Football Director (Nintendo DS)

...for the Nintendo DS game, Football Director, published by Pinnacle. The game is a football management simulator, one of the few available for the DS.

There have been many football management games available, but they usually work best on the PC, and haven’t usually translated as well onto other consoles. The formula in this game is the same as with most others, manage your team to victory by buying and selling players, clever use of ...
...one from some well known football presenter, but is instead just a series of sentences in text format. The sound effects are also not a great selection of football chants and realistic sounds, but rather just some random crowd noise, which is actually quite irritating after a while.

In terms of playing the game, this is quite well done, as it’s easy and accessible to find the menus that you want. Sometimes games can get a bit too in-depth ... more

This review is for the Nintendo DS game, Football Director, published by Pinnacle. The game is a football management simulator, one of the few available for the DS.

There have been many football management games available, but they usually work best on the PC, and haven’t usually translated as well onto other consoles. The formula in this game is the same as with most others, manage your team to victory by buying and selling players, clever use of tactics, choice of backroom staff and by using many other managerial techniques.

You play each game, as you would imagine, by selecting your team and tactics, having trained your players, you then play the match. You can then, once you’re happy with your team and confident of victory, go and play the match and will your side on from the touchlines.

You can watch the match, but it’s not exactly like watching Sky Sports, and isn’t as good as the packaging of the game would suggest. The commentary of the match which is promised isn’t a verbal one from some well known football presenter, but is instead just a series of sentences in text format. The sound effects are also not a great selection of football chants and realistic sounds, but rather just some random crowd noise, which is actually quite irritating after a while.

In terms of playing the game, this is quite well done, as it’s easy and accessible to find the menus that you want. Sometimes games can get a bit too in-depth and confusing, leaving it difficult to find the options that you want, but this game hasn’t got that problem, and you do feel in control of the game and being able to change what you need to change.

With regards to the realism of the game, things just don’t seem right at all. Every football fan knows that no game is a guaranteed victory, and anything can happen which leaves a fantastic team beaten by a poor team from a lower division. But in this game, that seems to happen quite a lot, and it rather does give the impression that the results are just a little bit too random. Playing for a few seasons in this game does suggest to me that the whole process just isn’t that realistic, and that there are too many results which you feel shouldn’t have happened.

There do appear to be quite a few bugs in the game as well, such as you can qualify for a European competition, win all the games, but still be knocked out, and there appear to be problems with the finances, as the sums just don’t add up. These errors to tend to give the impression that the whole game has been rather rushed out.

There are also inaccuracies with the information provided on the packaging. The game suggests that you can sign players from all over Europe, so you might hope that you can play in other European leagues as well. Unfortunately you can’t do this, and nor can you actually even sign players from all over Europe, unless they happen to be playing in the British leagues. It is frustrating for information to be provided which is wrong, again suggesting that the game was released in quite a hurry.

The disappointment of not being able to play in international or in European leagues aside, some effort has been made to ensure that the players, managers and stadiums that they do have in the game are genuine and properly licensed. However, having said this, and I appreciate that my football knowledge isn’t always entirely up to date, but there seem to be a fair few errors in the database of players, in terms of players who have moved or retired some time before. It’s not quite clear how these errors have crept in, and although they’re not a major block at all to playing the game, it is another problem which probably shouldn’t be in the game.

Saving the game for future play does also take some considerable time, and for those players such as myself who regularly save the game, “just in case”, this is the longest save game process that I can recall seeing on a Nintendo DS. It’s only a minor point, and no doubt a lot of information has to be saved, but it’d be an improvement if this could be fixed.

I remember the first Football Manager game by Kevin Toms, and I remember the excitement of that. I also remember by favourite ever football management game, namely Player Manager, produced by Anco for the Amiga. These were in my eyes great games, but they were products of the times. Football Director is really not that much further forward, and given the length of time that has passed since the first football managements games came out, this is really quite disappointing.

Tactics in the game are very hit and miss, and to be honest, you probably don’t need to tinker around with very much. It’s one of those games where you can change lots of settings, spend a lot of time fitting a squad together, but then still go out and get the same score line as if you had just shoved any combination of players and tactics together. So if you want any real element of in-depth tactical play, this probably isn’t the game.

However, the advantage of this game is that it is playable and portable. If you need to fill a couple of hours, this game does allow you to do that, and has quite an addictive quality about it. Although you may know the game engine isn’t working perfectly, you still try and perfect your side to do as well as you can in the league.

Is the game long-lasting? Back in my Football Manager and Player Manager days, I could spend hours playing those games over the course of many months. This isn’t really the case with this game, it’s fun to pick up for a while or to fill in an otherwise empty couple of hours, but there’s not in my view enough substance to the game to keep you very interested after playing the first few seasons in the game.

The format of the game is also a winner in principle, the developers have taken a game rather better suited to the PC and transferred it to the DS in a credible way at least. With a ready audience for games like this, I’d be very surprised if a Football Director II wasn’t on the horizons, which would no doubt fix some of the problems and also rather enhance and widen the game play.

The game’s retail price is a rather steep 29.99 pounds, although the game is available from Amazon for just 9.99 pounds. At the time of writing, second hand copies are available from sites such as eBay and Amazon for around seven or eight pounds. The game is rated as 3+, so is suitable for children of most ages.

In summary, this isn’t too bad a game, but there never feels as though there’s much depth to it. Winning seems to be just a bit too easy, and the game doesn’t seem to reward strategy, so you could almost just keep playing with the same team and tactics, make a few changes each year, and still do very well. However, it’s an absorbing game for a while, but it doesn’t have the long-term interest of other management games.

(also on dooyoo under same username) 

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