I don’t mind admitting, just between the two of us, that for many years I used to collect football (or soccer) sticker books. They’re still going strong all these years later, and it is these same sticker books that provide much of the inspiration for Nutmeg, the new deckbuilder from Sumo Digital and Secret Mode.
To be precise, it’s actually called NUTMEG! A Nostalgic Deckbuilding Football Manager, which is a good name with some keywords thrown in for good measure, but it does a good job of setting the scene.
A love letter to retro football
Nutmeg is absolutely crammed full of nostalgia, as the title so subtly suggests. Every little thing about the game screams retro football, and as someone who remembers the game before Division One became the Premier League, I thought that the vibes were impeccable.
I went in expecting a football match-themed deckbuilder, and yes, there are a lot of deckbuilding elements in there, but there’s a lot more to Nutmeg than just a card-playing approximation of a match of football. In fact, playing football matches takes up less time than I thought it would.
Instead of matching your team up against another, man for man, games take place via match events. Your players do compete, and you must play the cards in your hand to boost your chances during encounters. These events can lead to goals, but oftentimes that doesn’t happen and the game resets.
Simulating the Beautiful Game
One of the design decisions that I think could polarise players is the choice to make players simulate the outcomes for four out of five matches. You only contest the one match, and otherwise, you have a limited impact on the outcome of games. This is true of the life of a football manager, I guess, but it left me feeling somewhat detached from my progress up the league table.
On the positive side, skipping so many matches means that you can work through seasons relatively quickly, and that means you get the highs and lows of relegation over an extended campaign that takes place over years. I see the benefits of a more granular, match-by-match approach, and the one that Sumo Digital opted for, so this one will come down to personal taste.
If that was all there was to it, then I think I would have been rather disappointed; however, Nutmeg has a few tricks that stop you from getting bored. Starting with the board, in fact.
Management beyond the pitch
Nutmeg’s strength rests in the number of different ideas that are in play, I think. For example, you can train your players based on your staff’s abilities. These training skills determine the cards you can play during matches, and thus increase your odds of winning a match – it’s a clever feedback loop.
The game’s depth expands in some surprising directions, too. One of the less exciting aspects of the game was boosting revenue by making sure that the club shop is stocked with replica shirts. If all you want to do is play football matches, then this sort of busywork may frustrate more than delight.
On the other hand, if you’re a football management enthusiast, particularly one who fondly remembers the sport as it was in the ’80s, then Nutmeg is well worth scouting further. There’s a complicated economy at play, multiple systems to balance, and lots of homage to an era of football that contrasts nicely with the modern game.
The last thing I want to do before blowing the final whistle on these impressions is to spend some extra time praising the atmosphere. Sumo Digital has done a damn fine job when it comes to the finer details, from the teletext to the artwork on the player cards; everything in Nutmeg has been made with reverence for classic football.
NUTMEG! A Nostalgic Deckbuilding Football Manager is out now on PC (Win), and I played via access kindly provided by the Secret Mode FC.
