Football Manager Handheld 2012 for Android – Review

Our rating:

By: SEGA of America

Version #: 3.5.1

Date Released:

Developer:

Price: 9.99

User Rating:

Loading...

Download for Android

Many a good man’s hours, or even lives, have been wasted away sitting in front of their computers late into Friday nights, utterly absorbed in the alternative Football reality made up mainly of statistics. Football Manager, the successor to the legendary original Championship Manager series, is the finest game of its kind, and handheld devices seem like a natural place for the series to fluorish.

It’s worth mentioning that Football Manager 2012 is far from the intricate game that you spent years getting absorbed in. The match engine is much more basic (probably better played with just the commentary), the database is much smaller, and you can select one country’s football leagues to focus on per game. Nonetheless, it’s a fun bitesize fix.

The interface is largely intuitive, even though the basic blue aesthetic seems to emphasise that this is ver much a simplified version of the game you really know and love. Changing player positions and tactics can prove to be a bit fiddly, and could have been solved better, but for the most part you’ll find yourself whizzing through the menus without any difficulty.

While the level of detail is relatively toned down, you can still send scouts out to look for untapped talent in the far corners of the world, interact with your players, and adjust your transfer budget in accordance with the promises you make to your board. The major satisfying moments you experienced in the PC version – whether that’s winning promotion or picking up a player on the cheap who goes on to be the league’s top scorer – are still there, and the fact that you can now play the game on the go provides plenty of potential for addiction.

There will be times when you want to throw your phone out the window, or when you have to stop yourself from screaming at the game because you’re in public, but this kind of passion is the reason you play this game! Even with the considerable level of toning down, FMH 2012 is a less time-consuming way than its PC counterpart to venture into the all-immersive world of digital football management.

We rate this app 4.5 out of 5 stars.