Manage My Football Club 2010 Review (Wireless)

Manage Your Football Club 2010 Season (MyFC) is an iPhone text-simulation and soccer-management game. While I never foresaw text-sims making the jump to mobile platforms as effectively as MyFC has, it has nevertheless happened.

The game mixes well thought out menus together with a plethora of features, accurate teams and rosters to form an excellent simulation experience in the palm of your hand.

The games are visually simulated on a virtual football pitch in a top-down kind of view. You can see how games are playing out, but there are no 3-D player graphics to speak of. While I think that is no big deal -- this is a text-sim after all -- some people will be turned off by that idea.

As far as the management aspects of the game go, you have all of the basic aspects of managing your own football club right at your fingertips. The menus are easy to navigate and not unlike any other menus on the iPhone  you have ever encountered.

While the help menus are usually easy to find at any point -- and are very useful for the most part -- they come up MIA in a few areas that I really needed them. When a "you have messed this up" menu pops up letting you know something is wrong with your team or settings, you are not given an option to have what is wrong explained in more detail.

For soccer novices who want to play a good text-sim on their iPhone, this will create some major problems as you try to figure out how to juggle your roster. However, do not be fooled, this game is going to be played by football junkies more than novices.

On The Pitch: Games are simulated in a realistic fashion. You do not see guys have six goal games, and you do not see any 8-7 type of matches. It is good in the simulation department.

Controls: The menus are well thought out and very well put together. The best part is the iPhone menus work exactly as planned.

Learning Curve: Unless you know soccer, expect to be painfully reminded of your lack of soccer knowledge as you try to figure out various warnings and errors on your own.

Graphics: There are no "graphics" per se, but the visual design of the game is a heavily green tinted blend of awesome. I really like how the game looks on my small screen, and the lack of 3-D graphics of any kind is not a bad thing.

Sound Design: There are not many sound effects, but what few there are seem well placed -- solid but not spectacular rules the day here. There could have been a bit more done to make the game a bit more atmospheric.

Intangibles: I like how the game is set up, and while there are nagging issues and some things I wish were included, this is an iPhone text-sim, and it works very well.

Bang For Your Buck: The app is $5 in the iTunes App Store. At that price point, you are getting a competitively priced text-sim on the iPhone. If this same app were on the PC, it would probably be going for something like $20 or $30, so it is not a bad deal.

Overall: MyFC is a game that makes no bones about the fact that it is catering to football fanatics first and foremost. While the game does a truly excellent job at it, novices will scoff at the complexity of the game and will have issues trying to figure some things out. While it is a good text-sim, it is not a text-sim that can be played by everyone, which is the worst thing I could say about the game. If you love soccer, do not hesitate to pick up this great app -- it was made for you.

Score: 8.0 (Very Good)