Nintendo Pocket Football Club

[Ville]

Well it's certainly not perfect, but there's quite a lot of charm in this game. Like I said, I don't even like soccer that much, but this just somehow works. Create and manage your own football club, then watch them play against other teams...and because you can't skip matches, it feels like your little FC is really fighting there inside your 3DS. Weird Nintendo magic, definitely...

 

Here's my team, Finland seems to have about 5 teams atm: http://microsite.nintendo-europe.com/NPFC/enGB/team.php?team_code=F697B1F33

 

I'm currently 8 games into the Beginner League, 5W-2D-1L.

[tapedeck]

This is great. It's nice to play a footy management game that doesn't drag you down and beat you because you need to assess the far end of every fart coming from the club. A lack of spreadsheets helps too. I like the card-like design to everything and the simplicity of it all.

 

Sure it has stuff missing from your typical footy management game. But this is a breath of fresh air in the sports management genre. It's got that involving factor but is immensely personable - through a combination of graphics/writing and the fictional element.

 

Oh yeah. - My Club ID is 7E1 F3 BCAB. Deckers Utd.

[Mandalore]

I'm enjoying this game quite a lot so far, there are a few annoying things though. There's no way of seeing how close a stat is to the next grade boundary until you commit to training cards. 6 save slots for your best goals seems like an unnecessary restriction when we have potentially unlimited space on our SD cards. It's also frustrating that I can't watch which goal replay to delete if I reach the limit.

 

Apart from that, really fun game.

[Mokong]

I am fully addicted to this now after one day, haha, already plowed over 10hours into it

 

Only bought it on a whim as I hadn't bought anything new since SM3DW, and just wanted something not full price to play till Mario Kart and I thought this game might have a nice bit of charm to it...and boy does it

 

Thought the non-licensed of real names and clubs would hurt it but having to "create" your own club and being able to rename players makes it all that more personal

Just wish the Emblem creator option had more advanced editting options. The only "difficulty" comes when trying to buy new players as you obviously won't have an idea how good anyone is by their name or the club they are at (took me a long time to work out the icons that indicated which league teams were in)

 

The love that as a management sim it is both simple yet still has a bit of depth without going into way too much depth like other management sims.

 

 

The only 2 things that I wish would get patched (hopefully) are an option to speed up the live matches so you can get through more faster... I know you can skip "non-competitive" weeks but I still throw my "B-Squad" into practice matches on those weeks so I can get more training cards.

 

And speaking of training cards, love the idea behind them, love it when you find a new Special Combo for the first time But wish you could see how much EXP you had in a players stats before applying the training so you'd have an idea how close you are to a level up.

 

Anyway I'm almost finished my first season in charge of Déise United, in the B. League we have destroyed the competition!

With 9 out of 10 games played we have secured the title and promotion with 8 wins and 1 draw and one more game left versus the bottom team in the league wo we already beat 7-0 in our first meeting

 

Doubt the next season in the A. League will go quite so well though ....hopefully I can get some new players in the next transfer window to bolster the squad.

 

Just had our first round match in the Federation Cup too which was a wake up call...versus the 1st placed team in the Top Division As expected didn't go well and we were hammered 6-0 Ah well, least we earned some training cards haha.

 

My online matches have been mixed, 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses so far I think it is.... question why do you have no control over anything in online matches? Can't even select the starting lineup or make subs it all done by CPU...wtf?

 

 

I've gone and changed the names on all my players too...for some reason on the website though it's updated the names in the formation image but not on the image for my full squad yet.

 

Anyway here's my main line up...I started using names from people in my family, myself (F.Hughes), my son (O.Hughes), my nephew (C.Healy), brother in law (D. Healy) and cousins (E. Byrne and T. Doyle) but then started using some "character" names.... spot anyone familar

 

 

 

Oh also...anyone know if it is possible to reduce a players salary without sacking him?

 

For some reason my 2nd choice Goalkeeper is on the biggest wage in my club and I never use him save for practice games

Well he was the 1st choice keeper when the game started but I noticed the other guy had better stats so promoted him to first choice and the original guy was demoted to 2nd choice.

 

Wonder if it possible to reduce his wage to reflect his standing (and save me money since he obviously not doing anything to earn that ) or will I have to just give him teh sack and try buy another 2nd choice who'll have a lower wage demand?

[Ville]

Started the Advanced League, and I'm getting my ass kicked. Have lost 3 games already! Seems to be quite a jump from the beginner one...

[flameboy]

This is great. It's nice to play a footy management game that doesn't drag you down and beat you because you need to assess the far end of every fart coming from the club. A lack of spreadsheets helps too. I like the card-like design to everything and the simplicity of it all.

 

Sure it has stuff missing from your typical footy management game. But this is a breath of fresh air in the sports management genre. It's got that involving factor but is immensely personable - through a combination of graphics/writing and the fictional element.

 

Oh yeah. - My Club ID is 7E1 F3 BCAB. Deckers Utd.

 

Wait what is this madness? I thought the days of individual codes for games were gone....

[Dcubed]

Nice to see everyone's enjoying it I've got the game but haven't started yet (still waiting for May to kick in and Mario Kart 8 to bring me back to Nintendo...) but I get the feeling that I'm gonna really enjoy this one

 

Wait what is this madness? I thought the days of individual codes for games were gone....

 

I think that's there for tracking your club on the NPFC website...

[dazzybee]

Yeah you can play your friends in the normal way, but this is for randoms you do t want as friends and like cubed says, stats on the website.

 

I'm getting into the game more, was a little basic at first but it's fun. Glad the difficulty rises though as I'm dicking the first league.

 

It feels like footy management for Sunday league building players is pretty slow, and you can't really add players to your squad, it's hard to build a great team, but that'll probably make it more satisfying.

[flameboy]

Yeah you can play your friends in the normal way, but this is for randoms you do t want as friends and like cubed says, stats on the website.

 

I'm getting into the game more, was a little basic at first but it's fun. Glad the difficulty rises though as I'm dicking the first league.

 

It feels like footy management for Sunday league building players is pretty slow, and you can't really add players to your squad, it's hard to build a great team, but that'll probably make it more satisfying.

 

What's the difference your still giving out one random number as opposed to another. It's not like they can glean much from a 3DS profile....oh you like cats and played pokemon last....

[Mokong]

What's the difference your still giving out one random number as opposed to another. It's not like they can glean much from a 3DS profile....oh you like cats and played pokemon last....

 

It's not really a friend code.

 

The main way to select which teams you want to play online is to just browse a ranking table. Just select the team you want your boys and match starts.

 

However in for example the European ranking table it only shows the top 30 team I think it was and then your rank plus 10 above you and 10 below you.

 

If you want to play a specific team not listed just use the code. TBH, there's not really much point in the codes other than use on the stats website (yet you can still search there by manager or team name anyway ), for Friends you can just select them off your friends list.

 

There are match ID's which I think make more sense as they let you watch a replay of an online match even if you've not been part of it.

 

 

 

Anyway after winning the B. League and being promoted to the A. League some foreign investors decided to buy my club and rename it (I'm making that up of course as an excuse for why I changed my club name).

 

Changed the Club name to "BS Galactica" (BSG) and as part of the buyout th enew owners decided to force all players to change their names (with the exception of F.Hughes and O.Hughes, they got to stay the same :wink:)

 

 

 

If anyone unsure what I did there @Cube will certainly know :awesome:

 

BTW, @Cube, you're team Cubic County doesn't appear on my Friend Ranking Table? what up with that? I do have you on my console FL.... or do you have to have gone online yourself before you appear to others?

 

 

Anyway also in the midseason since I got a few extra quid in my budget managed to buy some new players which will hopefully help in the A.League.

 

Oddly though alot of the players on higher wages than the guys on my team seem to have lower stats.... yet for some reason I still get the feeling my guys might be underpowered if they went one on one with them.

 

Sold my 2nd choice keeper (and somehow the dude ended up signing for a team in Pro League 2...bit jumped up a division) so I could buy another 2nd choice who had a lower wage demand.

 

Then bought 2 defenders, one was a free agent and the other I somehow managed to get to drop a division to join me Both costing me 1000, my highest paid players, they better be worth it.

 

Bought one midfielder too but he's more backup, my current mid line seem to have overall better stats than him, though he is still my highest paid midfielder at 750.

 

Tried to get some other midfielders and forwards who had wage demands over 1000 but none of them would leave their clubs for mine Would be nice if it was possible to try influence a player to join you, seems to be random unless they are unattached. Should be able to offer them a higher wage than their asking price

 

 

Ah well, onto the preseason training, and then the start of the new season we go!

Edited April 20, 2014 by Mokong

[Cube]

@Mokong, I haven't done much with my new team. My first team also doesn't appear because the servers were wiped a few weeks ago, so as it has a team code that doesn't exist, it can't go online.

[RedShell]

R. Lampkin is now at RedShell FC.

But I renamed him Mokong.

[tapedeck]

Secured promotion in my second season but now struggling to compete for the title. Mid-table and have been tonked 4-2 by the first and second teams. Seems you have to really have a deeper squad as the games come thick and fast and tactics become more important. Seen a few teams playing different formations which spices things up - certainly when trying to dominate the middle of the park.

 

Just switched to a 3-5-2 and winning 5-0 which is nice. Have played this solid for two days and most of my players are C-B grade now.

[Ville]

Just finished my second season (Advanced League), and boy was that interesting. Straight losses for the first 13 games, then a few draws, more losses, and finally some wins...Managed to stay in the league by 1 point, ha! Final results: 3W-2D-15L.

 

I think it's cool that you have a proper challenge, my team was pretty damn unbalanced and the game showed no mercy for that. Took me quite a few losses to figure out what was going on, i.e. a few good players / attributes matter nothing if the rest is crap. Had to widen the reserve and balance everyone up across the board, and it took me the whole season to do it. Skin of the teeth victory, but I did manage to turn it around in the end! Pretty damn satisfying.

 

Them other teams better beware, because after the summer training is over, it's AL round two and their asses are gonna get scorched!

[dazzybee]

It is great it's a proper challenge, but I'm worried it's more of a grind to develop your players than any "management", but I haven't started the new season so I'll see. I guess I just hope the decisions you make really do have an impact. Really loving it!

 

What's the difference your still giving out one random number as opposed to another. It's not like they can glean much from a 3DS profile....oh you like cats and played pokemon last....

 

I don't think I'm explaining it right I guess for random people on miiverse or on the net, you just want to play their team. Just another option.

[flameboy]

It is great it's a proper challenge, but I'm worried it's more of a grind to develop your players than any "management", but I haven't started the new season so I'll see. I guess I just hope the decisions you make really do have an impact. Really loving it!

 

 

 

I don't think I'm explaining it right I guess for random people on miiverse or on the net, you just want to play their team. Just another option.

 

Yeah Mokong explained it so it makes sense slightly more...I still stand by it Nintendo's way of way of things can be so baffling.

[Mokong]

Righty 2nd season (1st in A.League) not going as well as the previous. 5 games in now and currently have 0 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. Currently in 4th place (out of 6) in the League. Looks like won't be back to back promotions for me, haha.

 

Going to start messing around with different formations and tactics methinks.

 

 

Question: Had anyone gone and bought any of the DLC teams? What are those about? Are they just used for training? 1.50euro each (and one of them was I think 2.50) seems a bit steep for a new training option....

[tapedeck]

Righty 2nd season (1st in A.League) not going as well as the previous. 5 games in now and currently have 0 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. Currently in 4th place (out of 6) in the League. Looks like won't be back to back promotions for me, haha.

 

Going to start messing around with different formations and tactics methinks.

 

 

Question: Had anyone gone and bought any of the DLC teams? What are those about? Are they just used for training? 1.50euro each (and one of them was I think 2.50) seems a bit steep for a new training option....

 

Yeah, I found the higher up the leagues you go the more variety teams have. The tinker emerges.

 

I've also done something silly that has had a negative impact on my team.

 

I taught one of my defenders how to do step overs and do other freestyle tricks. Now he does them with frequency - often being caught out and conceding from losing the ball. I've now had to resign him to the bench in favour of a more solid defender. Gutted as he was getting up to B grades!

 

The DLC teams are just for practice/friendly matches. They give you combo cards that relate to the type of team they are.

Edited April 21, 2014 by tapedeck

[Ville]

Question: Had anyone gone and bought any of the DLC teams? What are those about? Are they just used for training? 1.50euro each (and one of them was I think 2.50) seems a bit steep for a new training option....

 

Yeah, I've actually bought the first 2 training teams now, Aegis (defence) and Raiders (offense). You play a practice match or a friendly, and after the match you get a new combo PLUS 3x the cards needed for that. In other words, 3+3(+3) extra cards per match.

[kalipso3]

Yeah, I've actually bought the first 2 training teams now, Aegis (defence) and Raiders (offense). You play a practice match or a friendly, and after the match you get a new combo PLUS 3x the cards needed for that. In other words, 3+3(+3) extra cards per match.

 

That's a pretty meaty bonus, don't you think?

Not a big deal for single player (might be useful if things are getting rough), but for online matches it gives quite a major boost, comparing to those who will not buy and use it (gives around +50-80% more training cards for *every* non-league non-cup game).

[Ville]

That's a pretty meaty bonus, don't you think?

Not a big deal for single player (might be useful if things are getting rough), but for online matches it gives quite a major boost, comparing to those who will not buy and use it (gives around +50-80% more training cards for *every* non-league non-cup game).

 

Yep, it's does speed up your training. I have to say that I'm not exactly happy with this mechanic because it feels like a cheap way to make more money. What happened to the Nintendo standard of fully balanced, standalone games? "Oh the grind for cards is taking you some time? Well here, just buy your way out of it!" No, how about you balance the goddamn game so that I don't have to buy extra stuff!

 

Also, more DLC teams and challenges are unlocked as you advance further in the game. First you have defence and offence training, and after that specific attributes, like stamina & toughness and technique. Probably 2 per each different league? If so, that's 8 DLC teams to buy, i.e. 12€ extra. Not sure how many challenge teams there are, but if there are 4, then that would be 10€ extra also.

 

I just don't understand why they had to make these purchasable DLC, why not just include them in the game as league win rewards or free DLC (challenges)? The lines between "this is how the game plays", "this is how it should play" and "this is just extra leverage you can buy" are very damn murky right now. Yes, the game is good, but I'm just not digging this pay-to-speed-up-your-progress mechanic...

[kalipso3]

Yep, it's does speed up your training. I have to say that I'm not exactly happy with this mechanic because it feels like a cheap way to make more money. What happened to the Nintendo standard of fully balanced, standalone games? "Oh the grind for cards is taking you some time? Well here, just buy your way out of it!" No, how about you balance the goddamn game so that I don't have to buy extra stuff!

 

Also, more DLC teams and challenges are unlocked as you advance further in the game. First you have defence and offence training, and after that specific attributes, like stamina & toughness and technique. Probably 2 per each different league? If so, that's 8 DLC teams to buy, i.e. 12€ extra. Not sure how many challenge teams there are, but if there are 4, then that would be 10€ extra also.

 

I just don't understand why they had to make these purchasable DLC, why not just include them in the game as league win rewards or free DLC (challenges)? The lines between "this is how the game plays", "this is how it should play" and "this is just extra leverage you can buy" are very damn murky right now. Yes, the game is good, but I'm just not digging this pay-to-speed-up-your-progress mechanic...

 

Must admit is a bit of a let down for me as well. Don't really mind, as I will probably focus on single player mode and play online only casually/for fun, but I think tournament/ranked play is the main driver for such DLC, works pretty much as purchasable items from premium shops in some free multiplayer games we all surely know

I knew about DLC before the release, but hoped it will be realized in a bit more elaborate or attractive form (e.g. extra cups, new player types/training cards, multiplayer modes; you know, stuff that actually are new downloadable content, rather than just consumables/accelerators - reminds me of some annoying Most Wanted "DLC"s that only quickened XP/upgrade gains). Even if these teams are strong, they will be all the same most of the time, with same players, tactics, etc., so will be boring already after 3 or 4 games...

Hope we will get proper DLCs and updates for NPFC in the future

[markderoos]

It's just Iwata/Nintendo trying to find out new sales models like was told during the investor meeting in April last year: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130430qa/index.html

 

We've already seen this in some recent efforts, like:

http://rustysrealdealbaseball.nintendo.com

 

and:

 

http://steeldiver.nintendo.com

[Ville]

@markderoos Yep, that's the thing that worries me, we're gonna see more of this in the future...

[tapedeck]

I see where you are coming from but...

This was a full retail release in Japan which means that all of those extra unlockables were maybe already included in the package? If so, and if you bought all of the extra training teams, you would then be paying full RRP for the game.

Nintendo are playing the long game. They are seeing where they can lower the price of their titles, without lowering the 'value' of their software. The last thing we want is the race to the bottom mentality on the App Store where gamers prefer 'free' with IAP as the norm. This, and Rusty's Real Baseball are Nintendo being ambiguously explorative.

 

That can only be a good thing for them as a company and for us as gamers. I think this is a superb game and I've already got about 30hours on it. For £10 that's great value. I wouldn't mind paying extra for the DLC now that I'm invested in the game neither.

I can only see positives in this model if the initial buy-in costs come down from the standard £30-40 pricing. £10-20 is much more palatable.

As consumers we are used to one way of purchasing Nintendo software. But the times are changing and with improved online and 'e' stores, Nintendo need to be pushing software buy-in that identifies with these current market trends while balancing inherent value.

Edited April 22, 2014 by tapedeck