Game Reviews

Flick NBA Basketball

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Flick NBA Basketball

The life of a baller is just as much about athletic skill as it is style. Flick NBA Basketball has both: super-slick graphics and the official NBA name accompanying skill-based flick gaming. While some aspects bounce off the rim, it's still a ball.

Five mini-games light up the court: 3-Point Shootout, H.O.R.S.E., Hot Shot, Long Shot, and Ball Spin. Of the bunch, Hot Shot is the only to foul out with its lame set up.

The name is slightly misleading: instead of blazing across the court on a hot scoring streak, a little arcade hoop set is wheeled onto the court. It's on this toy court that you flick balls with your finger for points. You end up feeling like you've just been seated at the kids' table at Christmas dinner, not a hot shot NBA star.

Fortunately, the other games do the trick. H.O.R.S.E. earns props for its shooting mechanics. Either alone or head-to-head with a pal, the game has you making shots and tasking your opponent with duplicating them.

A letter is awarded whenever a shot isn't mirrored - the first player to spell H.O.R.S.E. wins the game. It's great for pass around play, particularly because of the unique controls.

Shots are taken by sliding a finger up the screen as a white dot oscillates along a coloured meter at the top. You want to time your flick when the dot rolls across the centre green section of the gauge.

Succeed and the shot is nothing but net. It can be pretty challenging since the farther away you stand from the basket, the faster the dot moves. The same controls apply in Long Shot where your ability to sink the ball is tested at a increasing distances from the basket.

A slightly different setup is used for 3-Point Shootout. No oscillating gauge here - just flick to shoot 25 balls from the 3-point line in a minute.

Since shots are registered solely with your finger, the slightest angle in your flick results in the ball veering away from the basket. Hot seat multiplayer works well here too since it only takes a minute to pass around a handset between you and a friend.

Ball Spin rounds out Flick NBA Basketball, having you flick horizontally across the screen to keep a ball spinning on a digital finger. Tilting your handset moves the finger so you can balance the ball as it spins. It's a novel distraction if nothing else.

In the wait for an in-depth basketball sim, this mini-game collection goes swish as it shoots and scores. Not every thing jives in Flick NBA Basketball - mainly the Hot shot mini-game - but there's little doubt it's got game.

Flick NBA Basketball

A jazzed up collection of basketball mini-games that boast style and demand skill, Freeverse scores another hit with Flick NBA Basketball
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Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.