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Ultimate Soccer Manager 2

Last updated: January 9, 2026

Overview

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 is a comprehensive football management simulation game developed by Impression Games and published by Sierra On-Line in 19961. As the sequel to the original Ultimate Soccer Manager, this game was designed as “the most comprehensive football management sim yet”2 and was marketed with the tagline “Best buy of the season?“2. The game represents a significant graphical improvement over its predecessor, featuring enhanced 640x480 resolution graphics where “all of the offices menus (from where all options are selected) are crisper and some of them were merged together to simplify navigation”3.

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 was “a massive hit in Europe” according to contemporary reports, though it “gained little support in Japan”4. The game was particularly well-received in most European markets, with the notable exception of Germany where it “was worse received due to some similarities with managers produced by local software houses such as Software 2000 and Ascaron”4. The game begins in the 1996/1997 season and allows players to continue indefinitely as “it creates new players and you can go on in the seasons”5.

Story Summary

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 places players in the role of a football club manager with comprehensive control over all aspects of running a professional football team. The game includes a notable disclaimer stating “This is a fantasy game. The use of real names for players, managers and clubs does not imply and should not be taken to imply… that any of them have engaged or are liable to engage in any corrupt practice”6. This disclaimer relates to the game’s controversial inclusion of match-fixing mechanics, where “theoretically, you could bet on your team to lose a match you’re expected to win, and then field a weakened line-up to ‘throw’ said match and generate a tidy profit”6.

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

The game features a significantly improved interface compared to its predecessor, “sporting a 640x480 resolution, all of the offices menus are crisper and some of them were merged together to simplify navigation”7. Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 requires “a Microsoft compatible mouse driver be loaded into memory before playing the game”8 and supports both keyboard and mouse input. The game operates from various office-based menus where players make management decisions3.

Structure and Progression

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 covers multiple European leagues including “English, French and German leagues”9, with support for up to 8 players in hotseat multiplayer mode10. The game features six difficulty levels and allows players to manage teams across England, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Netherlands, and Spain10. Players must “deal with a lot of aspects of the game like transferring players, managing budget, communication and merchandising”11.

Puzzles and Mechanics

The game introduces several innovative mechanics including player personality systems, where “a team of talented players can still be unsuccessful if key players are either psychologically weak or flawed”3. Unlike other management games, “players don’t have a position. However, you must place players according to their skills: a player with high tackling should be a defender and so on”12. The game includes comprehensive training systems, and notably, players discovered that you can “select players to train as you usually would if you had coaches. The players will improve the selected statistic by one point each week” even without hiring coaches9.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

PublicationScoreNotes
PC Format85%Called it “User-friendly and original”13
Amiga Format85%Contemporary review from 199513
Amiga Computing83%1995 review13
Joystick79French gaming magazine review from 199913

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospective reviews have been generally positive, with Fuller FM giving the game “4/5 (Premier League)” rating in 20226. The game maintains strong ratings on preservation sites, scoring 4.29/5 on My Abandonware2 and 4.03/5 on Abandonware DOS14. MobyGames users rate it 6.7/101, while other sites show scores of 4.33/5 on PlayMiniGames15 and 3.9/5 on other platforms16. The game “compared favourably in all areas but AI against its leading competitor, Championship Manager”4.

Development

Origins

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 was developed by Impression Games, which was founded in 1989 and acquired by Sierra On-Line in 199517. The game was created by a team including designers Andrew Prime, David Lester, Mark Howman, and Neal Sumsion1. Voice acting was provided by Dennis Povey and Richard Charge, with music composed by Richard Parrett and AVP Television17.

Production

The game was primarily a DOS-based product with Windows compatibility, representing “mostly a graphical improvement over the DOS and Amiga AGA versions”1. Development focused on enhancing the user interface and adding new features including “team and individual training, player personality, better catering, merchandising, and plays”14. A planned fourth installment called Ultimate Soccer Manager 2000 with a 3D match engine was cancelled before release, as “Sierra were incredibly impatient, and were frustrated at the delays caused. They wanted the game for a Christmas 2000 release, and were not willing to give the team more time beyond that”18.

Technical Achievements

The game featured significant technical improvements including enhanced graphics running at 640x480 resolution7. System requirements included a minimum 486 DX 33 processor, 8 MB RAM, 22 MB hard disk space, and SVGA graphics capability10. The game supported various sound devices including Sound Blaster Pro and compatibles10. Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 “ran in protected mode” and is “fully supported on DOSBox 0.65”10.

Legacy

Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 was part of a series that ran from 1995 to 1999, with the sequence being Ultimate Soccer Manager (1995), Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 (1996), Ultimate Soccer Manager 98 (1997), and Ultimate Soccer Manager 98-99 Season Update (1998)19. The series is remembered fondly by fans, with Reddit users asking “Did anyone else play these. And remember when there was compition in football management games???“20. The game is now preserved and playable through various emulation platforms and browser-based versions, described as “a famous and most played DOS game that now is available to play in browser”21.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

  • Not currently available on modern digital stores

Download / Preservation

Series Continuity

References

Footnotes

  1. MobyGames - Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Basic game information, developers, publishers, and designers ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. My Abandonware - Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Marketing taglines and game description ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Internet Archive - Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Technical improvements and gameplay mechanics ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. GOG Dreamlist - Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Reception information and competitive comparison ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. GameFAQs FAQ – - Game timeline and mechanics ↩

  6. Fuller FM Review – - Match-fixing mechanics and disclaimer ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. LaunchBox Games Database – - Technical specifications and UI improvements ↩ ↩2

  8. Free Game Empire Manual – - Technical requirements ↩

  9. Chapter Cheats – - League coverage ↩ ↩2

  10. Old-Games.com – - Technical specifications and multiplayer features ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. Dynamic Mess Gaming Archaeology – - Management aspects ↩

  12. MobyGames Screenshot – - Player positioning mechanics ↩

  13. Wikipedia - Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Contemporary review scores ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  14. Abandonware DOS – - User rating ↩ ↩2

  15. Play Mini Games – - User rating ↩

  16. Play Old Games – - User rating ↩

  17. SierraChest - Making of Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 – - Developer history ↩ ↩2

  18. Games That Weren’t – - Cancelled sequel information ↩

  19. GameFAQs – - Series timeline ↩

  20. Reddit – - Fan nostalgia ↩

  21. DOS Zone – - Current availability ↩

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