My Review Of Football Manger Handheld 2009

i waited to write my review until i had chance to review the game for what it is and not a couple of days after i got it when the novelty hasnt wore off yet.

i have been a massive fan of the handheld series since the first in 2006.i remember buying it in 2006 and it reminded me of the truly great manager games like premier manager 99, i just couldnt stop playing it!. for me 2007 was a disappointment simply because it felt i was playing the same game with updated transfers. 2008 again i dont think enough was added to make it worth the £25 i splashed out, but continued to play because i love the game. this year the addition of being able to swap country is the only worthwhile edition in my opinion. my game freezes constantly which angered me so much on the 2008 edition that i smashed my psp into pieces. the 2D match engine is laughable. i had to turn it off after 4 or 5 games because i had players picking the ball up in my half and scoring without me seeing the goal!, did it even get tested or just dumped in the game at the last minute!? and for me it really does take away the pick up and play feel that championship manager failed to get into the psp. im sure i will find small adjustments throughout the next year, is that worth £22? and i feel that only 4 or 5 major changes have happened to the handheld series over the last 4 years and it feels like once SI games created a great game they were happy with selling the game based on its title for the next few years.

for me it still is a great game,definitely still one of the only games you 100% know you are going to get a ull year from but i think SI have relied on that and the lack of features changing really has been a disappointment for me over the last few years.

6/10

I think the addition of being able to have different countries running is absoloutely worth the money for the game. I have never played 30 seasons in any of the prevous games and already I have played 28 in one save in this one.

I agree with the glitches in the 2d pitch but I have it turned off anyway because it makes the game take too long to get through. Don't really see the point in watching a little coloured dot bouncing a little white dot into a net and then rolling to the corner celebrating.

I may be old fashioned but I like the flashing text bar way better anyway.

I think FMH09 is the most enjoyable manager game I've played possibly since CM03/04, and certainly since FM06. There are loads of flaws, true, but it's quite simply compelling, and it has the old CM magic which has been missing from the last few PC versions (FM08 possibly excepted, I really loved that).

I agree with JD. I turn the 2d pitch off and keep text on

I normally turn the 2d pitch off but i decided to see what it was like so i did a full season with porto and nothing went wrong for me,well until my psp decided to turn itself of lol

Id give the game 9/10:D

I give the game a 8.5 now after playing it more often

So you'll enjoy playing it for a full year but give it 6/10 ..

(wanders off sobbing .... )

On a more serious note I did try and be honest with people here before the game came out - there are a number of small additions/tweaks in the game but the BIG changes this year were always going to be the 2d and multi-league implementations.

Both were huge fundamental changes to the game and took a lot of effort to implement (bear in mind our team is very small, just Rich, Glenn and me).

Next years will contain a few more features as well as evolving and improving both the 2d and multi-league experiences now we've had feedback upon them from you chaps.

Thanks for your feedback - its much appreciated and as always we listen to any suggestions which people might make to us, so if there are specific features you'd like to see in next years version please let us know now while we're discussing what we'll be putting into that version.

thanks for the reply. i appreciate that you put a lot of hard work into the game and im not slagging it off. like i said i still do get a lot of enjoyment all year round from it but the fact that there are only 2 noticeable changes in the game is why i gave it 6/10. it still is a great game. well done to you and all behind making this game because it is still brilliant.

I don't ever use the 2d pitch either and I don't see the point of having it in a handheld game (but I'm sure some enjoy it so that's cool) but I definitely dig the multiple leagues being in the game. That's a big step forward. Some things still drive me crazy though. Things like when you look at what your assistant says about a player and he thinks he's not good enough for the club and should be transfer listed and then when you go to list him the assistant says he's a good player that the club should keep hold of. LOL. How can something like that STILL be in the game??? There are many little oddities like this but they don't detract from the game much. I don't think there were a whole bunch of improvements this year, however as Marc pointed out, the 2 main additions were big ones that would have required a lot of work. And I agree with Jambo, the addition of multiple leagues was enough for me to buy it and be happy. It amazes me how much is packed into a PSP game and I think it's about the best 20 quid - or 40 bucks in my case - that you can spend. That is as long as the freeze bug has been fixed and hopefully for the most part it has.

thanks for the reply. i appreciate that you put a lot of hard work into the game and im not slagging it off. like i said i still do get a lot of enjoyment all year round from it but the fact that there are only 2 noticeable changes in the game is why i gave it 6/10. it still is a great game. well done to you and all behind making this game because it is still brilliant.

I don't know if you've ever done any software development yourself, but putting a 2D match engine and multiple playable leagues into the game would have taken quite a lot of work, especially as I understand the team for FMH isn't exactly huge. Plus the fact is a new FMH has to come out every season, which limits the amount of development that can be done between each iteration. If a game like Halo or Fable is running late, it doesn't matter, they can just push back the release date 6 months. This isn't really an option for FMH.

Marc, also, there are players who are said to be 'Surplus to requirements' and transfer listed but I bid and it says he is an indespensible member of the team?!?!?! :confused: I hope this is sorted for FMH10

Damn - thought I'd finally nailed that this year ... its harder than you'd expect as there are a LOT of permutations involved and rather than taking a 'simplistic' approach we try to ensure that the AI is as advanced as possible, unfortunately this sometimes leads to glitches (but on the overall 'scale' of things I think its still worth it because its that level of AI/simulation which makes the game feel realistic generally).

Most common cause of conflicting reports like this is someone who is say a good level headed professional but getting very 'borderline' as being good enough to be a player at the club, in which case it SHOULD realise that and indicate he's not good enough to play but is a good influence etc. .... but sometimes the fuzzy logic involved goes astray and one of them misses its target slightly ... my fault entirely (and I WILL get it perfect next year grrrr ).

Thanks Marc. Sorry to give you a hard time, mate. I'm sure all this stuff is a lot more complicated than an outsider can appreciate. I should also say that another reason I love this game so much is how responsive and helpful (and sometimes apologetic) you are Marc and also the good community on this board. When you have a game you play a lot and enjoy, it's pretty amazing to know that the makers listen to your views and you are actually helping to shape the game yourself for the better.

So once again, Marc. Thanks for putting up with us all and for being so humble. I hope your boss appreciates all the good work you put in!

Damn - thought I'd finally nailed that this year ... its harder than you'd expect as there are a LOT of permutations involved and rather than taking a 'simplistic' approach we try to ensure that the AI is as advanced as possible, unfortunately this sometimes leads to glitches (but on the overall 'scale' of things I think its still worth it because its that level of AI/simulation which makes the game feel realistic generally).

Most common cause of conflicting reports like this is someone who is say a good level headed professional but getting very 'borderline' as being good enough to be a player at the club, in which case it SHOULD realise that and indicate he's not good enough to play but is a good influence etc. .... but sometimes the fuzzy logic involved goes astray and one of them misses its target slightly ... my fault entirely (and I WILL get it perfect next year grrrr ).

One aspect which I would like to see improved for next year would be more interaction with the press. I think having pre-match and post match press conferences would add to the realism together with a bit more transfer and job speculation as there is in the pc version. Is this very difficult to implement on the handheld?

However, all in all I am very happy with the game (I'm a veteran from CM02 95/96) and I give it 8.5/10. A better match engine and press interaction and it would be faultless.

I think the pre-match and post match press conference would add a lot a time to do a season.Not one game but over a course of a season you would notice it.So dont put that in but the transfer speculation would be good and what about you gets the odds at the beginning of the season to see whos favorites the win the league.

They got repetitive for me on the PC version already and I only played through 3 seasons. I found I was just sitting there answering the same questions with the same answers over and over. Once I knew how to get a good reaction from my players I just kept doing that!