Game of the Year Shortlist: New Star Soccer

Before we knew it, December was upon us and all the games had arrived in stores in time for everyone to buy them as presents. We've got the reveal of our Game of the Year coming after Christmas, but for 24 days starting December 1 we'll bring you a new contender for the title. Please note that these games are in no particular order, but feel free to speculate on where they might appear in our final list.

Tom Orry, Editor

If I've played any other game released this year more than New Star Soccer I'll be incredibly surprised. At my peak addiction level I was playing this daily during every free moment, and months later I'll still go back to play a few games and then get sucked back in for the following couple of days.

It's hard to say why NSS struck a chord with me, as when you look at what it actually is, there's not a great deal of game here. You play as a single player, and all the actual playing you do is passing, shooting, and intercepting (and the former two are always done while standing completely still). I think that might be why this game works on mobiles so well: it doesn't try to do anything that would be awkward to control.

On top of this you have a sort of life style and training simulation, both of which are dead simple but somehow develop a strong sense of attachment to your player and his career. I've now won all the big English competitions with Spurs and ManU, the big Spanish competitions with Barcelona, and tried and failed to win a World Cup with England. To be honest, the only downside I can think of is a new belief that energy drinks solve all fitness issues - if only that were true.