Nintendo Pocket Football Club's announcement on Nintendo Direct took me by surprise. Nintendo don't usually make sports games without incorporating Mario, and don't usually do management simulators either.
Available exclusively as an eShop download, the game is an update of an old Japanese-only Game Boy Advance title. There are no licensed teams, players, or leagues, but there are a series of fictional leagues and various cups to partake in. You can name your club and players, design your badge and kits and away you go.
Your tactical options are limited. Before a match, you can pick your formation, line-up, zone, and highlight up to three danger-men. You can specify players to take the set-pieces (penalties, corners, and free kicks) but cannot define actual routines. Once the match is under-way, you can only adjust your tactics at half-time or when you make a substitution.
You cannot skip or fast forward a match, so this means you need to sit and watch each one (which takes around 10 minutes), or just set the game going and check up on it from time-to-time.
The football is quite simplistic, but works well. Depending on your tactics and player skill, your team will play different football. Setting your zone close together will result in shorter passes, whereas setting it far apart will result in a long ball game. Skilful players will perform ball skills, and may have various shooting styles (powerful, swerve). There's plenty of charm with the animations, with players performing all sorts of celebrations, or falling dejectedly to the ground when conceding a goal or missing a clear-cut chance.
Training cards are awarded throughout each match which usually depend on what action is being performed. For example, if your player makes a bad pass, you may be given the Passing training card. These training cards can be applied between each game which are used to improve the abilities of players but will add fatigue for that week. You can use up to 3 cards at a time, and there are certain combinations to uncover which give extra statistic boosts and influence player behaviour.
Some of the combinations are fairly obvious; 'Headed Shot' is Heading and Agility, but others definitely aren't obvious. I made a spreadsheet of the possible permutations of all the cards, and there's a whopping 5456 of them! Remembering which combinations you have tried is not a feasible option, and I think most players just cheat and look online to find them. The training is a large part of the game, because this gives the largest influence on your team.
The cards come in four varieties (Tactical, Technical, Physical and Support) and they will boost some of the categories: speed, stamina, technique, toughness, and willpower. It'll take a while to boost their grades, which are progressively harder to gain; progressing from E to D is much quicker than A to S.
Depending on the attributes you raise, a player's type can change which influences his behaviour on the pitch. Each begins as a Balanced type but can change to various types such as Stopper, Sprinter, Explorer, Chancer, and they can change types multiple times over their career.
The transfer system is pretty simplified. You have a wage budget and can add players to your team as long as your wage budget covers them. Transferred players have significantly higher wages, so it's beneficial to add rubbish players with high potential and train them up. Your players wages can increase but it does take a few seasons before they begin demanding more money. It's an insignificant amount in comparison; so training is definitely the way to go.
The amount of games in the season highly depends on the League you are in. However, when you aren't playing an official match, you can either skip to the next one or play a Practice/Friendly. Practice Matches last 45 minutes and don't effect your Backing Rate which represents what the fans think of you. Friendly matches are 90 minute games and do effect your Backing Rate. Playing these games gives you the opportunity to gain more training cards, and you do get more rewards for setting up Practice Games against significantly better teams, so this is encouraged.
When you begin the game, you will have a long run of friendlies before the actual season starts. You will be playing teams way better than you so will endure some thrashings, but once the season begins you will start seeing your first goals and victories, and it is achievable to win promotion in your first season.
It is only a matter of time before you reach the top leagues because it seems your team improves whereas the other teams stay relatively static. Better/lucky managers may reach the big leagues faster, but as long as you put in the time, you will get there.
With the online matches, they are performed asynchronously. So you can play against anyone's uploaded team data, but your 'assistant manager' takes over to change tactics and decide substitutions as the game progresses. All you can do is change a few sliders to control his behaviour, then just watch the game without influencing it yourself.
One problem with games like this is that it seems simplistic, but could have all sorts of complicated calculations going on in the background which you are completely oblivious to. Conversely, it could be really simple or completely random, so it's hard to put a value on the game. £13.49 seems quite pricey, but you can rack up an insane amount of hours on it. If it's worth the investment is debatable, because it does take an insane amount of hours (I racked up over 80! oops!).
Nintendo Pocket Football Club can be as addicting and as much of a time-waste as Football Manager. Its simplicity makes it accessible, but the time it consumes is hardcore. It will be far too limited for some, and many people just won't have the time to invest in it for seemingly little reward. Personally, I've got mixed opinion on it. It's charming and great to play a few matches here-and-there to waste a bit of time. It's not quite engaging and rewarding enough to justify the hours it can consume, and ultimately seems a bit of a grind.