In the football management sim world, Championship Manager went for an overload of stats and information about teams and players and pared back just about anything that could interfere with that, and it worked. Other approaches were available. As an ongoing wave of Bus Simulator, Farm Simulator, Goat Simulator games show, anything has its complicated detail if looked at in the right way, and that includes the bits of football that aren’t played out on the pitch.
Ultimate Soccer Manager developers Impressions Games had a lot more form previously for creating titles like Discovery: In the Steps of Columbus and World Domination. There is a bit of football as warfare in Ultimate Soccer Manager. Rather than the football match as battle, though, what they were more interested in is the football manager as general in their war room, making calls and directing the building of their encampment.
All of the game’s menus are presented via detailed and realistic graphical depiction of the club’s stadium, your office, your chairman’s office, your bank manager’s office, your desk, your telephone, your fax machine. Play a match and afterwards a newspaper appears on your desk in which you can read the report on your result. Information on fixtures and league tables is presented via a TV showing a lovingly rendered version of Teletext, which gave me more nostalgic feelings than the name of any previously-forgotten footballer. Pick up the phone and you can engage in a spot of illegal betting or attempt to bribe your counterparts for favourable treatment (hence the delightful disclaimer on starting the game to let you know that they are definitely, absolutely not suggesting that any of the real people at the clubs depicted are in any way fond of dodgy brown envelopes stuffed with cash.)
Outside of the offices, you can not only decide on stand improvements for the stadium stands but also look into the management of the various shops and restaurants around the ground. This is where Impressions’ bizarre vision becomes clearest. I have been unable to find anything on Ultimate Soccer Manager that tells me what position each of my players prefers to play in. This lack of basic information is either an unexpected nod to free-flowing total football or a cause for relief that I can still remember the the line-up of Arsenal’s mid-’90s side unassisted. On the other hand, I can find out the price of beer in the club bar to the penny (£1.70 to begin with), and change it any time I like. Changing prices on a match-by-match basis, taking into consideration whether it’s a glamour European tie or a game against Coventry City, is encouraged.
Once you get to the matches themselves, they feel like an afterthought compared to the business stuff. The careful fullness and user-friendliness rather falls apart. There is a graphical representation of the play, which just about rises above round magnets on a tactics board in terms of level of detail, and some extremely minimal commentary. There’s not much in the way of feedback information, and I’m not convinced that watching the circles move about is sufficient to get insight and make any changes. Compared to even the earliest, least refined version of Championship Manager, the matches are a boring dud, devoid of tension.
As a fan of virtually managing football games, where I really needed Ultimate Soccer Manager to make me feel like my decisions matter, it doesn’t at all. It made me feel like it cares more about the business side of the club, and like it wanted me to do the same, and with that we must part ways. As far as manager me is concerned, that’s not what I’m not getting paid for. Perhaps the kind of person who is very excited about Manchester United’s official noodles partner was also out there in 1995 and was delighted by Ultimate Soccer Manager.
Gallup home computer chart, Computer Trade Weekly 3 July 1995 (chart for week to 24 June 1995)