14 DAY TRIAL // 
Everyone can play football! At least that's what they think, but in real life, football is not as easy as it seems when watched on Eurosport. There are times during a football match, when the fans wish they had a shotgun to "fire" the coach of the team in a very violent way. There are some bad decisions that a coach makes which will cost him his job or reputation. Games and simulators are the only means for us, football fans to take control of our favorite team and take it to the top, even if in real life they are struggling to avoid relegation.
Story Unless Ronaldo is in fact Diablo and Zidane some sort of wizard, there's not much to mention here, except for the stories that appear in your head when the graphics and engine are non-existent. Seriously, I saw people on forums and chats going wild about their favorite teams and bragging about their performances while playing Football Manager Handheld. They came up with entire stories about how a third league team won the UEFA Cup or Champions League after years and years of climbing leagues and winning trophies. This may be a hobby, but when you scream at the small screen of the PSP at the end of a match and start making Mexican waves with your friends, you've really lost contact with real life football events.
Concept and gameplay The only concept worth mentioning here would be comprised in a single word: database. That's what this type of games is all about, a big database, lots of options and many random events that make the whole gameplay spicier. And things tend to get pretty random when a 30 seasons career is available. While a normal manager would probably get fired about 100 times in so many years, you might just make it thanks to the appealing gameplay of Football Manager Handheld. Choose one of the 7 available countries and then pick the league you'd like to play in. There are 19 leagues and 354 teams available and there's also a random option for the undecided gamers. It will be quite a challenge, when you take over a team from the English third division and start dreaming about Champions League.
Since we're in the numbers area, I must say that I'm quite disappointed with the fact that you can only have 36 players in your team at any time and they will be mixed, the concept of youth team being gone. Well, let's get over it as PSP is not quite the king of memory and the team options we got on the PC, can't apply here. If you're prepared for the big bucks, you'd better pick a famous team, like Chelsea, that has the largest budget in this game or select a medium team and change currency pretending that the millions you have are dollars or euros. The player and events database may be enormous, but so are the loading times and you'll surely be doing something else while playing Football Manager, because you'll have enough time for any other action. You start by picking the country, a division, a team and then you'll have to select a name for yourself, a first name and a second name. Check out the news from the left side of the screen to find out what the other teams are doing and what's the board's opinion on your actions.
They have a certain amount of confidence that will eventually run out if your team is on a losing streak. As a manager, you can also go on holiday or resign, but I don't think you'll do that, because it's just easier to... pause the game when you stop playing. If you're not keen of getting on the job right away I guess you'll like snooping around the menus to find out how the other teams in the league are doing or what players are up on the transfer list. If you're managing a low budget team there will be a lot more player scouting to do, because you won't only search for talented stars, but cheap promising youngsters as well. Football Manager Handheld offers the gamer a chance to play throughout the 2005-2006 season and you'll notice that the updates date back from the beginning of the year 2006 and things have changed since then, more or less.
While your team is taking a break or has its week off you can watch the results of the cups in which you're not involved and maybe check out some team from your country, that's not included in the game's database. Prepare to be Superman, because even if you'll hire a coach, you'll still be selecting the training mode, the tactics and the substitutions. You may want your players to do some fitness training, or maybe increase their attacking skills. Also the training can be light, medium or intensive and various instructions can be given while the preparations take place. When everything is done you can push the continue button and skip to the next day or the match day.
Everything takes place in turns in FMH and each turn equals a small annoying loading time. Leaving that aside, you'll start feeling the pressure of matches right before kick-off time and you'll have the option of seeing the team management of the opponent and their achievements and tactics so far. Everything works with real dates and teams, everything is realistic and lots of licenses must have been bought for this achievement. When the game starts you'll have the chance of seeing the weather conditions in which it is played, temperature and humidity, but I'm not sure that there's any influence on the result if you're playing Chelsea on a sunny weather. I don't even need to talk about the controls as they are beyond idiot-proof, each button's function being displayed on the screen. You'll use the D-pad a lot and the analog will be almost forgotten, being used only to navigate up and down in the game menus.
Let's talk about the actual match a bit, as that is the central point of the whole football phenomenon. There's no trace of 3D engine, not even a 2D one and all the game information will be delivered through short sentences that announce how are things going on the field. You can set up the speed of those events to very fast if you want the match to end sooner, or slow things down to make a substitution or change tactics. There's a lot of freedom given to the player and that can only be good, specially if the gamer is a football fan as well. "Hit the bar", "punches the ball", "brilliant pass", all the lines you've heard on TV during a match are here written in red or yellow depending of the teams that takes action. The goal will be signaled by a blinking screen with "Goal!" written all over it and I know a couple of gamers that will get really excited when seeing this.
Another pretty nice feature of the gameplay is that the match stops when you start giving instructions, for example you'll be able to change the captain and formation at any point of the game and the timer will start again after you're done. The player scouting part reminds me of the long nights of playing the online football simulator Hattrick and the countless bids for valuable players. Searches are refined in Football Manager Handheld and very customizable, as you can set the scout to search for players according to their age, nationality, value, wage per week, transfer status, contract status or injuries. Each selected player has his own list of abilities, that you can view before buying the new star of your team. See if his agility, creativity, stamina and reflexes are suited for your team and buy the guy or maybe you'd like to loan him for a season or two.
Video Well, this being a football manager I don't think you'd expect much in this part of the review. There's a green football field in the background and all the menu screens are pretty user friendly and easy to navigate through. The game however offers a very colorful display of text and symbols, that scroll horizontally on a bar that's placed underneath the two team names. The PC version of FMH had a 2D engine, but the genre aficionados won't miss it a bit, because those little guys looked like M&M-s going wild inside a rectangular space.
Sound Why did the producers implement an option that turns the sound off, if it can be already considered mute? Seriously speaking, the only sounds you'll hear while playing the game are those made by the buttons you'll push. I would have appreciated a little crowd noise, or some music in the background, but as I said, Football Manager Handheld can be played while doing something else and that something may be listening to music.
Multiplayer It would have made the game three times better to have a multiplayer mode at the reach of your fingers and portable as well. We'll just have to wait for the next installment and maybe we'll have the chance to challenge some friends to a table-gazing and option-selecting contest called football management.
Conclusion Football is the most popular sport in the world and every game that has something to do with it will be successful, one way or the other. The lack of a graphical engine during matches didn't bother me much, but I am the kind of guy that likes playing managerial simulators that deliver their content through text and tables. Those who have great expectations will be disappointed by Football Manager Handheld, those who are looking for quick fun while riding the bus home, will get their share of joy or despair while playing the game and scoring or receiving goals.
