Retro Goal Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

For this Retro Goal Review, we get to play it our way. From the Hollywood pass to the hospital ball, an absolute screamer, or a simple tap-in, We ponder questions such as will your game day skills match our managerial know-how? Are we a great man manager or will we lose the dressing room? And most importantly will that new striker you’ve just signed be able to perform on a cold, wet, night in Stoke?

Retro Goal Review Pros:

  • Detailed pixel art graphics.
  • 71MB download size.
  • Own in-game achievements.
  • Football gameplay.
  • Full touchscreen support for all the menus and playing the game.
  • Controller/Joycon support.
  • Four difficulties – Easy, normal, hard, and extreme.
  • Five save slots.
  • Choose which side of the screen you want to be on every game.
  • Optional and repayable tutorial.
  • Turbo mode – 1 to 5 stars.
  • Camera settings – far, near and dynamic.
  • Scanlines can be turned on and off.
  • Weather types – on/off.
  • You run and play a football club. You can choose to work your way up from the bottom or pick your team.
  • Full team management from buying and selling players, hiring and firing coaches, formations, and tactics.
  • Players earn exp and level up to earn coins and improve their ratings.
  • Overall team rating.
  • Coins are used to upgrade team facilities, and stadiums and buy players/coaches, etc.
  • The game plays out where you can only do limited actions like move up and down, shoot/volley/header.
  • It’s not an arcade or Fifa-style gameplay setup.
  • Constant replays of plays and goals.
  • Fast forward/rewind and skip replays.
  • A huge referee avatar pops up when issuing cards, free kicks, penalties, etc.
  • The game flow is you take over the game at key points and the rest is simmed.
  • Uses the same controls and gameplay flow as Retro Bowl if you have played that.
  • Shots can have a guide arrow come up to help with aiming/power etc.
  • A lot of fun.
  • A refreshing take on the sport.
  • Highly addictive.
  • Your club/team has a morale rating for the players and conditions for how well you are doing.
  • Achievements pop up as you earn them.
  • A little flag will show above a player’s head if they are offside.
  • At the end of a game, you can choose who to praise or scold which affects bonuses and rewards.
  • Newspaper reports will show off accomplishments.
  • You can have teams approach you about sales and loan players.
  • Optional radar at the top to show player locations.
  • Tackling is automatic for the most part, you just line the player up but you can press for a hard tackle.
  • The controls are surprisingly tight and precise.
  • All upgrades to facilities take time to build and are measured in games.
  • Full stats and breakdowns of players, the team, and other teams.
  • Player info can tell you about them, their star rating, and then stats on performance and their overall fitness.
  • Set up to do a half or full season.
  • Set your favorite team.
  • Has multiple leagues in all European and world countries.

Retro Goal Review Cons:

  • Takes a while to get used to the controls regardless of the touchscreen or controller.
  • Not real names but the team names are very close.
  • Your teammates get in the way a fair bit, especially in the box.
  • When your opponent is playing you just get a text pop-up saying what’s going on.
  • The changing of your lineup is confusing as it doesn’t give feedback on the dynamics of the team or even if the player actually plays in that position.
  • No way to rewatch previous games.
  • Can’t upload or share replays.
  • No goal celebration variety or control.
  • Full or half-season is the only game mode, doesn’t have tournaments or one-off matches.
  • No online play.
  • Doesn’t have world teams just domestic.
  • Cannot create your own team and kit colors.

Related Post: Tad The Lost Explorer Review (PlayStation 4)

Retro Goal:

Official website.

Developer: New Star Games

Publisher: New Star Games

Store Links –

Nintendo

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!