Six years ago, a nice man called Simon Read released a mobile version of a PC football series he was about to give up on, and New Star Soccer went on to change his life. On Google Play alone it's been downloaded more than 10 million times, and the App Store will be similar if not higher. It was a big success. And the long-awaited follow-up arrived last year.
New Star Manager was bigger in every way. It put you in control of the whole team rather than an individual, as well as everything surrounding it: stadium, facilities, training, youth - yours to develop and tinker with, right down to ticket prices and interpersonal relationships. But New Star Manager didn't catch on in the same way. The numbers are smaller - ~500,000 downloads on Google Play - and the buzz less.
I bounced off it. What really irked me was a constant feeling I was being pushed towards an in-app card store. The cards in New Star Manager, you see, represent almost everything. They are your players, your training, your team-talk, your energy drinks - cards are everywhere. And those you earn naturally, through playing, come too slowly and frugally. Naturally, that's when the game prompts you into the shop.
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