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Jimmy's Soccer Manager |
Copyright/Publisher: Beyond Belief, Release Year: 1992,
Genre: Football/Soccer,
Number Of Players: 1
Hill, Greaves, Tarbuck? Just who is Jimmy and what does he know about footy? Dunno, but IAN
OSBORNE has heard it's a funny old game...
Why do they bother? If you've seen one footy management sim you've seen them all, and I
for one have seem far too many! It wouldn't be so bad if Jimmy's Soccer Manager added something
new to the genre, but it doesn't - it's just a straightforward rehash of old ideas, and not
particularly good reworking at that.
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Take your pick |
The first thing you do on loading is, surprise surprise, pick your team. The screen updates
a lot quicker than the Speccy version, but you're still only allowed to select eleven men!
What about the substitute? Not that you need one - injuries aren't displayed until you select
your team for the next match! Presumbly players only ever get injured on the final whistle,
or do they just play on regardless? For a supposed serious management sim, this is a very
serious omission!
When you've selected your team it's on the game and, as you've probably guessed, there's
no animated representation of the match here whatsoever - you just sit watching the clock
and following the scores. Aaarrggghhh!!!!! There's no graphic representation of the game
whatsoever! If you find this sort of thing as boring as I do, you'll no doubt be hoping for
an option to skip it, and go straight to the results. Well bad luck, there ain't one!
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Colour me bad |
The menus are easu to use and nicely laid out, but the colours used are hideous - they look
like the demented offerings of a frustrated art student! This is especially true for the
player files, the only thing in the known universe with a colour scheme worse than Phil's
shirts. Still, the layout is good - nice mug shot of each player.
All the usual features are there, such as transfers, injuries (after a fashion), morale,
etc. Although good use of menu options makes them very easy to use, but the game is slowed
down considerably by some incredibly boring presentation routines. For example, to buy and
sell players you have to make a phone call - the speech takes a ridiculous amount of time
to appear on screen!
Honestly, you'd have more fun ringing the speaking clock. Programming a management sim
is relatively straightforward, resulting in loads of companies releasing half-baked efforts
just to fill their back catalogue. Jimmy's Soccer Manager is a real stinker that adds nothing
to an already unpopular and overdone genre - and who the hell's Jimmy, anyway?
Ian! 38%
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PHIL! |
Even as a total footy freak, I'm getting fed up with the endless flow of mediocre management
games. For my money, nothing can beat the excellent Tracksuit Manager with its host of
tactical options allowing the kind of depth and sophistication completely lacking from
Jimmy's.
The latter offers nothing new to the genre, and features a very boring 'watch the clock'
match scene. It's not totally awful, but the market's already flooded with management sims
and there's nothing special about Jimmy's to make it stand out from the crowd without a giant
inflatable banana.
42%
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