Football Manager Handheld 2010 iPhone Review

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There has been much talk since Monday about Football Manager Handheld 2010 (iTunes link) now released on the iPhone. Even more so, on the community at least then it’s X-Box and PSP counterparts. This is probably due to the accessibility of the iPhone and how far the platform has come to be considered a serious gaming platoform. But after playing Football Manager for a good hour, in the natural setting of the train, I share my views of the pocket size manage.

Football Manager Handheld has always been the “pick up and play” cousin of the Football Manager game that we choose here to analyse so much. It is only natural for it to integrate with what is quickly become a serious gaming platform. Being a commuter with a 30 minute train journey to work each day, I spend much of that time with the iPhone in my hand. Now I have something else to keep me busy while I step out of the world around me and immerse myself into music and gaming on the move.

If you want indepth player databases and many controls, indepth tactical control and a real chance to put your footballing knowledge to the test. The power of the PC is always going to be the place for that. Football Manager Handheld is good footballing fun.

Great User Interface

On the small screen it is always going to be hard to get your fingers round the screen to select players and make substitutes. That take some getting used to, to select Rooney instead of Berbatov up top, but with a bit of practice you will hit the right spot most of the time. Although you could find it easier to ask you’re assistant to pick the team and for you to edit anything you think is wrong and the apple swipe to remove feature might be a good implantation for the next update, to remove players from the squad.

Navigating through the rest of the menus is fantastic. Easy and simple to pass through different parts of the game. When possible you have big buttons that logically take you through each part of the Football Manager Handheld, anyone who has played any of the FM games before will easily get used to navigating through the menus. Those who haven’t will get it in a matter of minutes, the big buttons making browsing quick and easy.

Match Day

The matches themselves really have an old Championship Manager feel to them. Unfortunately the tactics are limited within the game even for early Championship Manager standard. I am yet to get a feel that I am having too much of an effect on the way my team is playing on the pitch seeing many shots from the edge of the box. You can choose between a decent range of formation and select between a few basic team instructions in order to guide your side to victory, but you can’t customise formation or have much depth in the tactical decisions, the lack in player instructions can be pretty frustrating if you want to play a 433 with each midfielder take a different role.

But this being the first instalment of FMH app and knowing the reputation of good quality products to develop well outside of the SI Games studio, I think an investment now into the game would be fully worth it and hold its value to come.

Much of the coverage of the match will be through text commentary with the key goal mouth action appearing in 2D. Allowing you to quickly pass from game to game with blistering pace, which is great when you are on the move and will only be playing the game in short bursts, although I find that the 2D match engine adds little to the game other then aesthetics.

The downfalls in the match can be forgiven quickly as the game is just so much fun to play and as Miles has already explained, the ease in which it is to update the iPhone game will help Football Manager Handheld develop much quicker into a better and better games as the months go by.

Miscellaneous

With 20,000 players in the match engine, just a little less than a small database on the PC, the players available to buy when loading up one of the 24 playable nations is pretty impressive. Utilising the impressive player knowledge that the games researchers have built up a great database of players to put together your own pocket sized dream team.

But with all this information to be processed, the speed of loading and processing is ultra fast on my 3GS and one of the joys of the game is the pace that it is can be played. I was able to fit 4 games into an express journey between Liverpool and St Helens in with time to check my twitter. Creating a great pick up and play experience for any Football fan who want to put their fantasy team together.

Battery life as you expect in an apple mobile product is always going to suffer under such power but unlike games such as Sim City. FM 2010 fairs pretty well on my iPhone 3GS, allowing me to play on the game during my journey to work as well as getting my full day of battery life out of it that I will usually expect from my phone.

There is no plans as of yet from SI games to jump onto the iPad platform, but with its bigger screen and better battery to play with I feel this could be a natural progression, if it the release of this app and the iPad make it an attractive venture. But as of present the iPhone/iPod version will play on the iPad but won’t stretch to the big screen.

In conclusion Football Manager Handheld is very much what you expect form an iPhone game and Sports Interactive. Great quality gameplay that is easy and fun to play. The pace of the game makes it as addictive as any of SI products and as such makes up for some of the downfalls in the depths of the game. £6.99 is a risky price in the app store, but I would say is that you get definite value for money from a game that you will see yourself going back to over and over again.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD FOOTBALL MANAGER HANDHELD 2010 APP NOW FROM ITUNES

Have you bought the new FMH2010 application? If so tell us what you think in the comment section below!

Tagged as: FM2010, iPhone, Review