LMA Manager 2002

"A great game that comes highly recommended to any football fan"

LMA Manager 2002 - Review
by Andrew Light

A great game that comes highly recommended to any football fan.

The LMA Manger series has proved very popular over the years and up until the most recent offering in 2007 was still a best seller on various consoles. The series first began with the original LMA Manager, released in 1999 for the Playstation shortly followed by LMA Manager 2001, which was released back in March 2001. Then followed the 2002 offering...

Gameplay
LMA manager 2002 is a great game and thoroughly enjoyable to those who are fans of the series. It has been commented that the only people who are likely to enjoy this particular game are those that have played the previous incarnations before. In some respects this is true but that should not put buyers off who are new to the series. The game is very easy to get into. Some other football management games can be very difficult to navigate, usually due to the huge amounts of data that the games boast, however LMA manager has a very simple method of presenting the data and making it accessible to players. Every screen that the game has to offer in general gameplay can be accessed using one of the shoulder buttons. Icons are listed at the bottom of the screen and you just simply scroll from one icon to another using the left and right shoulder buttons. Although incredibly simple this is a very effective way of giving players easy access to data. As mentioned some other games of the same genre overcomplicate this which makes it difficult to find what you are looking for and ultimately spoils the enjoyment of the game itself. That is not the case here. Once you are in the actual screens it is reasonably easy to master the controls. You can jump in and out of sections using a single button which keeps things nicely simple and it is very easy to sort players in your team or when searching for transfers. The game itself is quite varied when you play. There are several different challenges for you depending on which team you decide to play as, for example, starting with a team in the lower leagues will prove more difficult in some respects to if you pick a top team such as Manchester United or Arsenal. This means that depending on the type of game you want to play you can decide how difficult you would like it to be. Furthermore, it is not always easy to play as a top team as the expectations are much higher. You will need to ensure that you have the most experienced players as well as the best young talent in order to ensure your success. Overall the game can be a decent challenge if you are new to the series but experienced players will find it easier after playing several seasons and shaping the team to be the best around. The game is also very fun to play. It is one of those games that you can just pick up and play, without having to think too deeply into it or having to clear your diary for the whole evening. As you can save the game at any point it is a great game to just pick up and play for half an hour or even for a whole night if you decide. In summary, the gameplay is one of the main highlights in the game and is essential to its success. LMA Manager 2002 ticks pretty much all of the boxes here and is excellent in all round gameplay.

Graphics/Sound
Fans of the LMA Series will find the layout and appearance of the game very familiar. The game boasts very bright colours and simple yet effective colour screens. The different panels are where you will find yourself spending most of your time in the game so it was essential that the designers made these screens easy on the eye. Fortunately they succeeded as they are delightful to look at and. The layout of the information is easily viewed at a glance and the screens are made of semi see-through panes that have rotating backgrounds behind. These add to the professional look of the game without causing any distraction when viewing the information on the actual panes. The game also has a very well presented intro video which looks really good although doesn't serve much purpose other than looking good! The matches themselves are the other area that players are likely to spend most of their time. There are a few options that you can select when viewing the game but most people will more than likely watch the full game. The graphics on this are not amazing but until Football Manager 2009 was released this was the only series that offered a live match rather than just a running commentary which is a great addition to the game. There is actually very little sound in the game which is not uncommon for a football management sim. The only music that you will find is during the opening credits, whilst loading your game, and in game whilst saving. There is also a short piece of music at the end of a season when the final tables and awards are being shown. The tracks that are incorporated into the game are decent enough and do not really become repetitive as you are rarely hearing them for more than a couple of minutes per visit. The sound effects in the game are generally ok with beeps when you select items in the info panes and paper noises when you move from one pane to another. These may seem a bit new at first but anyone who has played football management sims before will be used to these by now. During the games the majority of the crowd sound effects are good too with realistic booing and cheering depending on the situation in the game.

Playtime
LMA Manager 2002 has a very good lifespan. You can play up to a maximum of 20 seasons in one career. A single season alone will take you a long time to complete and bearing in mind the amount of teams you have available to play as, plus teams from various other European countries you can see that the possibilities are almost endless. It would take a significant amount of time to go through and win all the championships in all the different leagues available. On top of that there is also a challenge section in which you are able to take on specific challenges such as saving you team from the drop or coming out on top through an injury crisis. These challenges normally ask you to complete part of a season and have specific criteria that you need to meet. Again you can pick different teams based on the level of difficulty you wish to have in that challenge. Fans of the series will find themselves dedicating many hours to this game as it is simply a game that is very hard to put down.

In summary, this game comes highly recommended to any football management fans. Although it is probably aimed more at the casual gamer you simply cannot ignore how entertaining and fun this game is to play. Players who are new to the series but have played other management games may find the game a little on the light side. The game doesn't have the same depth and realism as other games on the market but certainly as management games for the Playstation or Playstation 2 go there is no better series than LMA Manager and this particular incarnation scores very highly.

Final Score 9/10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/09

Game Release: LMA Manager 2002 (EU, 04/19/02)