Football Manager Handheld 2012 Review

WHAT IS IT?

All the thrills of managing the best football teams in the world (if you opt for the Premier League), none of the misery of being hounded by the press over alleged tax evasion – Football Manager 2012 is as close to the sharp end of the beautiful game as it gets.

WHAT'S IT LIKE?

Warning: this app will consume your life. Just as football is more than just a game, Football Manager 2012 is far more than just a virtual kick-around in the e-park. Not an app for those who like to shout beer-fuelled sage advice at TV screens in pubs every weekend, the actual action here is, well, of no real consequence other than to serve as a visual representation of all your cunning or not so cunning managerial nous.

Yes, these 2D Tiddlywinks animations represents crunch-time. You’ve been fiddling about with your team line-up obsessively, renewing contracts, making transfers, listening to the advice of your staff, studying the stats, experimenting with formations and doing everything a real manager would do. But was it enough?

Well that’s the question you face over and over as you pass through the pre-season friendlies into league games and beyond, constrained by budget, injuries and your own judgement. And it’s absolutely thrilling.

But FMH 2012 is a game of two halves: the classic Career mode; and Challenge mode. This throws a series of scenarios at you, comprising of ‘Unrest at Home’ – simultaneously deal with unhappy senior players, keep the board on your side and, yes, win games. ‘The Saviour Cometh’ which sees you thrown in mid-season and facing relegation, the self-explanatory ‘Injury Crisis’, and the, frankly ludicrous, ‘The Invincibles’ – go unbeaten for the whole season!

Exhilarating and infuriating, Football Manager Handheld 2012 is the thinking football fanatic’s game of choice. Just don’t make any holiday plans for the foreseeable future…

OUR VERDICT

Football Manager Handheld 2012 is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that.