Pros
- Core New Star Soccer gameplay is largely unchanged. Most of the match happens in a text scroll, switching to player-controlled action at key moments (generally scoring opportunities). You directly control the ball handler, and can pause at any time to plot the movement of other players or line up a shot.
- The strategic layer is detailed but relatively easy to grok. It's full of challenging and interesting decisions for the manager. Do you buy a raw youngster full of potential, or spend the same amount on an experienced veteran who will contribute immediately, but run out of gas in a season or two? Do you give more playing time to the back-up in order to preserve team chemistry, or stick with the more-talented starter? I find the Football Manager series on PC too opaque and complex to get into, but New Star Manager suits me just fine.
- Beautiful engine. The matches look fantastic, with a 2.5D presentation that lets you rotate, tilt and zoom the camera.
- Loads quickly and runs like butter, at least on my Galaxy S7.
- Free-to-play with ads. It's $6.50 to turn off the ads, which auto-play in between most matches. Given the overall quality and depth of New Star Manager, I think that's a very fair price. My only complaint is that paying doesn't quite turn off all the ads -- nothing auto-plays, but I am still regularly asked if I want to watch an ad in order to earn a free replay (basically a do-over for a shot or pass that doesn't go your way).
- In-app purchases. I understand that this is how mobile studios survive financially. But man, it's annoying. When you lose a match or have a poor season, you can't help but wonder if the developers made things extra-difficult in order to encourage you to make in-app purchases. That said, I'm about 4 seasons in and surviving OK without paying real money for anything (except turning off ads).
- Press interviews. This is the only aspect of the management layer that I dislike. The "interviews" are just trivia questions, like "How many forwards are on your team?" or "What is the name of your team scout?" If you get it right, you get a small advantage. Get it wrong, and everyone -- press, players, staff, the team's board -- likes you a little bit less. It's a completely artificial mechanic that doesn't evoke the theme at all.