Gamevil mashes up footie sim with crazy RPG moves in free-to-play Soccer Superstars 2012

Already released on Android, Gamevil has bought the latest edition of its Soccer Superstars RPG football game to iOS.

In keeping with previous versions of the franchise, it's a slightly crazy mash up of traditional soccer games, with the character levelling up and special moves you'd find in an RPG.

Gamevil is also keen to point out that it's the first of series to be developed from the ground up for smartphones, including retina graphics. Previous releases were ported from Java.

In the 2012 edition, the soccer element of the game lets you run your team as the manager. This means you train your players to level them up and get them to learn new skills.

There's a transfer element too as you can draft in new players and unlock the Super Players, who will give you special moves on the pitch. You can even merge players together to make better ones.

We particularly like the graphics for this in-game manager. He strangely reminds us of an longstanding - often angry - French manager in the English Premiership.

In terms of playing a game, you can either choose to play Football Manager-style where you get a topdown view and you just watch the game happen.

Or if you want to get involved, there's a FIFA-style option where you take control of players directly - passing, shooting, tackling and hopefully scoring too.

The game modes you work through are League Match, Village Cup, Event Match and Quick Match.

As with most Gamevil releases, Soccer Superstars 2012 is free-to-pay and you can buy Gold currency to progress faster if you want to.

You can see how it plays in the Korean video below.

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on