like the ocean this thing is basically it's equivalent. You can customize the uniforms, teams and even the players themselves! And even import your own set of teams which is a huge plus for those that want to do a certain franchise.

During the gameplay you can make adjustments for offense and defense whether you want to bank on defending the run or even just sling the ball around on offense.

The Cons:

If you're looking for a high-end gameplay game. This is not the game for you. The graphics are pretty good from the last time I've played a game of it's sort, but the gameplay itself is pretty clunky with the players.

The AI is fairly dumb at making decisions (I play the game through coach mode-- although it could just be that my QB isn't that smart?)

Some of the abbreviated lettering I can figure out by common sense, but there are some others where I would suggest having a legend or tutorial help just for more convenience and understanding of what the player does best.

On the same topic I'm not too sure if it's intended, but the OVR is a letter grade, but during season progression the player loses numbers? e.g. Player OVR B+ (-2). I feel like that's a little confusing to understand.

Overall, I think this game is pretty darn good for what it gives. If you're a lover of just managing a team and not worried about gameplay this game is for you. Solid 7.5/10 with room to improve even more.

Sorry if I rambled on too long... first time poster.

This is a solid game. It is half the price of Madden. There are plenty of issues with games, glitches, and bugs. But overall for the price and considering that it is possible to find custom rosters online it is a good deal for most. If you are looking for the exact same experience as Madden, maybe don't get this game. The graphics aren't as good and the animations are poor as well, but if you are just a casual fan of football or want a deep franchise mode and custom rosters this may be the game for you. Honestly, you could also just buy and old Madden, but buy this game if you want to support a smaller Developer and want EA to have some kind of competition in the Football game space.

I think that Axis Football has some potential as the years go on. This game can only get better, and if the Devs continue to work at it, the product could rival Madden. Axis Football 2019 is a good game, not amazing, it does not compete with Madden, but it is still solid. The Franchise mode is really deep and full. Between Axis and Maximum Football, Axis is a better all-around game. If you want a solid Indie Football game that costs half the price of Madden and plays on the PC I would recommend this game. Again, do not go into this game expecting it to be exactly like Madden.

I picked up Axis Football 2019 to give it a go since this years Madden looks like and plays like you know what. I want to preface this review by saying I went into this game knowing that this is no Madden game, this can’t compete with Madden’s graphics, physics (lel), and gameplay. I also knew that AF2019 did not have the EA budget to even think about taking down this monster. I will not compare it to this years current Madden (or any for that matter) and I will not compare this to NCAA Football (boy do I miss that series). This is also my first Axis Football game and I just want to give the developers my take on this game. So, let’s begin.

Team Customization.
Team customization is not what you think, it’s actually very limited when it comes to editing jersey’s and you cannot edit stadium or logos WITHIN the game. Now you can make mods and edit all this stuff out side of the game by messing with files and such but if you little to no skill or knowledge in that regard, you are stuck with this very limited customization options provided to you. I was excited for this only to be disappointed.

Franchise Mode.
It’s very deep, the UI is amazing, and you can tell where the developers spent a lot of their time. There’s a lot to take in here and it’s more than most Football sims will give you. You can sign players, draft players, perform contract extensions, upgrade training facilities, upgrade stadiums, and maintain all these things. There is team morale, practice management, and coaching staff customization. If you are just into this kind of thing and just simulating all your games your team plays, then this is really good. The main thing franchise mode lacks is career stat tracking and player accolades (Such as MVP of 2019 season or Defensive player of the year 2019). So when guys go into free agency all you really have is their attribute numbers and that doesn’t tell the whole story or immerse you into wanting to sign a guy.

Gameplay.
Alright I watched gameplay before I bought the game and you know it didn’t seem to bad until you play it. This is by far the weakest part of the game. There is a lot left to be desired to be honest and it’s all things you see on the other reviews. Receivers go to a dead stop when the ball is thrown in the air instead of catching it in stride. Pass defense (lol) is about as bad as it gets. The AI will standstill with certain individual players and wont move. Ball carriers phasing through would be tacklers. Most passes go for TD’s. Even the controls on Keyboard, or controller (I tried both) are very clunky. You get my point, this part of the game needs a lot of work.

Is Axis football good? It’s bad but if you don’t want to play Madden, or you’re looking to an alternative to NCAA football, and you can stomach all of these issues then this is game for you. For me, I want a game with a good franchise mode like this but with stat tracking and good gameplay. I don’t like to just sit their and sim all my games or do coach mode all the time and watch the derpy AI do derp things. I want to be down in the action, throw the ball, run with the running back, play defense, and just enjoy it.

So please guys, work on the gameplay, once that is overhauled I believe Axis will start taking off a bit more.