Football Director DS

Football managers come with different temperaments: the cerebral professorial style embodied by Arsene Wenger, the fiery 'hairdryer' attitude of Alex Ferguson or the uncannily emotionless thousand yard stare of someone like Roy Keane. It's not something you're likely to replicate in a football management sim but there's still plenty of emotion and drama to be had from the hard number crunching that goes on behind the scenes.

But here we have something a little different, and as the title suggests it's not just coaching and motivating your players that matters in Football Director DS but also making sure the books balance and the player transfers go through smoothly. Kevin Keegan would love it, just love it.

Of course, footy manager games have been a staple of the game industry since the days of perms and tight-fitting shorts, but the DS has been ignored so far in terms of this niche genre. Strange, because after playing this for a few seasons I have to say that the DS and football management go together better than a Manchester United corporate hospitality box and a prawn sandwich.

If you're unfamiliar with this style of game then the spreadsheet-like appearance of the 'action' and utilitarian layout of the information won't exactly win you over. Fact is, playing a football management game is about as far away from a traditional video game experience as you can get. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of game in there, but you're going to have to use your imagination quite a lot.

You don't even get treated to edited highlights of the game, players moving gracefully down the wing, analysis of passing and crossing or even get to see the odd lighthearted goalkeeping error. It's all played out in videprinter-stye text: "M Owen will be in trouble with his manager for missing that chance," or "N Anelka was caught offside. Free Kick to Portsmouth." How interesting can that be?

Well, the short answer is very interesting actually. You may not believe it if you've never tried such a game but after a few matches with Football Director DS you'll be utterly drawn in by its analytical charms. Unless of course, you abhor football (but in that case you probably wouldn't be reading this).

You can choose a team from any of the regular English Football Association divisions, and as this is an officially licensed product all the player names, teams and grounds are present and correct. This adds immensely to the experience, helping you to build your dream team, including hundreds of foreign players from the best leagues in Europe.

Your day-to-day activities as club director include bidding for players on the transfer market, setting the team's tactics and organising the training schedule. The menus have been incredibly well designed and the general database and interface is robust and easily navigable. After just a couple of games you will be flying around the menus like an Excel nerd.

The features I enjoyed the most were definitely the match highlights, which give you a good flavour of how the game is flowing despite the text only presentation. Although you have to read between the lines it is possible to suss out some of your rival manager's strategies and then try to counteract it with substitutions or tactical changes. If you're constantly giving away free kicks in your opponent's half, for instance, it's clear they are using the offside trap.

There's also a handy team sheet that shows the fluctuating performances of your individual players, so you can gauge if they are having a good or rotten game, then you can bring them off if they are not pulling their weight.

Bargaining on the transfer market is also heaps of fun; it's like a more sophisticated version of Bargain Hunt with you poring over player stats and trying to negotiate a contract for the best price. The number crunching appears robust throughout, though it's always hard to tell exactly how much success is assigned to random luck. My Bradford City side were gunning for automatic promotion to the 1st division until they were scuppered at the last hurdle by a pathetically poor Notts County team. But perhaps that's how it should be – no match is ever a sure thing.

But for all Football Director DS's great presentation and solid structure it doesn't quite have the depth I'd like.

Players only play in one position, for example, so it's impossible to work out who would make a good central midfielder as opposed to an attacking winger – they're all just classed as 'midfield'. Only the 'classic' team formations are available and training options are limited to just four disciplines.

Add to this a lack of clarity in what the cup competitions and gate receipts bring it to the club's coffers and you have a game that feels a bit like version 1.2. I imagine next year's iteration will iron out all these issues, should this be a success.

Having said that Football Director DS can be a very addicting experience, and with matches played out at a cracking pace you can spend a whole evening gunning for a European Cup place or simply waiting for a star striker to make your squad the most devastating in the country.

So although a creditable first effort I reckon there's still a lot more to come from this franchise in the future. Currently it deserves a respectable UEFA Cup place at best.