PREMIER Manager 3
■ platform: amiga ■ PUBLISHER: gremlin ■ Year: 1994
There had to be at least one football management game here, and Premier Manager 3 on the Amiga is as good as any. Some may balk at the idea of playing a 20-plus-year-old footy manny game in which all the players have retired and some of the teams aren’t even around anymore, but you should make an exception for this one. Premier Manager 3 isn’t so much about football as it is about an underdog’s journey from the bottom.
The brilliance of Premier Manager 3 is that it forces you to start in what was then the Conference – you can’t just pick Manchester United and destroy everyone. Instead, your goal is to take the likes of Halifax Town or Kidderminster Harriers to the top, or at the least use them as a springboard for better jobs in the higher leagues. You get somewhat attached to these teams as they grow through smart tactics, player growth, or even by cheating using the phone numbers, and it’s such a refreshing change from what usually happens if you pick a great team from the off.
Premier Manager 3 comes from an age where footy manny games had the balance absolutely spot-on
– all the crucial options are there, but it’s quick and not overstuffed. Seasons take hours, not weeks, and you don’t have to micromanage every player in the meeting room. It’s a game of simple purity, but one that provides stories of epic proportions.
PM3 comes from an age where footy games had the balance spot-on