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Retro Bowl is a new American football sim for iOS and Android

Worth a punt?

Retro Bowl is a new American football sim for iOS and Android
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| Retro Bowl

New Star Games, the folks behind the excellent New Star Soccer, have decided to tackle American football in their latest game, Retro Bowl. They've said it draws a lot of inspiration from Tecmo games of the '80s and '90s. It's available now for both iOS and Android.

Players will take control of their favourite NFL team both on and off the pitch. Outside of the big matches, you'll have to manage your key player's morale. Apparently, you don't have to worry about the rest – they'll fall in line so long as the big shots are happy.

You'll also be able to manage a plethora of front office tasks too, such as upgrading stadium facilities to keep fans positive after a win and less negative after a loss – a good seat and burger do take the sting out of a defeat for sure. Similarly, you can upgrade your training facilities to help players gain XP faster and rehab facilities which will help players maintain their fitness and allow them to recover quicker from injuries.

Once all the admin is settled it'll be time to take to the field where you'll also take control of what happens there, but only from an offensive perspective. The defensive side of the game is presented in text and you just have to hope they're up to the task or make sure you're always scoring touchdowns whenever you're on offence.

This is controlled through a fairly straightforward system. You'll initially take on the role of the quarterback and be shown where your receivers are going to run via a series of arrows. It's then a simple case of using a slingshot control system to throw the ball to your target. At that point, you'll control the receiver, swiping up and down to dodge in that direction to avoid getting tackled. 

Retro Bowl is available now on the App Store and Google Play. It's a free-to-try game where you'll be able to play 5 games to see if it's for you. At that point, you can opt to purchase the full game from $0.99/£0.99.

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Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen brings both a love of games and a very formal-sounding journalism qualification to the Pocket Gamer team.