Ty Plays Retro Bowl

My son plays his Nintendo Switch a lot. I’m not much of a gamer, as you all know, but time to time I’ll play the Switch just to pass the time. It can be a good way to turn my brain off for a bit. I’ve mentioned playing MLB The Show before on the site. I play NBA2k a little here and there. We play Mario Kart and Mario Party as a family. The Switch gets used.

Recently though my son has been telling me to play Retro Bowl. He knows I have a lot of love for Tecmo Bowl. I played that game quite a bit when I was a kid. It was either Tecmo Bowl or NBA Jam for me when I was in middle school. But when my son told me Retro Bowl was similar to Tecmo Bowl, I was skeptical. The other day I grabbed the Switch while some reality show was on and I was not feeling The Show. I go through this with games. I get really into them for a few weeks, but when I’m done, I’m done. That is where I am currently with The Show. So I decided to give Retro Bowl a try.

When I turned the game on, it definitely had a similar look to Tecmo Bowl. That made me smile. I was a little turned off when it wouldn’t let me be the Packers right away though. But as I got more into the game, it definitely got more fun. I was getting real Tecmo Bowl vibes. It’s so simple to play. In Retro Bowl I don’t even have to pick a play. It’s not much, but when I play a game wherein I have less decisions to make, that’s a feather in its cap. So, after being given the Arizona Cardinals, I started to play and was instantly in. The passing is so easy. Move the cursor, press a button and hope you don’t throw a pick. When you catch it, that’s when you can make a move or two, but pressing one button. The same goes with the run game. You press one button, the qb hands it off and then it’s up to you to get yards as the running back. As for defense, you don’t have to play. It simulates it all for you. That makes the game go by super quickly. I can finish a game in about eight minutes. That means I can do more than 1/3 of the season in less than an hour. It’s a little more involved than Tecmo Bowl with the weekly stuff you do. You can make players, facilities and your stadium better by spending coins you earn. You can sign and trade players. You get to draft new players yearly. You can make decisions on coaches both during and after the year. And then you go and play more games.

I have found myself enjoying this game a lot. I think about it from time to time during the day after I’ve already played it. It took me five seasons, but I just won my first Retro Bowl. I’ve taken the Cardinals to the top of the Retro Bowl mountain. And now I have to decide if I want to stay or build up a new team.

I recommend this game for sports fans, especially ones my age that once loved Tecmo Bowl. It’s a nice comparison to the OG Nintendo football game. Retro Bowl is a blast. I can’t wait to play it later today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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