Retro Bowl Best Difficulty Setting

Updated:

11 Apr 2024

Picking a difficulty is a necessary step in any video game experience. Picking a difficulty easier than your appropriate difficulty level will leave you with a gaming experience with no challenge. Picking a difficulty harder than what’s fun will, well, suck the fun out of the experience. You need to stay in the goldilocks zone. In Retro Bowl it’s particularly important to select a good difficulty, especially if you’re one of the many people who have been introduced to American Football through the game of Retro Bowl! This article will discuss the pros and cons of Retro Bowl’s difficulty levels, and which one you should pick when you try to start your dynasty.

Easy:

Easy modes get a bad rap in games, and I think that’s unfair. We’re all adults here, and there is no reason to punish yourself by playing on a harder difficulty than meets your needs. I’d recommend starting out on Easy if you’re new to the game of Retro Bowl. I’d also recommend this if you’re looking to learn the rules of American Football for the first time - there’s no reason to seek an extra challenge if you’re just getting the ropes yourself.

Why you should pick Easy:

Great for learning the rules of American football
For learning the ropes of the game
For beginners and young players

Medium:

To quote “They Might Be Giants”, medium is “in the middle, like a bird without a beak”. It’s not as good for beginners as easy, and it’s not as satisfying and natural as hard. Your stats will be wildly inflated, and the defenses won’t put up much challenge. I’d recommend playing this one after you’ve mastered easy, but only as a stopgap to hard.

Why you should pick medium:

Good to improve your skills
For moderately experienced players
Good for working your way up to Hard

Hard:

This is the preferred way to play Retro Bowl. It provides good consistent challenge, while also still capturing the highs and lows of a season. The statistics will be pretty true to life, as will the pace of play. This is the most challenging difficulty level that still has variety in the teams you face and plays like a real game of football.

Why you should pick hard:

The best choice for a realistic football experience
A good mix of challenge and realism
Results in the most realistic statistical experience

Extreme:

It’s the hardest possible challenge, and I mean that - every team you face will be an impossibly great team with maxed out defensive and offensive statistics. The defense will be strong and fast, and they won’t take it easy on you. You’ll need to be on the top of your game. You’ll also likely need to cheese the AI a bit. Be prepared to use many short passes. It’s not the most true to the real game of football, but it is the ultimate challenge once you’ve mastered all other modes.

Why you should pick extreme:

The ultimate challenge for skilled players
It’s unfair to the player - that’s the appeal!
Use if you want to test your skills

Dynamic:

The default setting on Retro Bowl is fundamentally different from the rest of the difficulty levels. It will go up and down depending on whether you won or lost your previous game. This makes it a good choice if you’re wanting to stay around .500, and you will eventually find a good difficulty level. However, it’s worth thinking about if you want your experience to continually vary based on your performance - it makes winning streaks a lot harder to come by, as do losing streaks. It’s worth noting, however, that it will never be as difficult as hard or extreme.

Why you should pick dynamic:

Adjusts to your level of play
Will ultimately settle at a good level for you
Will never be as hard as Extreme or Hard

The most important thing when picking your difficulty is to pick one that will make it so that you have fun playing the game. Everything else is just noise. Do what makes you have fun playing the game. If that’s playing on easy so that you can learn the rules of American Football, do that. If that’s playing on extreme for the ultimate challenge, do that! You’re playing for fun, so play for fun and build your dynasty. And if you just want to play as a GM, you can even sim every game and dismiss the difficulty altogether.