I’d second Retro Bowl for a fast-playing football game on your phone. It finally got me to play something other than Desert Golfing for the millionth time on my iPhone. It isn’t the Tecmo Bowl clone I wanted / expected, but it’s great regardless.
I installed Retro Bowl, and it’s cool but it seems like there’s no play calling? I also don’t like not seeing the other team’s offense or apparently having any way to respond to it.
Yeah, it’s pretty limited in most regards. You can audible a few times per half (depending on your QB’s level), but you can’t call plays yourself. You can’t play defense either.
It does get frequent updates and additions, so those could be added in the future. But it’s not really the super deep kind of game you’d spend hours at a time playing. It’s more suited for a game or two when you have a few spare minutes. It’s great on smartphones, but I think I’d get bored with it on most other platforms.
I suck pretty bad at passing.
That’s definitely an acquired skill in this game, but probably the best thing about it once you get the hang of it. Your QB’s accuracy rating (and you receiver’s speed) make a big difference too.
I think I messed around with Retro Bowl while the wife was watching tv a bunch of months back. It was a fun little time killer when I was hanging out with her when she was watching tv and I wasn’t interested in it.
FOF for sure.
What’s wrong with the CFL/ Canadian football league?
Legend Bowl is in early access, seems like it could be a good retro football game.
It’s a shame there’s not much out there that compares with Football Manager, which is one of the best business simulation games, let alone sports.
I noticed in further news about Front Office Football that Jim has sold Front Office Football to another company. Apparently he will be working with the company on some new project:
Seriously, Blood Bowl 2 does It best, you coach your team through matches and seasons, and it’s a heart wrenching experience where you will get to love and hate your players:)
5 out of 5 goblins
I have a real itch to play an NFL simulation. I also have never played a Madden game, believe it or not, as the arcade nature doesn’t really appeal to me.
With Madden’s passing and all the tributes, they often mention the Madden games. I’ve looked at them online, graphics are as good as you’d expect in an EA A-level sports game. My question is, how well do they play if you only want to play in a franchise mode and only want to call the plays during the game and not control the players?
The game supports that play style, but it’s definitely not its strong suit. You want to enable “coach mode” in the settings, which will have the AI control the players if you don’t touch anything
Sad thing is there really isn’t much else these days. Front Office Football IP was sold to some company and I have no idea what is going to come of that. I’ve never played Draft Day Sports Pro Football, so not sure if their games are any good.
I’m very disappointed that nothing ever came of the Front Office Football - OOTP collaboration.
I really wish Front Page Sports Football would find a way to come back. One of my favorite games in the 90s. Heck just give me the damn thing on gog and I would probably be happy.
I bought Pro Strategy Football last fall. Here are my thoughts
PSF is purely about simulating the games and seasons. It does not include trades or salaries or basically anything outside the plays. The graphics are retro at best.
But if you want a realistic simulation of what happens when you run a 4 WR long pass deep against a 4-3 2-deep coverage, then this is your game. If you want a realistic simulation of the 1972 or 1995 or whatever NFL season, where the passing/rushing/etc stats are reasonable close to reality, this is your game (note: the base game has non-NFL teams/players. Modders have come up with great league
rosters). The AI is tough and realistic.
The whole thing is the love-project of one guy. And he is super-active on the steam forums discussing what is working/not working and how to make it better.
I would’ve loved to have seen the finished product of the project OOTP was working on prior to the collaboration with Jim Gindin, unfortunately the developer had some severe health issues (possibly even passed away sadly) and the project came to a halt.
I will have to take a look at PSF. In the 80s I loved Lance Haffner’s 3-in-1 Football on my c64. ESPN or someone did this thing with NFL films back then were they had a tournament of best NFL teams ever, so I ran my own with the Haffner game.
PSF 2022 is only $5 on iPad, too, which is just an insane value. It started as a mobile app, and I’m super sad that he doesn’t put out an Android version anymore.
I grabbed a five bucks game on the Switch called Retro Bowl, that is probably the best football game I’ve played since… Gridiron Solitaire?
It goes for the crazy idea of simulating all the defense plays and giving you the hand only on offense. It’s got many surprises and one of them is the depth of it. It almost feels like New Star Soccer made for the better sports. The gamev is only playable in an auto saving career mode.
I am guessing it’s been out on the PC as well, probably for a while?
I played a bunch of Retro Bowl on mobile. At a certain point, I hit an unfun tipping point with the difficulty where either it was too easy to make huge passes or too hard to complete anything. But until then, it was good light fun. New Star Soccer (on mobile) is a pretty good comparison!
It’s been years since I played Pro Strategy Football, but if you value the simulation side, I’m sure that’s still your winning pick. Actually… I feel like last time I looked it was more than $5. I guess I’m picking up PSF2022!