Like David Beckham's futile attempt to sell 'soccer' to the Americans, with his posh-pants deals and freshly waxed legs, basketball has always had something of a problem translating its appeal to the British market. Being able to call on smatterings of hardcore fans is one thing, but making that vital crossover to the mainstream is quite another.
Those wondering why, however, might like to check Tribal Basketball out. If this is anything like the real sport (and, to be fair, that's not especially likely), then basketball has a hell of a lot of problems and isn't likely to make any inroads any time soon.
Playing with just one basket, Player One's Tribal Basketball is essentially a series of one on one challenges played out on the 'street'. It features a collection of misfit characters that wouldn't look out of place in an X-Men movie, taking to courts in various Stateside cities where they try to 'down' each other.
This essentially means scoring more baskets than your opponent within 130 seconds, play switching from attack to defence and back again every time you or your rival gets one through the hoop.
Most of the play is assigned to one button - the '5' key. When you're in possession of the ball, '5' shoots or dunks, depending on just how close to the basket you are and how long you press it. When you're defending it also acts as a helpful barge, nicking the ball off your opponent 90 per cent of the time, smacking them straight to the floor in the process.
As a result, it's entirely possible to be the only scorer, smackdown after smackdown adding points to your tally while your rival remains pointless. This makes some of the game's other features - a bar to enable double or triple dunks that fills the more tricks you manage to weave into your play - rather redundant and almost risky. Time spent trying to pull of tricks takes away from the opportunity to actually register points on the board.
Such a disjointed set-up seems strangely at home here, however. Just what the developers of Tribal Basketball were aiming for is anyone's guess, but on this evidence this is one sport that's unlikely to ever find itself bouncing into the hearts of the mainstream.
Tribal Basketball
As oddly unbalanced as they come, Tribal Basketball plays like a messed up, almost mutant take on the sport, offering very little gameplay or challenge as a result
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.