Football Manager Handheld

On May 8th, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson will announce his squad for the World Cup Finals. Picking just 23 players from the hundreds eligible is a tough task – with a nation of opinionated fans poised to explain how they could have done it better, it becomes something of a poisoned chalice.

We suspect the developers of Football Manager Handheld could offer their sympathies. Like Sven, they've had to make tough decisions to streamline the world's most in-depth football management system into a portable form. Like Sven, they've got a hugely passionate fan base to appease. And ultimately, like Sven, they're unlikely to keep everyone happy.

Perhaps it's not surprising that SI Games' solution is in line with what we expect we'll get from the England coach. Just as the bespectacled Swede is likely to keep faith with the tried-and-tested Beckham, Owen and Campbell over fresher talents like Sean Wright Phillips and Marcus Bent, SI Games has harked back to the earlier incarnations of their management sim, putting aside the more involved elements to create a slick simulation.

The presentation, though essentially just a series of text menus, is always clear. The control system is immediately accessible. And the whole thing moves briskly along, at least by football management simulation standards (it will still take you a solid day to complete a season), with none of the loading delays too common on PSP.

Better yet, behind that slick front end lies a football-shaped heart. Regardless which club you chose to manage from the seven national leagues on offer, you'll find the players are current (updated with January transfer information, so the Spurs midfield is now at Pompey and wunderkind Walcott is at Highbury) and also uncannily realistic.

Thanks to the developer's network of researchers, every player is comprised of over 20 in-depth statistics, from Aggression and Agility to Passing and Pace. Your squad's starting abilities can be developed through training or transfers – there's a detailed search facility to locate the players you want, and purchasing options include loans for any Redknapp-style wheeler dealers out there. You can also shape your squad's playing style by selecting from a range of tactical options, which can be applied both at the team and individual level (so you can set the team to play long-balls but enable your creative midfielders to pick shorter passes).

Then begins your campaign. Naturally, it's results that matter – matches are played out via a text-based commentary system, in combination with a variety of statistical menus. This does serve to stimulate the imagination, and provides a useful indicator of performance, but we would have preferred the option of a 2D match engine: Championship Manager PSP managed it, after all!

Indeed, whilst Football Manager Handheld is a solid and largely enjoyable management sim that's accessible to newcomers and ideal for dipping into, it falls some way short of the championship form required to make it a time-sapping obsession for die-hard fans.

The best football management sims (including Football Manager Handheld's parent on PC) succeed by creating a believable football world that makes you feel like your decisions matter. Although much of this is created by the accuracy of the player data and results (and on that score, Football Manager Handheld is faultless), the remainder comes from your interactions with the game world. And it's here that to some extent the game lost us.

By stripping out details like proper negotiations on transfers (clubs just say yes or no), the ability to make requests of the chairman (or even to see your club's finances), the ability to hire and fire backroom staff, the incessant chirping of the media, and international matches taking away your key players, the world is made less engaging. This puts more pressure on the tactics and match engine, which already lacks detailed match visuals and the ability to create your own formations (beyond the 17 on offer) or dictate player runs. Hence, when results turn against you, it's all too easy to walk away.

Football Manager Handheld isn't so much a game of two halves as a game of two audiences. Newcomers and those seeking a casual engagement will certainly get what they're after. Hardened management fans, though, are likely to be underwhelmed.