Championship Manager 2011 iPhone app

Is Championship Manager 2011 a game you need on your iOS mobile device? As with so many things in life, the answer is: that depends.

A Caveat

When Sports Interactive, the developers of Championship Manager for the PC, jumped the Eidos ship for Sega, I followed. I've been a Football Manager player ever since, and a happy one at that. I've had no great cause to look for greener pastures. However, when I got my iPhone and took the mandatory $5 plunge to purchase Football Manager Handheld, I came away frustrated and disappointed by the design, implementation, and general game-play experience.

Enter CM, Stage Left

CM 2011 addresses some of those issues. For one, the design is excellent. Instead of looking like a port from another platform (a la FMHH), it fits the look and feel of iOS. The graphics and animations are slick, and, unlike the competition, the touch-targets are accurate and well-implemented. The menu organization feels well thought-out and players are represented by a single page of data, just enough depth for a handheld game. Additionally, the tactical engine allows more customization than FMHH.

Where Things Fall Apart

But I still can't enjoy the game properly. Why? Well, this is a personal thing, but one of my favorite aspects of management sims is tactics. While CM gives you a reasonable level of control going into the match, things fall apart during the match. Even if there were a way to analyze what's going wrong with your side, it doesn't feel possible to enact changes to counter those problems. Likewise, the action presented in the game both feels and looks unrealistic. The first time my striker hit a wicked 40 yard curler from a bad angle, I was excited. When he did it again, in the same game, five minutes later, I was nonplussed. Tripling the trick just left me hollow. And though Eidos claims to have fixed the 8-0 result problem, the number of such scorelines was astonishing in my first few subjective weeks of game play.

Conclusions

Could CM 2011 be an enjoyable game for some? Absolutely. If you're the type who just wants to set a tactic, buy and sell players, and charge quickly through the seasons, I'd say go for it. But if you're addicted to the tactical challenge and in pursuit of a more realistic match experience, I think you'll be disappointed. I'd personally rate it a 3 out of 5 stars, but I can see it being a 4- or even 5-star experience for those after a more casual experience.

Michael S. Hund is the creator of the Fullback Files, a blog covering DC United, the US National Team, and Major League Soccer. A complimentary copy of the game was provided for the purposes of this review.