PES Club Manager Review (Huawei Honor 4X): Possibly the Best Soccer Simulator on Android (Video)

I must admit that I haven’t played many Football Manager titles and the one I was most passionate about was Hattrick, the famous online browser game that was big 10 years ago. Now I’ve fallen in love with Konami’s PES Club Manager, available for free in the Play Store and tested by us on the Huawei Honor 4X.

The title takes up about 1 GB of space and it offers you the option to view the matches in 2D or 3D. You can’t get involved in the gameplay, but rather in the strategy, by changing the play mode to counter attack or possession for example. You can make the team more offensive or defensive, using a slider with 6 degrees of play. You can play on the middle or on the sides and use long or short passes.

Of course you can change players and the injuries and red cards will eventually happen, so keep an eye out for that. Morale, stamina and other stats will also be important ahead of the game. Obviously you can change the team arrangement from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 for example and move players manually via touch. One can spend resources on training both the core players and the youth team. The really good star players are achieved by sending out scouters and spending PES coins.

Those are the freemium currency of the game, aside from the millions of green dollars received from sponsors, that will buy you players on the transfer and bidding market. Then there are the orange cones, that are paid to train players. There are lots of variables to keep an eye on, including an energy meter, that lets you play 5 or 6 consecutive matches. The aim is to keep your fans happy, make them come to the stadium and increase your fanbase.

The entire campus of the stadium can be upgraded, including youth academy, store, medical facility, stadium facility and fan club. A game lasts around 5 minutes or a bit more and the 3D graphics are pretty good looking. The 2D mode shows a bunch of colorful dots moving on the field, but it’s easier to tweak on the go. Over 5000 licensed players are included here and a ton of achievements that are useful to get more PES Coins.

I like the fact that there are no crucial timers or evil freemium mechanics. You do get timers for building campus appendices, but those timers last a few games, so it’s OK. The engine that Konami included here is quite nice you really feel like you’re watching an older FIFA title from the consoles, let’s say from 2006 or 2008. Every once in a while your league of 10 teams will also include a real gamer, not only AI, but I didn’t feel I was playing against a human opponent, sadly.

I did register some app crashes, especially when collecting achievements, but in the end I had a blast with this title and I totally recommend it. We give it a very solid 10 out of 10 and you can download it here.