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New Star Soccer 4

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Developer: New Star Games Publisher: New Star Games Genre: Sports > General Released: Nov 10, 2008 Players: 1 Website

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Michael Scarpelli: 7

New Star Soccer 4 is the kind of game that garners obsessive playing. To say that this is a soccer game is a little narrow. It's a focused life-sim. You are a budding soccer star and must manage your life and your game all at once.

The game is heavily focused on the simulation aspect. You can actually play in soccer games and perform in drills, but the controls are basic and it can be a bit awkward. Those items are essentially more interactive ways of applying stat boosts in the game. It doesn't make them any less compelling though, once you're into the groove of living your soccer life.

Things really feel like a long-term commitment in-game, as you're living your life in a very tangible day to day fashion, which is different from previous life-sim titles like Kudos, which use a pretty nebulous concept of time, making it difficult to connect.

New Star Soccer is a simple title with a viciously addictive hook to it. If you don't like soccer or sims, there's absolutely nothing for you here, but anyone who wants to live the life of a sports star will be engrossed.

Pany Haritatos: 8

New Star Soccer is a sim game where you play the life of a rising soccer star. If that sounds like something that would appeal to you, then I doubt you'll ever find a game more perfectly suited to this task than New Star Soccer 4. There is a lot going on in this game, from dozens of way to improve your soccer skills through exhibition games, performance enhancers and free training. But, there is also a lot of other sim related activities that directly or indirectly enhance your performance in the game, from gambling to how much time you spend with your friends and family. When it comes time to play soccer, it's fun to participate or even just to sit back and watch your teammates and the opponent duke it out. New Star Soccer 4 is clearly someone's labor of love. The attention to detail shines through in every facet of the game, particularly in the subtle elements of a real soccer game, like changes in the audience cheering, or the way teams employ real life soccer strategies on the field. The music in this game is phenomenal. I would leave it on just to listen to it even if I had to step away from my computer for a minute. This game is obviously not for everyone, but if you're interested in soccer, you'd be hard pressed to find a more complete game dedicated to the life of a rising soccer star.

Coby Utter: 8

Part soccer game, part life simulation, New Star Soccer 4 is flush with depth, options, and re-playability. In New Star, you'll be in charge of taking a fledgling soccer player from the unknown to the height of sports glory. The game is split across two completely individual parts: playing soccer and managing the personal life of your star. The soccer part is simplistic but solid and by itself would be a complete and enjoyable casual soccer experience. In games you can only control your character, but it still manages to be quite enjoyable. The personal life section is far more complex; you must train to improve your player's skills, you have to manage a social life, keep your fans happy, and even get a girlfriend. The interesting part here is that the better you do in one of these sections, the better your performance will be in the other. If you get depressed because of personal issues, your player's in-game soccer performance is bound to suffer as well. The marriage of these two components offers a solid and robust sports star simulation.

Sports games do not often suck away at my spare time, but I found myself strangely addicted to New Star. There are a few things which could have been improved with the interface, and the in-game soccer graphics are pretty rough, but overall, it's a solid and engaging title. Of course, the pace of the game can slow to a crawl, so New Star is only for those with enough patience to see their budding player rise to stardom.

Russ Carroll: 9

NSS3 was one of the best sport games I've ever played. NSS4 takes that game to 3D with mostly positive results.

The game still sports the deepest and most interesting soccer game available. You will control every aspect of your player from what drills they practice to how they spend their free time. Skip out on too many team activities and the guys on the team will ignore you on the field. Drink or gamble too much and you'll have an addiction that will keep you from being able to compete. You can play in any league under the sun, work up from lower to higher leagues, get called on by your country to compete in the World Cup and live the dream of becoming a soccer star.

The only negatives I found were the constant loading, which was slow (note: do not ever try 12 leagues at once, one is plenty!), and the loading time for things like practicing, which led me to turn off active practicing as it just took too long to go through all the screens. Otherwise it's the same great game with a layer of pretty over the top.