Football Manager 2007 Handheld Review

In the years since Sports Interactive split from Eidos and the Championship Manager franchise, SI have been working hard to separate their new game, Football Manager, from the competition. The quality of Football Manager 2005, 2006 and 2007 on the PC and Mac have been exactly what we expected from the developers of the original Champ Man series. This is hardly surprising given the deal that SI and Eidos originally agreed to, which was that SI kept the legendary database of players, while Eidos retained the name.

In the two years since FM 2005, SI has brought their new series forward in leaps and bounds from year to year. Not only have they made innovative strides forward every year in gameplay that were rarely evident in the season updates between Champ Man 1, 2, 3, and 4, they have also invaded the console market for the second time in the versions they have released on the PSP and the Xbox 360.

The PSP was graced with the brilliance of FM last year, a handheld for crying out loud! How on earth is SI going to cram the unparalleled depth of a game like that onto something the size of a TV remote? Was the question on every obsessive fan's lips; however, the critics were widely silenced with a game that not only felt and played like FM, but was specifically carved out of the mother PC game to pander to time-starved handheld gamers.

More important now though, how does FMH 2007 compare to its PSP predecessor? There are some fairly basic improvements to the game in order to bring it closer to the full FM game. These include the addition of fog of war (which blanks out some lesser known players stats before you've scouted them), additional leagues and competitions to play in from last year's offerings and the ability to take on management of an international team if you're successful at club level.

There are also some more cosmetic improvements, which are quite subtle, but thoroughly improve the gaming experience all round. These include the ability to offer your players to clubs and make board requests, some improved media in the news that you receive (transfer speculation etc.) and you now have two scouts at your disposal rather than just one. All these changes, while being fairly unnoticeable at first glance as you'll be so used to them on the PC, help create a much more believable and immersive experience on the PSP.

Along with these slight adjustments from last years FMH, there are some more substantial changes to the game as well. Firstly, multiplayer network games are now possible so there's not even a reason to talk to your friends anymore - excellent. Secondly, there is an editor function to the game which allows you to update the database with new transfers etc. This would be all well and good if you didn't require a doctorate in C++ programming to get it to work. At the moment, all editing is done by uploading your PSP to your PC and making changes manually with a wordpad document and some tricky codes. This will soon change, however, as SI have promised to release an editing program for download in the next few months.

You won't find the intricacies that SI has added to their main PC game on the PSP though. There is no opportunity to give speeches to your players before the game or at half time, you won't be able to develop talent at any "feeder clubs" and you definitely won't be assigning your more experienced players to help coach your younglings. An even more noticeable omission is the continued lack of a 2D match engine, although a journey back to the old-skool format is quite enjoyable to be fair.

The game has also been obviously slimmed down in most areas. You can only play as clubs from a selection of European nations and Australia (you'll be pleased to hear that the English leagues go all the way down to the Conference), the player database is significantly smaller, player stats are stripped down to the bare essentials, there's no reserve or youth teams and training has been simplified considerably. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as SI has been extremely clever in the way they've slimmed down the game, while still retaining the same FM experience throughout.

Although there are fewer statistics to assess your players' talents, there's still enough hidden talent in each player to make you think carefully and read between the stats before making a signing. While there are significantly less players and teams available for you to scout than those on the mammoth PC database, you can still sign cheap, young talent from outside of Europe. Yes, it's still possible to sign an 18 year-old wonderkid from Boca Juniors, and yes, Freddy Adu at DC United is available to scout and bid for. Also, training is still a constant balancing act between getting the most out of your players and not tiring them out too much.

Another reason why SI has slimmed down the game is so that it is suitable to play in short bursts while you're on the bus, or getting in a cheeky 15 minutes of play on the sly at work. The fact that you don't have to spend your time organising your youth and reserve teams is all part of this. Another example is that you usually receive replies to transfer bids or work permit applications after a day (or one tap of continue), rather than a week or two as is the case on the PC.

SI has also managed to translate the controls of a PC over to PSP exceptionally well. Often the lack of a mouse is where many management games, converted from PC to consoles, come unstuck. This is not the case in FMH 2007 as the interface is very user friendly for PSP users and the control configuration substitutes well for a mouse. The only frustrating example where this isn't the case is with team formations. There is only a list of pre-set formations for you to choose from which you cannot alter in any way. Because of this there will often be times when you'll want to fiddle with your formation and player positions ever so slightly but the interface leaves you feeling powerless.

On the surface it may seem like FMH 2007 is the same game as last year with a seasonal update and multiplayer gaming. This would be an achievement in itself as this game has been released only seven and a half months after the first PSP version. Many hardcore FM fans would have bought it just for the seasonal update to be honest. However, SI have made subtle changes all over the game to make the experience of playing more like that of its older brother. FMH 2007 is definitely worth your hard earned cash and it's also a great Christmas prezzy - just don't expect to get a word out of the recipient on Boxing Day.