I don’t usually do app reviews, and I am not even an avid gamer. But I really need to tell you about New Star Soccer, an app that my friend Christian recently raved about on his blog.

In my expert opinion (as somebody who doesn’t play football himself, watches Euro and World Championships games only, and doesn’t read gossip magazines), the app realistically simulates life as a professional football player: The fickleness of fans, the challenge of juggling a career and a girlfriend, keeping sponsors happy, feeding the public’s appetite for your glitzy lifestyle, all while honing your skills.

I haven’t been this engrossed in a game in a long while. It’s mightily addictive, so you really shouldn’t download the app if you value your time. Seriously.

Gameplay

The gameplay is reminiscent of Dope Wars, an equally addictive app that I loved playing on my Palm Vx more than a decade ago, with a basic formula:

• You launch a career in an industry (drug trade, pro football),
• stuff happens (drug prices go up, a rival club wants to poach you),
• and every once in a while you get to make decisions (buy some acid, play a long pass instead of going for goal).

Stability

As a developer I admire the app. More than once, I was so enthralled that I forgot the passage of time and my iPhone died on me. Every time this happened, I feared that my dazzling football career had become corrupted or that I at least would lose the last few games. But none of that! All was where it was before that as-yet-still-pixelated shutdown indicator started spinning. This robustness and reliability pervades the whole experience.

UX Qualms

There are a few things I really hate about the user interface. They might be details, but they slightly ruin the experience every time.

• I usually keep the “extra work rate” button pressed. However when an interception scene happens, it atomically begins because it wrongly interprets my touch.
• Scrolling is implemented manually and just doesn’t feel right. The developers should take note of the WWDC video showing off combining native scroll views with Open GL.

The graphics are simplistic, but who cares? Games don’t need to be pretty. They have to be fun.

Pricing

New Star Soccer is free to play. But once you try it out, you will want to launch a career in (simulated) pro football, and that will cost you a 99-cent in-app purchase.

Needless to say, I was more than glad to shell a buck to unlock the career mode. Ignore my warnings at your own risk and get New Star Soccer from the App Store.