FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, how many versions of those games are there now? It’s as bad as “Now That’s What I Call Music” – the numbers will never end, it seems, and there’s a desperate scramble for the latest version just in case it actually adds something worthwhile to myriad previous versions. On a small scale this has been happening in the indie game scene, but there are two reasons why the indie games are often more interesting – each updated release tends to be a really major improvement on the previous verions (and the indie developers don’t feel under pressure to release a new one each year), and you often see indie games that problably would never come out commercially. A good example of all of the above is New Star Games – an Indie games publisher who specialise in sports games (not that they’ll never release anything else), and also act as the supplier for a number of other small publishers with similar titles.
A quick browse of the New Star Games Website reveals a number of sports-related titles including a slightly unusual one - The Goalkeeper. Try as I might, I can’t imagine that title being commercially viable in the big world of business (could be wrong, but a quick Google search seemed to bear my theory out). There are several footie / football management games (some of them freeware), a tennis game, tennis management, boxing management, Grand Prix racing and more. Now most of these games have (shock horror gasp) 2D graphics – seen as taboo by the big software houses these days, it seems. I’ve played most of these games or at least their demos, and most of them are supremeky playable and often have great long-term appeal.
The flagship product, New Star Soccer, is currently in its fourth incarnation (all four versions are still available). The development of an idea from a simple text-based game to a more complex text-based simulation, then to a career-based strategy game with an arcade section where you actually play the games, to an immensely deep game that combines all the best features of the previous three into a game that really draws you in, has been amazing to see. I loved the first game, getting pretty hooked on it, but there is absolutely no comparison between it and the fourth game. Would such immense strides in the gameplay and presentation have been made, however, if Simon Read (owner of New Star Games and creator of the New Star Soccer games) felt pressured into releasing a new version every single year? Not a chance – yet another reason why the indie game scene is so vibrant and fascinating. (Not that the commercial side of PC Gaming doesn’t still have plenty to offer the average gamer, of course.)
If you’re interested in the indie scenec check out my interview with Simon Read of New Star Games. Just a word of warning about playing his games though – you might not be able to stop!
News – New Star Games recently announced that their Sensational Soccer game would be free to anyone signing up for their email newsletter.
