The annual release of Football Manager is eagerly awaited. The game has adapted as time has gone on, and has a highly-powered mobile version is now available on iOS.
Football Manager 2020 Mobile – Fully Powered, But Cramped
Football Manager 2020 Mobile is as addictive as the version on other platforms. It has many of the same functions, but also a nice nostalgic edge – for instance the famous circles in gameplay instead of players. The classic managerial inbox remains too. One excellent feature is that you can save games locally on your device. This means you can continue your season offline, which is not always the case in mobile games. Saving on the cloud is also possible if you don’t want to take up device memory. While the traditional game mode of playing a full season remains, there is also the option to start mid-season and save your side from relegation, which I liked.
Inevitably for a big-named computer title shifted to mobile, some features are missing. I can find no way to ‘shout’ at players during the game, as you can in the Mac version, for example. The way of conducting basic operations like substitutions or changing your starting lineup is not always clear either. I played Football Manager 2020 Mobile on my iPhone. On that device, screens and menus can sometimes feel cramped, but that is because the developers tried to keep as many elements from the main version as possible. I imagine it plays brilliantly on iPad.
Football Manager 2020 Mobile is on the pricey side too. It costs $8.99/£8.99 in the iOS App Store. However, it is an in-depth game providing many playing hours, and so the cost is probably worth it. The biggest downside, if you can call it that, is that the game is an absolute time thief. Even playing on an iPhone, it is easy to get sucked in and play for significant chunks of time, but that has always been the way with Football Manager!