It may be a slight surprise to some, but even as a long-time Football Manager player, I have never played Football Manager Mobile. I know it is quite popular and is quite well-regarded. However, it has never really appealed to me.
I am not really a mobile gamer
I have to admit I am not a mobile gamer. I am showing my age here, but in my childhood, I didn’t have a mobile phone or tablet like the current generation of kids. That was mostly because tablets were not yet invented, and mobile phones were only becoming widespread when I was in my teens.
No doubt, mobile games have come a long way in recent decades. Some have become classics when video games are talked about. However, many people of a certain age, like me, may not be as enamoured with these technological marvels.
That’s a generational thing, though, as, like most 11-year-olds, my son will play mobile games on his phone or tablet. He is more of a FIFA/EA Sports FC (Whatever they are calling it these days) fan.
As he is obsessed with football and has seen me play FM, he decided he wanted to give it a go. He played a few seasons on the desktop version, but he did not really get as into it as he did with FIFA.
In my research for this article, I asked him if he had played Football Manager Mobile, and he told me that he had it on his phone but hadn’t played it yet. That didn’t tell me much about Football Manager Mobile, though.
What do I know about Football Manager Mobile?
Well, to be honest, what I knew about Football Manager Mobile before researching this article could well have fitted on a postage stamp. They are the things we used to put on letters to post them before the internet was invented kids!
The obvious first advantage of playing Football Manager Mobile is that you can play your favourite football sim on the move. That is a major plus when it comes to fighting boredom on long trips, for instance.
You can download it simply via the Google or Apple Store on your phones or even play on the Nintendo Switch. At the moment, it is free to play if you are a subscriber to Netflix, which is likely to be a lot of people.
One thing I did know about the game before doing this article was that it is a stripped-down version of the PC/MAC version. Some reviewers have compared Football Manager Mobile to an older, less detailed version of the desktop version.
Your handheld devices will be far less powerful than your desktop or high-end laptop/MacBook, which is the main reason for the no-frills version on mobile.
This can be construed in two ways. Some people like me don’t always appreciate the depth of the desktop version of the game.
When I first started playing CM/FM, I loved sitting for hours setting up training, recruiting the best coaching staff, and looking to hire the best quality tea lady. I usually let Doris stay. She was doing a sterling job, to be fair to her—five-star tea lady.
However, now I have a busy family life and business, I don’t have time to go into all the little details. I prefer games to be more plug-and-play. From the reviews I have read, it seems to be a common theme for the FM fans who have played Football Manager Mobile that they state it is a good game to pick up and play.
For some desktop FM players and aficionados, this lesser level of depth may put them off playing the mobile version. That feeling is understandable simply because of the amount of work that SI put into the game, with tweaks making the game more and more realistic each year.
With this in mind, from what I know about the game, I don’t think it will be for the Football Manager purest out there.
Should I play Football Manager Mobile?
I have to say that after reading reviews of the game, it may just provide a solution to my time issue. I love playing FM, and I am certainly not a casual player. I now partly play the game for work, but it can take time to play, which, as previously mentioned earlier, is at a premium as an adult with a family.
It’s crazy to think that I have never really seriously considered playing Football Manager Mobile. The answer to the above question is that I should probably try to play Football Manager Mobile.
If I do try it out, I will be sure to write a full review of my thoughts on the game so that other people who, like me, may not have thought about playing the game in the past may have a better understanding of what it entails.
Have you played Football Manager Mobile? If you have, could you let us know your opinion of the game?
