LMA Manager 08
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| LMA Manager 08

Rumour has it that some video gaming football fans aren't so obsessed with management sims that once a year they give up friendships, partners and the pub to lose themselves to the destroyer of social life that is Football Manager on PC. Pure management isn't for everybody.

Noticing this, Codemasters and Glu have produced a mobile-based management title that tries its best to juggle the intricacy and depth of a typical managerial soccer simulator along with the slightest hint of accessibility.

Before you read any further, regardless of whether you're a fan of the beautiful game or not, take heed. If you think Football Manager and co are little more than a over-hyped version of Microsoft Excel given a bewildering footy makeover, LMA Manager 08 is not for you. While it might seem rather slimline compared to its PC-based contemporaries, this is still a game focused on tables, charts, diagrams, and enough statistics to give one piece of data to every Man Utd fan around the globe. Perhaps.

However, if the idea of screaming from deep inside a fleece-lined coat as you pace up and down the dugout pointing and swearing appeals to you, this could provide some essential festive escapism over the winter season. As mobile games go, this is as deep as it gets, and like last year's LMA release, this time around there's a staggering array of new features.

Unlike the previous edition, when starting out on your first season with LMA Manager 08 you must choose whether to assume the role of coach, manager or director. These three roles essentially provide you with increasingly numerous responsibilities, with the latter requiring you to oversee squad selection, transfers, training, tactics, stadium construction, contracts and a vast range of other considerations.

Most of your time is spent navigating a very intuitive menu system. While you can use calendars and a fictional email service along with an impressive collection of other tools, generally if you're not using simple menus you'll find yourself manipulating classic formation diagrams, as seen on managers' blackboards in stereotypical sweaty changing rooms across the country.

The controls are very workable, and in general the visuals are both functional and glossy. The game's musical score is a little brash, but if there is a let down it comes with the feature that enables you to watch matches. It's certainly an impressive addition to an already sizeable game, but on the odd occasion it was a little glitchy on the K800i test unit.

That said, the glitches were few and far between, and only ever cosmetic and insubstantial, but they took away the feel of polish and quality that defines the rest of the LMA Manager 08 experience.

Aside from that, potential players are only likely to be put off the game by a total lack of licensed teams, though such a shortcoming has little or no impact on the gameplay.

Otherwise, the game is fantastic. If the development team's goal was to create an engrossing, detailed release that makes you feel like you have ultimate control over every minute detail of running a football club yet remains accessible throughout, then it has absolutely succeeded.

If you're looking for a mobile game as fully fledged as the most advanced desktop management sims, you've some wait yet. However, if you fancy a dazzlingly detailed mobile game with enough to keep you going for dozens upon dozens of seasons, look no further than this latest and excellent LMA Manager iteration.

LMA Manager 08

The LMA series has done it again, and for now the markedly improved 2008 edition rubs shoulders with the cream of the mobile management market
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Will Freeman
Will Freeman
Will Freeman is the former editor of trade publication Develop, having also written for the likes of The Guardian and The Observer.