Review: Football Mini Stars (Nintendo Switch)

Football Mini Stars is an action sports title developed by Inlogic Software and published by Silesia Games. I don’t mind the occasional sports game here and there, even though it’s not my forte. At first glance, this title looked charming with its colorful graphics. Unfortunately, that’s all that impressed me.

The game begins with a tutorial on how to play. It teaches you how to pass the soccer ball to teammates, kick it into the net, do fancy tricks to avoid opponents, and more. Some tutorials weren’t needed–such as running from one end of the field to the other–while I could have used a quick tutorial on how to swap my characters in-field. I was under the impression I’d play as one character, but that wasn’t the case when I got into an actual match. It didn’t matter, though, because it was easy enough to figure out.

Football Mini Stars is a simple game in which you play soccer. There are no gimmicks or fancy modes, other than different ways to play the matches. For example, you can do Quick Match, which is a quick game. Career mode is a tournament against other teams, and there are daily quests to try. The daily quests are like achievements, such as sliding into a certain amount of players. Once you hit those goals in a day, you’ll earn coins. The coins are used for unlocking new uniforms, but that’s about it. You won’t find a variety of fields here.

Since there isn’t much to do other than play a regular game of soccer, the controls and aesthetics needed to shine for me, and they didn’t. The controls, while easy to learn, weren’t fluid. There was a delay on the commands, which made gameplay frustrating. For instance, I’d slide into an opponent to steal the ball, but by the time my character decided to actually do the action, the opposing member was already too far away for my slide to land. Then, my character would need to stand back up, which felt like a lifetime.

The game’s 3D graphics are cute and pretty to look at, but that’s the only selling point for me. The main menu carries a bop of a song, which is played on a loop. That’s the only song you’ll get and the only time you’ll hear it. The matches don’t have any sound other than the crowd cheering when a team makes a goal. If you’re looking for a good tune to hype you up and inspire you to win a match, you’ll have to put on your own playlist through your phone or something.

For its asking price of $2.99, Football Mini Stars is worth a try if you’re looking to play a quick, simple game of soccer. Otherwise, you’re probably best sticking to other sports games.