Fans of detailed soccer games may be familiar with New Star Soccer, and will be glad to know that the sequel, New Star Soccer Manager, will be coming to Android. This game will mostly put you in the role of a soccer manager, modifying and erecting stadiums, managing teams’ strategies, changing rosters and otherwise taking care of the day-to-day tasks that come with managing a soccer team. Occasionally, you will also end up on the field, directing the action in real-time, telling players where to go and what to do, and even taking penalty kicks or scoring crucial goals. The game is supposed to come out some time this summer.
The first trailer for New Star Soccer Manager shows off a few functions that shape the core of the game and differentiate it from competitors like Football Manager. Players will get to decide on features for buildings, apply special skill cards that help their teams or their fortunes, recruit players, negotiate salaries and trades to put together their teams’ rosters. Players will also decide key strategies before matches, and intervene in mid-match to set paths for players and tell them where to go and what to do both on the way there and when they get there. When a crucial goal or a penalty kick is presented, players will get a screen showing the ball rolling by, and will have to tap on just the right area at the right time to make the kick.
The previous entry in the series, New Star Soccer, cast you as a soccer player, and entrusted you with all of the accompanying responsibilities. You played the actual soccer matches as only your designated player, and then managed team-related decisions that they could make, as well as their daily life. That original game came out all the way back in 2012, and the series has since seen a book-game fusion spinoff called New Star Soccer G-Story. This game will be a return to form for the series, and makes New Star Soccer the first of Five Aces Publishing’s New Star sports games to actually get a full and proper sequel that follows after the format of the original.