Football Management RPG Review

Football Management RPG is a pretty fascinating concept to explore. While soccer fans have had years of statistic riddled management games, no one's really explored the human side of management. Football Management RPG does exactly that, bypassing all the statistical nonsense and focusing purely on keeping people happy through the power of successful decision making. In that way, Football Management RPG is more like a Choose Your Own Adventure style game than anything else.

Players must first pick out the managing style and general personality of the manager they take the role of. Choices range from the likes of the hard hitting and brash manager to the more sensitive, keen to listen to their players type. Experience can also play a role with players choosing from being an ex-professional star to someone who's never played a game of football but has conducted plenty of research on it.

Similar choices reside for the rest of the game from everything to solving team disputes to the team talk in between the two halves of each match. Even tactics are chosen via being given a series of options of how to approach things. Statistics are kept to a bare minimum with the only sign of numbers really residing from the Tactics, Harmony and Attitude section at the bottom of the screen. Each of these increase and decrease depending on how well the manager is doing in specific areas.

The game's developers promise over 350 scenarios in all with more to be added and it's fun to pick and choose a route through each problem. The hand drawn nature of the game also adds a great personal touch to things and, for UK fans in particular, will remind many of the classic days of comic strip Roy of the Rovers. Football Management RPG won't supersede the likes of Football Manager 2011 but as a form of management title with a twist, it's a lot of fun.