Retro Bowl Wiki

This is one of the best mobile games I have ever played. Love the customization, you get to edit the player names, and every team’s name jerseys and location. Love the way the draft works and free agency, you can easily improve your team and rebuild your team with draft picks. Even the gameplay is great, it’s simple but also need skill in order to win. So this is already a great game, but I have some suggestions that would make it even better. I wish you could play defense instead of it just simulating the defensive possessions. And I think kickoffs and punts should be playable too. You could introduce the punter position, or just have the kicker do the punting too. Hope there are plans to add these in the future. Also, I think the star players should be league wide, not just your own team, so everyone would have stats on every team. This probably would take a lot of work, but I think it would definitely be worth it. You could see how the stats of your players compare to those around the league. And this would also open trading your picks for players on your own, instead of hoping a team offers you a player for a pick. Also I hope you guys introduce other games like this in the future, like for other sports, like baseball. Retro Series (World Series)

This is one of the best game for me on my iPad. The graphics are good, I like them and I’m a young person. Also a very good thing in this is the team morale. I love it because it adds some more depth into the gameplay and almost gives it a storyline to follow. The player ratings are also a good way to tell if a player is good or not. In the draft, that has helped me exceptionally by finding players that upgrade the positions I need and to fill gaps in the team play. That also leads me to another topic; the draft. I love how it only has 3 picks and how simple it and easy it is to make picks and find players to help the challenge of building a dynasty. I also love that after around 2 seasons you can change teams. It helps me decide wether to help try juice up another team or stay with my dynasty. Trading is also a really cool thing in this game, because sometimes the computer comes up to me to offer a trade. It can be for my players and draft picks or theirs, but I can also trade my own players. Sometimes that’s what I do to make a new team and save file challenging. Overall, one of the best games in the App Store to me, best football app by a big margin, and overall a very exciting and fun game to play. I hope if your reading this, please give it a shot, you will NOT REGRET IT!

I originally downloaded this game never hearing about it beforehand, played through the first three games, and came across the wall to purchase the rest of the game. For $1. After paying that $1 I have put countless hours into this game building different teams, coaching staffs, and mastering the different concepts the game had to offer. Before the most recent update, I believed it was too easy to score field goals — which was quickly remedied as it is now more difficult which is GOOD. This simple mobile game provides the GM experience you would like to see in an official EA Madden game, but simplifies the gameplay to offensive efforts only, having the defense simulate itself. Playing against teams you’ve built in the prior year can become your worst enemy as you’re going against your own evil creation. You can call audibles, timeouts, cut players, praise/fine players for certain actions, and so much more. The only recommendation I have for the developers of this game (if possible) is to try and implement a lateral system so the football can be passed off to another player close by to avoid a tackle, but with a higher chance of fumbling. Other than that, this game is an absolute must. Even if you know NOTHING about football, you will quickly pick it up and never want to put it down.

I was in my car and I was looking for something to do. I had watched some football videos so I looked for some free football games on my Phone. Found this gem. The franchise is so deep. You can talk to players to get morale up, you have coordinators that effect your play, you have press conferences directly impacting your team, and it has very efficient stat tracking. It is very innovative how they have done their gameplay. Instead of trying a 3D, realistic-looking game, they go full Retro and make the entire game 8-bit. It is very fun to play with. As much as I wish I could play defense, I think it makes the game exciting to see how that will go. This game has no bugs as far as I can see. And the great news is, I have only played this game for 1 day, so I’ve barely scratched the surface. And the game is only two months old when I’m writing this, so it still has many updates to come. My wishlist for future patches: a more in-depth offseason including training camp and free agency, changing the difficulty for beginners and for more experienced players, online multiplayer, some plays are overpowered so nerf them, trick plays, new running mechanics because it is near impossible at the moment, online season, play now (both versus cpu and online), and the ability to practice.

Dear developers: I love you. This is football perfection (die hard Bears fan, so yes, I bleed football, but done right). This game is a perfect amalgamation of a football rpg with the GM aspects, a techno bowl successor with the gameplay, and Maddow, with the players rankings, drafting, etc. i am I total love with this game, and it was free. I love it some much I HAD to buy the full version. Only a couple of naggles. The main one is difficulty. Hard and dynamic give a challenge by being cheaper. High star players no longer catching the ball, at intercepts EVERYTHING, and even 1 star defenses will give your 5 star offense fits. This must be evened out, as on medium were GODs on the field. I difficulty in between would be nice. I love sitting back and waiting to see what my defense will do without my interference but I’m sure there’s some way you can give the option of calling defensive plays just not control the players. That would be awesome. Otherwise, the nuance in this game is deeper than many console game. My players with drug problems had on filed issues. My star wideout declined with age. Players whose stats weren’t the best shocked and out performed as 5 star players underwhelmed. It is amazing how they incorporated most aspects of football into this little package. These guys need a f@#&@## award for there efforts. Bravo guys.

Getting into this game has taught me how football works. No other football game has taken me past confusion with football and into understanding like this one. Like, I knew nothing about football before playing this game, nothing, and now I understand a lot! I was obsessed with this game for a while, but after a certain point I felt like there was no challenge. Every game basically plays the same way. Especially after optimizing my team, I started crushing almost every game except maybe one or two in a season. Starting a new game doesn't rekindle my interest either because the games still all play the same. I'm not sure what I'd like to see change. But I HIGHLY recommend this game all the same. Especially if it's free! Edit: Actually I'd like to play defense. Right now you don't actually play when the other team has the ball, text comes up that tells you what's happening and you don't control any of it until you get control again. If you have a low star defense, you can expect an opposing team to score every time they get the ball, making every interception devastating, and you can't do anything about it. It would be nice to have more control in order to mitigate this and also it'd just be fun! Still highly recommend.

The game is now free, but even when it wasn’t I was looking for a game exactly like mid you I don’t really care for football I’m more of a basketball guy but I played one free season and was amazed back at its early stage I couldn’t help but buy since my birthday was in a few days with a small very small portion of the money I bought this game and nba2k20 mobile I played retro bowl and I have been playing for 1 year and just recently stared really playing this a game agin like a month ago I won 4 championships in a row I maintain and stack my roster I have attachment to my players I wish you could look at everyone in the leagues stats tho and there was deeper progression system I want intel on teams and when I don’t sign a player I want to see where he goes i also want a option to sim games although there aren’t that many I sometimes don’t wanna play some, I showed my friend and he can’t stop playing this game he wants a stacked roster like me but I’ve been playing so long and also bought some stuff you might be a one man team but take you time and make this happen I’m a happy Customer I want it to be EVEN better though write me back if you see so we can chat maybe.

This is what a great game looks like. I'm not one to usually rate a game, but this one deserves it. It keeps calling me back to play it and that is something I see in console games not mobile games, but these developers did great. Yes it is retro which is a let down due to the fact that I play 3D games but that doesn't particularly matter, what matters is the fact that it's fun Now even though it is a fun and amazing game, it does have its flaws, for example your never explicitly shown how the catching works, I had a guy on my little marker showing where the ball was going but the guy three feet in front of him intercepted it, another issue is that you don't get a defensive gameplay view, just text bubbles telling you what's happened, it makes the game faster but it makes it feel like you're not fully in control of your team, I would be happy with just watching it instead of reading it, one I feel a bit more control because I can see who's not doing well or who is great, secondly similar to my first point, I'll be able to know who's my weakest link, if that was fixed I would be happy. Nonetheless this is a great game, but needs a few adjustments

This is a fantastic game and in certain ways better than the latest and greatest on the market today. I remember a time when you could just buy a game, pop it in your console and get up and running in less than 5 minutes. Now you need to sign into accounts, be connected to WiFi, and have to download updates all the time. It’s understandable given the complexity of modern technology but it does take away from the overall experience. Mobile gaming has followed a similar route and when playing the latest FIFA and Madden games its crazy how many things you have to do to get started. Retro Bowl has brought back that nostalgic feeling to gaming and I look forward to building my team whenever I get the chance. It has a simple interface in which you are always playing offense while the defense is simulated for you. You aren’t overwhelmed with choices and being able to simply choose between passing, running, or a QB sneak instead of memorizing countless A, B maneuvers keeps the game fun and light. It’s ultimately very straightforward and something I could even see more technologically adverse people enjoy. Sometimes, simpler really is better!

it's definitely the best mobile game i've ever played. i've played it for almost a year now, i started in march 2020, and i've been playing it since. i love pretty much everything that's been added in since i first played i just have one suggestion that i always wished would be added to the game. i would love a way to just simulate your own game. it would make it more fun and appealing to the people who like the franchise aspect a lot so we don't have to play with a no name quarterback and get blown out for 16 games lol. i think it'd be cool just as an option so you can play or just skip to the draft and draft a better team. it'd also be cool if there was like a fire coach setting where you could be fired for extra difficulty, or if you could play defense that would make this one of my favorite games of all time. in all it's an amazing game, i love it, and i've been playing since around the time it came out i believe and i got some of my friends to get it too. i understand it's new and it's still having plenty of stuff added to it, but i'd love to see some of the stuff i suggested updated into the game at some point.

i started playing a few weeks back and i love this game, but one thing i found difficult was my morale was always so low with no way to bring it up. i felt like every game a player had a dui or was fighting. there are very few positive situations that arise, like i could throw for 800 yards and the postgame interview would be “what are your thoughts on (insert DB) today” and the two options are both negative. not to mention the fact that i can be 6-0 with 70% fan approval, then lose one game and it plummets to 45% approval (yes that actually happened) there needs to be more positive rewards. secondly i think the draft picks really shouldn’t start with such high ratings. maybe put one or two that start out as like 3 star prospects, but most of them should just be 1 or 2 star players with POTENTIAL to be 5 star, giving you an incentive to hold onto your investment. and also maybe make make coaching credits a little easier to get? everything is super expensive and by the time i can afford to upgrade facilities or get better coaching, my star players are retiring or on different teams and i have no QB because i spent all my coins on a 3 star offensive coordinator. again, fantastic game, but please take some of these things into consideration. thanks!

For a free game and even a dollar it’s good but it has some major problems. While I enjoy the mechanics and aesthetic, clearly development of the dynamic difficulty system suffered. It seems to me that the developer didn’t know how to make AI defense more skilled which I suppose I wouldn’t either so higher difficulty simply makes your players drop the easiest catches known to man significantly more often the higher your difficulty level. In fact, it seems that your players drop easy catches frequently in general, but the insanely high frequency which this occurs at in high difficulty is simply ridiculous. This increased difficulty also makes your defense essentially non existent so it’s a game of keeping up on offense and winning off a last second field goal. My other problem with this game would be the running. While it’s already quite bad that you can generally only throw up to like 20 yards or so, your players run out of stamina very quickly so you can generally expect them to run at most 20 yards after the catch which is in my opinion really dumb. This forces you into letting touchdowns by in score or go home moments when your receiver was wide open and far away from any defenders because he just starts walking towards the end zone after running 10 yards. It also makes the run game utterly unviable. If these 2 main issues aforementioned were fixed, it’s a 5 star for me.

I spent months grinding this game, I love the mechanics, I have no complaints about the gameplay itself... but when you play for months and win over 8 retro bowls with the same team and complete 90% of the hall of fame achievements that you’ve been working for just to log on and EVERYTHING is erased and gone it is extremely frustrating! This game needs a better way to save your progress. There’s no way to transfer gameplay to any other IOS device, if I broke my phone I would be unable to play with my same team on another device. Also what’s the point of playing if you loose all achievements and progress randomly!! Everything I played was deleted and gone, I logged on and it prompted me to start a new game and gave me a tutorial as if I never logged on... extremely frustrating. That being said I’m not trying to bag on the game itself, it has great game mechanics, it keeps things simple unlike most modern IOS games that try to over complicate and drain your battery. Amazing game but I will not be playing again until there is an update that allows you to save and track your progress across multiple accounts and doesn’t crash and make you loose everything you’ve worked for on the game - especially if there is an option to pay for the premium version (which I payed for). Please fix these retro bowl!!

Updated again: The game no longer costs 99 cents because it is completely unplayable. Every update makes it worse than before. I don’t even know what is going on over there but I just want to cry because it was so fun, absolutely perfect, and I got to enjoy it for like 3 weeks, my iPad was broken for a week, when I got it fixed and the game was updated it was pretty bad, and I wrote this first review update, took it from 5 stars to 1 and struggled with a broken game, and then they updated it again, and now it is absolutely wrecked. I don’t have the heart to uninstall, I don’t pay for games often, and I wrote “best game... in 10 years” in my first review, but I’m only keeping it in memorial effigy of a game I almost got to have. At this point I am guessing the next update will have even bigger catch radii, completely unstoppable offensive weapons, and the opposing teams will get shut out completely by any defense just a 1/2 star better than their offense, all turnovers too if 3/2 stars better. First review: Just reviewing for credits, but best game I have played in 10 years. Update: bought the game because it was perfect, then the dev updated it. I WANT MY 99 CENTS BACK! If we can choose between 2 and 3 minute quarters, why can’t we choose which version we want to play? I really liked the old receiver tie up game mechanic that resulted in lots of drops and broken up passes, now every throw is a pick or a completion. Refund please.