Retro Bowl Review

Tap Tap Dynasty

New Star Games, developer of critically acclaimed New Star Soccer is back and ready to stake their claim as king of all things football as they tackle the American variety with Retro Bowl for iOS and Android. Retro Bowl is a 2D side scrolling football game in the style of Tecmo Bowl, the game is free to try with a limited demo allowing you to play 4 games and the draft before you need to purchase the full version for 99 cents.

First things first, no Retro Bowl does not feature NFL teams or players. It does however feature 32 teams from the exact same cities separated into the exact same divisions as the NFL, the “Raiders” even move to Las Vegas after year one. In Retro Bowl you take on the role of coach/GM; drafting, signing/cutting, and trading players to build your franchise into a perennial champion. You also have the ability to hire offensive and defensive coordinators using “coach credits” which act as your clout in the organization and around the league. Once your roster is set you take to the field for 16 games, with the top 6 in each conference heading to the playoffs for a chance at the coveted Retro Bowl.

Despite all the stars on the field, an injury to my starting QB means Carolina is severely over matched in this late season divisional game.

Gameplay

Although it’s difficult to put down Retro Bowl is an ideal pick up and play title. The games are 2 minute quarters, offense only and take around 5 minutes to complete. On offense the game selects your play for you and gives the the option to run or pass. Passing consists of pulling back and releasing to throw the ball to a desired point on the field (think angry birds), while the routes are displayed presnap you can throw anywhere you’d like and the receivers will respond within reason. Once in control of the ball carrier you can swipe up or down to “juke” defenders, swipe back to perform a stutter step, or forward to dive. Players have 4 ratings, a skill relevant to their position (tackling, throwing accuracy etc.), speed, strength and stamina. The differences between the players are pretty exaggerated so when one of your stars is injured or resting you really feel it.

Outcomes are pretty predictable; if you’re open you’ll catch it, strong players break tackles, if you throw into a crowd it’ll be intercepted and so on. There are some nice touches like players with a high catch rating being able to jump/dive for balls and veterans being more likely to avoid tackles than rookies but for the most part you can expect your players to play the way their ratings suggest. That predictability is a plus in a game whose primary draw, at least for me, is the team management.

Career

The first thing you’ll do in Retro Bowl is select your favorite team, at which point you’ll be put in charge of another, random team in the fictional league. You start off with a 100 million dollar salary cap to sign up to ten players rated from 1 to 5 stars. The rest of your roster is filled with literally no name players but outside of injuries they typically won’t be factors game to game. On your quest to win the Retro Bowl you’ll have to manage the salary cap, draft picks, stadium/training facilities/rehab center, coaching staff and team/fan morale. It sounds like a lot but just like real life, winning will fix just about anything.

Salary cap and coach credits will control everything you do during the year. The cap goes up by 10 million each season but player salaries get outlandish pretty quickly ensuring you won’t be able to keep all your stars. Coach credits are used to hire/extend coordinators, upgrade facilities and sign “ringer” free agents. Credits are earned by winning games, making decisions week to week or selling draft picks and can also be purchased with real money.

The draft is where you can find elite players for relatively cheap (for a couple years anyway). It’s 3 rounds and you can trade away expensive or underperforming players for extra picks. If you run out of money you can skip the rest of the round and “sell” your picks for coach credits. The game gives a pretty good challenge when it comes to team building. The cap is restrictive and doesn’t allow you to stock up on stars or even high draft picks. I do wish young players developed a bit slower and remained affordable longer. While coaching the Jets I had three 3rd year players taking up over 70% of my cap and there’s no way to get bargain players to make up for it. My only other gripe is I would like to be able to keep track and see the stats of my former players after I inevitably replace them with younger, cheaper talent.

Conclusion- Buy

Retro Bowl is fun, fast and addictive with just the right amount of strategy to keep you coming back. Simple controls combined with nostalgic visuals and a low price make it an easy recommendation, especially with the current lack of options for football gamers.