Basketball is far from big news here in the UK. In fact, we don't really like our indoor court sports that much at all here – somewhat bafflingly, seeing as more often than not it's pouring with rain or blisteringly cold, we prefer our sportspeople rolling in the mud outside while we all watch and try not to freeze to death.
Still, basketball is one of those games, like tennis, which generally translates well to video game. The five-player teams, constant action and high point-scoring ensure the pressure stays on throughout. Gameloft has already had a crack at basketball of the 2-on-2 kind with last year's And 1 Street Basketball.
Kobe Bryant is a much more serious basketball sim, though. Alongside a massive 80-game season, there's an Exhibition mode and addictive shooting challenges against the clock or another opponent. There are also screens full of options to change members of your team, formations, tactics and the match itself. Basically, it's Championship Manager crossed with FIFA but full of tall men we've never heard of, instead of a nimble footed virtual England squad (if you can imagine that for a moment).
The problem with any team sport game on mobile – even football – is the controls can end up complex in order to create an experience with the most minute amount of depth. And it's something that, along with there just being a lot going on within a small screen at times, does confuse the gameplay sometimes.
But not to the extent that it prevents the game from being enjoyable – just sometimes a bit of a random button masher. The '5' key takes care of passes when you're on the offence and attempts steals and blocks on the defence, while '0' is the button to shoot. Meanwhile, '*' pulls off a player's special trick, like a nifty through-the-legs evasion move. It's all a lot easier using a thumbstick or nub is much easier, though: pressing down then deals with passes, leaving your other hand free to keep a finger on the '0' button for a quick slam dunk.
Shooting is dealt with very intuitively. Close to the basket, instigating a shot brings up a meter that needs to be stopped in the green zone to score two points. Outside the three-point line, the game makes it much harder by asking you to release the shoot button at the exact point the ball itself turns green. There's such a tiny window to get this right that three points are rightly difficult to earn. Thankfully, the Challenge mode makes it possible to practise this against the clock in the three-point shootout events.
On-court there's plenty of attention to detail. After every point scored, you can watch back your slam dunk as a replay, forwarding and rewinding the sequence if you really want to pat yourself on the back. There's also a 'game breaker' system that you enter into if the game is a tie. It allows for some larger-than-life desperate dunks and oversized launches around the court and certainly for a tense few seconds at the end of a game.
Presentation-wise, sound effects are limited to typical court sounds of ball bouncing and crowds groaning when you miss a shot, then there are cheers and music when a hoop's scored. It's graphically where the game stands out, really: players move smoothly even when there's a lot going on and there's plenty of detail in the courts and crowd.
Kobe Bryant manages to tread a good balance between being an in-depth basketball game and one that's actually very good for a quick, casual bit of hoop-scoring. It may not be a hugely popular sport over here (and it's definitely an under-served sport on mobile), but when it's done this well it certainly deserves a large audience.
Kobe Bryant Basketball 2008
A slick, fast-paced basketball sim which delivers an in-depth experience but one that's also very accessible
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.