I’ve always been a big fan of football games since I was a kid. I’ve played every Fifa-game since Fifa 06 and managed a lot of clubs. However, I never really got into the ‘Football Manager’-style games. This changed with New Star Manager.

If you’re a sports fan, you probably remember New Star Soccer on the iPhone or tablet (or other). It was a fun game where you could control your player when there was a chance and make decisions. Not very in-depth but still a lot of fun. New Star Manager is the follow-up on that game. It’s, as the name reveals, a manager game. It works the same way: you can again control players when something important is about to happen, but way more in depth. You can now choose where they have to run before making the pass, you can cross the field with your player and give passes all without pausing the game. Of course when you don’t press anything the gameplay will pause so you can think about the best pass to make. When you get a opportunity to shoot you need to hit the ball in the right spot to score.

I’m going to be honest, I found the tutorial a bit long. However it was necessary, because before you know it the season is over and you still don’t know how to play. The game is a lof of fun and challenging, especially if you want to keep the board and supporters happy. The cool thing is that you can upgrade the stadium, pitch, medical staff etc. and you can see all the progress in the home screen. You can buy youth players and upgrade them and you need to keep your team happy. Cool thing is that you play against real teams. I chose Belgium and started with my ‘New Star Soccer’-team in second division, which already is pretty cool. All the teams you play against are real, but with fake players unfortunately.

One thing I think is a bummer is that you can’t switch divisions (or I never had the chance at least). You start as a manager for ‘New Star’, which means you keep playing with that team. Another annoying thing for me are all the fake names, which makes it very difficult to remember which players are actually important when you get a transfer offer for example. However, you get a very detailed history on player careers, so that helps you out a lot.

Overall New Star Manager on the Nintendo Switch is a lot of fun with very in-depth gameplay: from upgrading you pitch to giving interviews to the press. It’s difficult at the start to know all the moves, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually a nice feeling when you equalise in the last seconds of the game. New Star Manager is now available on the Nintendo Switch Store.