When it comes to quality Football games, there are only a handful of those on Android.
Thanks to Thumbstar Games, we have one more gem for our Football needs.
If you are looking for a Football game with fancy graphics this isn’t your game. Premier Manager is a Football Manager Simulation game, which lets you manage a European Football Team of your choice and win Leagues , Cups and Glory, right on your Android device. The first PC version of this game was released way back in 1992.
The game lets you play the Leagues in 6 Countries: England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Scotland.
That includes most of the top teams in the World. And according to the Playstore listing, there are over 500 Playable teams and includes over 17000 Players.
Managing your Team:
Now Managing a team isn’t just about taking your squad to the stadium and winning matches. You have to buy, sell and loan players to build a strong team, choose different tactics, formations, kick-takers, etc.
For the training and physio sessions, you can leave them to your Assistant and the Physio respectively. Your Assistant can even arrange pre-season friendly matches to get your team to prepare your team for the season.
You can also improve your training facilities, stadiums, staff as the game progresses. You get points based on your match performance, i.e Win,Lose and Draw.
There is an auto save function available, but if you start a new game the old save will be over written. there is also a manual save option.
This is the Club Selection screen where you tap on the little arrow buttons to change the Country, League or Team you want to play. It also displays information about the Club such as the finances, Stadium Capacity, Star Player, etc.
Like in all Manager games, this one also uses the email system where you get all the news related to your Team. This includes Injury updates from your Physio, Upcoming Mach details, board interactions, etc.
Controls:
Now you will note two quarter circle buttons on the bottom corners of the screen. The one on the left is used for all your Managerial actions such as viewing your team, scouting, physio,etc. The one on the right is the progress button. Tap on it to progress to the next day, event, or to start a match.
Now the Player Controls are going to need some time to get used to. You have to highlight a player by tapping on his name. Next you have to double tap on the highlighted Player’s name (or the line which is highlighted) to bring up his stats. Tap and hold your finger on the Player’s name (on the underlined text) to bring up the menu which will allow you to perform various actions.
You can use these controls for buying or releasing a player. You can also use them to transfer list or loan list a player. Clubs who are interested will approach you with an offer and you can negotiate terms with them. The negotiations are done in real time which make it very interesting. Choose your options wisely, else the deal will fail.
Player Morale:
In games like Championship Manager or Football Manager, the morale rating would be based on the player’s happinness with the Team’s performance and his relationship with the club. And usually putting a player up on the transfer list or making him available for loan would demoralize the player. This does not seem to be the case with Premier Manager, at least not up to the point I played the game.
Interestingly, the game uses a Unity rating, which is basically the Team’s Chemistry and depends on how well the Players cooperate with each other and are suited to the team’s formation.
Pre-Match Tactics:
This screen allows you to choose the Starting XI and the Substitutes for the match. You can also set the tactics, kick-takers, the Captain, etc.
To swap a Player from the lineup, Swipe from left to right across the Player’s row, to highlight it in Orange. Do the same with the second Player you want to bring in, and it will be highlighted in Green. You can also substitute players this way during a match. Swipe from right to left to remove the highlight from a player.
Match Gameplay:
The Overview screen shows you the general stats for both sides. The Timeline screen shows important events, such as Offsides, Bookings, Goals, etc. The Home Stats and Away Stats shows the Player’s performance rating, fitness level, & the statistics of his performance in the match. The Scores screen displays the score and the name of the goalscorers.
The Pitch Screen is the most exciting screen as it gives you a visual simulation of the gameplay. Though I was a little disappointed as the game does not have live text commentary or display the names of the Players in the Pitch screen. Perhaps I am expecting too much since I was a huge fan of Championship Manager and Football Manager. Another downside was, I could not use more than three substitutions in friendly matches.
You can change the game’s speed, tactics, etc by pressing the button on the bottom right hand corner. This is essential for substitutions. The game has some very nice crowd effects for the matches.
Game Settings:
The only way to exit the game is from the Game settings screen. You can also save the game and edit the music and sound settings, and some in game options and also view the game’s credits from this screen.
AndroidPure Rating for Premier Manager:
Premier Manager is a thoroughly enjoyable Manager simulation game for all Football fans.
It’s less than half the price of Sega’s Football Manager but just as good, so I highly recommend this game. And it does not have any IAPs like FM. What more could you ask for?
I am going to give it 4.5 out of 5 possible points.
Pros:
Real time negotiations with clubs and players.
Good Match Engine.
Latest Player Database (2012-2013 Season)
Many Leagues and Teams to choose from.
Auto Training, Physio session.
Automatically arrange friendlies.
No In App Purchases.
Cons:
You can’t manage National teams.
The number of substitutions in friendly matches is also limited to three.
Controls need a bit of getting used to.
No text commentaries during matches.
You can buy Premier Manager for $5
[app]com.thumbstargames.pm[/app]
The game can be played offline after the first run when it checks for the license, it will also download some files which are required for playing the game.
