LMA Manager

"Geekdom or Mainstream?"

Advantages: Great layout, nice music, up to date stats, official license.
Disadvantages: None.

Thus far the football management games have gone as follows. The PC game market has been overloaded with in depth titles that are internet compatible, offer many leagues around Europe to choose from and have very realistic gameplay. The console market has Premier Manager in all of its terrible brevity. That was until the day that Codemasters released LMA Manager.

To ensure that FIFA playing masses were happy an official licence has been signed up by the developers. This is the League Managers Association, hence LMA. All the players are in here from Colchester United to Chelsea from Mansfield to Manchester United. They have also got the players from Europe meaning you can set up a dream team of Giggs, Beckham, Keane and Rivaldo across the midfield with Ronaldo and Christian Vieri doing the business up front.

This game has everything that Premier Manager had to offer and has multiplied in many times over. This game is certainly the best on the console market, and, although it cannot challenge the PC market, it pushes the benchmark up by a long way for console management games, including Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Sim City etc…

The controls are very simple to use and to come to terms with. The shoulder buttons of R1 and L1 scroll between about 8 main sections, including statistics, transfer markets, team news, fixtures, and the other shoulder buttons, R2 and L2, scroll between the mini menus held within those other menus. It works very well and vastly improves the old system, implemented by Premier Manager, which really requires a mouse to work. This old system required you to move the cursor around the screen by use of the D-pad and this often led to frustration as you missed your target time and time again. The menus themselves have a very neat look as a simple colour coding system is used throughout. The menus look, in a way, a bit futuristic and very pleasing to the eye.

The audio involved here is nothing too special but works well as background music, which keeps away the dull silence but doesn't detract from the game playing. Another good thing about the music is the fact that it doesn’t go down the tacky route of most other football games who choose football themed songs that lead to assassination attempts on the singer after a few hours of listening to it. The fact that I can't even remember what the music sounds like after several hours of playing on it is surely a good thing.

Another way in which the game is vastly better than its predecessors in the way your matches are played out. You don't compete in them but you do have a real feeling of control. They play out a game of football, complete with text commentary, with basic graphics but all the passing, tackling and shooting. Should you make a substitution you'll be able to see the difference a fresh pair of legs makes and as extra time wears on in the cup all that extra fitness training you prescribed for the players will pay off as they run rings around your less fit third division counterparts.

The highlights follow the match and although these are pre recorded this does have the advantage of always looking good, although you may have seen it several times in different matches. These highlights are accompanied by comments from Alan Hansen and Tony Gubba who discuss the highlight in question.

The transfer system is one of the best I've ever seen and one of the many aspects that will keep you coming back time after time. First off you must put in a bid and the club will consider it and maybe accept it but the chances are another team will come in and compete for the player by raising your price. What follows is a series of rises until one will drop and will be left with a huge bill as well as the lengthy contract negotiations with the prospective player. He'll be in there and working for number one asking for more money, better bonus' and a more suitable contract length. It's just like real life.

The loading times, a major vice of the previous football management incarnations on PlayStation, have been virtually eliminated. The only loading times now occur when loading the matches, the highlights, or the next day. These loading times are short and very easy to cope with, readers of some of my previous opinions may have picked up my loathing for loading.

In conclusion, I would thoroughly recommend LMA Manager to any football fan, and possibly some non football fans, but with the release of its sequel in March 2001, this original may prove useless to those in love with the up to date stats and the need to have the newest product on the market.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/01, Updated 05/31/01