Retro Bowl: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Retro Bowl, one of my favorite mobile games, has recently gotten two new updates. Oh boy, are they good. Sure, some of the features are somewhat minor. But others (around 90%) are back-of-the-box features for any new game. Just what is contained within this update? Enough to vault Retro Bowl to the top of the mobile football game food chain. The game is so good that it could be an Esport someday and be covered on sites like MEBO. However, we’ll start small here.

• You can replace the barren, brown football, with several different options now. My personal favorite (and the one I use) is the striped one, or Option 6 as it is formally known.
• When defense is being simmed, you will notice new messages, such as, “The quarterback airs it out,” and, “The ball is punched out by *Player*” I feel like this adds a new layer of realism to the simulation, as it isn’t just a continuous string of “It’s a pass,” and, “It’s a run,” over and over and over again. Nice to see some variety isn’t it, EA?
• The “tackling” stat on the O-Line is replaced by “Blocking,” so that O-Linemen can be measured by how well they block rather than… tackle. Leave that to the D-Line!
• You can rename divisions and conferences now. Now, you could truly recreate the XFL!

Now on to the more important stuff. Stuff that should really sell this update to you:

•  You can now have up to five teams at a time. There really isn’t anything else to elaborate on.
• When a star defensive lineman forces a fumble, it goes into their stat catalogue. This is really helpful for keeping track of turnovers forced, and it makes it far clearer as to who is DPOY any given season. For example, my DPOY in my first season had seven sacks ( a lot in Retro Bowl, trust me.) but he also had 4 FF’s, which really pushed him over the award-winning edge.
• You can opt out of going for it if you don’t like the defense’s coverage, and punt/kick a FG instead. I have had numerous situations where I am down and decide to go for a TD, only to realize I would rather take the 3 points after reconsidering. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take back my initial idea, and I ended up losing on a failed conversion. I still beat Arizona in the playoffs, though. Take that!
• There are now double the amount of Free Agents as there used to be. (10, thus now 20) This is awesome, because you can’t always afford the #1 free agent at the position you are looking for, so you are now able to fill a need, at a cheaper price; often the cheaper price can be upwards of 15 coach credits.
• There is an EXTREME option for those that are interested in pain and eternal suffering. It comes with complementary fatigue and another side of exhaustion to go around. Have fun.

Hold that thought… fun? Yes, fun. Even on extreme mode, getting your doors blown off by the opposition a solid chunk of the time… you will still have plenty o’ fun. And that is the best part of the experience. Retro Bowl, after all, is one of the most fun mobile games I have ever played. And, with the solid foundation it has, it has nothing to lose and all to gain. The biggest winner in the end is, above all, entertainment. This is a heck of a game. And to think that I haven’t even listed the biggest features of the update yet…