Critics of the game of basketball point to a scoring system that verges on the meaningless, and to a lack of inherent depth covered over by glitzy streetwise presentation.
They're wrong, of course, but Rival Stars Basketball doesn't help such perceptions by leaving itself open to just such criticisms.
Whole new ball gameRival Stars Basketball's issues are nothing to do with the sport of basketball. In fact, it bears close resemblance to PikPok's earlier Flick Kick Football Legends.
That is, it mixes the company's established ball-flicking arcade action with unconvincing card-collection and RPG-lite systems, and ties it together with a freemium pay structure.
You assemble your basketball team from a pack of random players, each of which is assigned an attack and a defence rating.
You can level these up through play, improve them by assimilating other, weaker cards, or buy all-new and superior cards using the game's premium currency.
From downtownGames are a mishmash of simplistic top trumps, swipe-based quick time events, and the odd swipe-to-shoot finisher.
As each game starts, the two teams' scores automatically tick up to signify the constant point-scoring nature of basketball. Every now and then - typically once per quarter - you'll have to select one of your players to either attack or defend.
This is a simple case of weighing up your best option, which generally entails picking a player whose attack or defence stat is superior to the corresponding stats of most of his rivals, and hoping that the opponent doesn't pick a better one.
RejectedThe on-court action is more fun, but it's still pretty limited. You're tasked with making key passes, interceptions, and shots by swiping at the right time or in the right direction.
These sections are presented beautifully - as we've come to expect from PikPok - but there's a lack of the pure, escalating challenge of the earlier Flick Kick games.
Off the court, meanwhile, there's that familiar free to play system that serves to make games feel either way too easy if you spend, and occasionally impossibly hard if you don't (unless you grind).
Just like Flick Kick Football Legends, in trying to elaborate on the Flick Kick formula, PikPok has actually diluted the much loved brand.
The additional elements simply aren't a patch on its finely weighted ball-flicking system, and even that feels rather light.