We first came across New Star Soccer at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, and founder Simon Read kindly answered some of our questions about the game for a preview. But with such titles as FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer being considered the holy grail of titles in the genre, how does New Star Games’ title separate itself from the pack?
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British independent video game studio New Star Games was founded by Simon Read in 2003, and specialises in sports role-playing video games. Their most well-known franchise is the New Star Soccer series but they also made futuristic combat-racing game Super Laser Racer. This was the first of their titles to be made available on Steam; Read approached Valve with the latest New Star Soccer, but Valve were apparently not interested in distributing it – a decision they would later reverse.
When I first downloaded New Star Soccer to my iPad I was a bit sceptical about it, seeing as I’m not really a football fan. But it looked interesting when we saw it at this year’s Eurogamer Expo so I thought I’d give it a go. At first I was confused by everything happening on the home screen all at once, along with the tabs at the bottom of the page taking you to even more busy screens; but once I got to grips with what icons and bars meant, I realised how cleverly the screens were laid out. New Star Games provides as hassle-free an experience as possible, and title flows pretty well.
As New Star Soccer is a football game, it doesn’t have an in-depth story mode with a plot line of twists and turns – just a normal, run-of-the-mill, join-a-club-and-try-to-win-the-league tale. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on this because the title does this tried-and-tested formula extremely well and is probably as good as any football game I’ve ever played. This is all down to the fact that it’s added a lot of totally unique elements, such a ‘girlfriend manager’ (if there was only such a thing in real life, eh Phil?) where you can make sure she’s happy and living the lifestyle she thinks she deserves. You can get sponsorship deals that let you earn more money per match, and you can use your cash to upgrade your lifestyle. Try going to the shop to buy things for your new multi-million pound house including new phones, big flashy boats and expensive pieces of art. If you feel like you’re still not earning enough you can take a trip to the casino and bet it all on the roulette wheel or a hand of black jack; but if you don’t like that sort of thing, maybe a trip to the dog track is more your bag.
All these extra elements really make you smile because it’s more entertaining than your usual football game. You feel like you’re shaping someone’s life and career into what you would do if you were in their position. Don’t get to carried away though, because you must first start at the bottom in the national conference league as a fresh-faced sixteen-year-old (we can’t all play for Barcelona on our first day); from there you must not only get promoted but try to win other domestic trophies and get into the England team.
Right, where do I start?
The gameplay is also a unique element because you don’t play full matches: just important moments that could lead to a goal or, if you make the wrong move, could let the opposing team through to score. The rest of the match is played out on a text screen where every minute is written for you to follow as you bite your nails hoping that your team wins. This I admit sounds pretty weird, and if I saw the concept written down on paper I’d think to myself that it would never work – that people would hate the idea of not playing a full football game. But believe me it does, and it makes a lot of sense while fitting in with the overall feel of the title. After all, New Star Soccer is made for mobiles and people don’t have the time to play whole matches on the go.
While in a match you see a stamina bar which lets you know when your player is getting tired, and this can go down as fast or as slow as you want depending on how hard you put them to work. Keep in mind though that if you set it to the lowest setting, at the end of the game you’ll get no star points from your boss, team or the fans, meaning your rating will stay low and you won’t become as good as the other players. But if you set the stamina bar to its highest setting, you’ll work your socks off and everyone will praise you; you’ll earn the ‘Star Man’ award (Man of the Match) and will make the headlines in the next day’s papers. However, you won’t be able to keep this pace up because energy drinks are needed to keep your stamina high. They don’t come for free and you’ll need to buy them with your earnings, otherwise you will find yourself being left out of games.
The overall look of the game is quite nostalgic; it looks a lot like an old football game on the Super Nintendo called Striker. My brother and I would play for hours on end without getting bored and New Star Soccer took me right back there. The animations in-game make it clear what’s going on along with the direction of the ball, but you need to act fast as it only gives you a couple of seconds thinking time to get your shot right. One visual criticism I have is that the kits aren’t very detailed. Nobody has a number on their back and the majority of the actual shirts are just a simple block colour with no detailing; but seeing as the title is meant to be a retro-looking one, I guess this fits in with the theme.
An area that lets the game down is the sound effects. You expect a roaring stadium all the way through your match but what you get is a two second burst of an unrealistic-sounding crowd when you do something good. The noise of the ball when kicked doesn’t sound unlike any football I’ve heard before, add it somewhat takes away from the overall experience.
It’s a shame you can’t hear the roaring crowd.
As I found myself playing New Star Soccer more and more I realised that it’s completely addictive: hours just seem to fly by when you’re determined to win the league. I ended up putting this game on at every spare moment and enjoyed every single minute of it. As mentioned above, I’m not a big football fan so if a real soccer enthusiast was to pick the title up I’m sure they’ll love it even more. The the outside goings-on with the casino and lifestyle choices you make, are truly innovative. FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer would do well to take note of these, as adding such elements would make career modes much more enjoyable and fun to play.
There’s been a lot in the news recently about microtransactions and it’s becoming a bit of a dirty word. Just take a look at the new Angry Birds Go! racing game and the $100 charge for the ‘Big Bang Special Edition’ car. With New Star Soccer, if you run out of in-game money you can purchase more with real cash; prices range from £0.69 for twenty-five to £16.99 for five-thousand. Energy drinks can also be bought for £0.69 each and, as their effect only lasts for one match, it’ll soon add up if you do this a few times during a season. Thankfully though, these purchases aren’t essential and you can easily progress through the game without them. The microtransactions here aren’t intrusive, but enhance the experience if you choose to use them.
Gamble responsibly, kids.
New Star Soccer isn’t just a great football game, but a great game in general. There’s enough here to keep the most hardcore football fan hooked, all the way down to the non-football fans like myself. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on New Star Games for any future releases, and I’ll be going through their back catalogue; if any of their other titles are even half as entertaining as New Star Soccer, then I’ll prepare myself to get addicted all over again.
Due to the limited plot and graphics, it’s hard to score this title higher than we have done in the following section. But its addictive gameplay makes it one that should be on every gamers’ to-play list.
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How did we reach these scores? Click here for a guide to our ratings.
