Tip-Off Basketball

Summary

I have a soft spot for basketball apps and have tried out a fair few of them in my time—but I was skeptic about whether or not Tip-Off Basketball would be able to bring anything new to the table. Find out how the app did, in my ever so humble opinion, in today's game review!

Android and Basketball apps are a match made in heaven, but the apps tend to be a tad repetitive: shoot hoops virtually and select a trajectory for the ball.
Despite my initial lack of enthuse I can now say that I'm a real Tip-Off Basketball fan!

When you first start up the app you can create a user name for yourself (which you can go back and change later on). You can also choose set the controls for left handed players—and to this I say: bravo, and thank you, developers! The next step is following the brief tutorial to get accustomed with the gameplay.

Once this initial set-up is done you can get cracking, erm, shooting. Three game modes are available: Career, Network and Training. I recommend starting off with a Training session. This will help you practice shooting balls including more tricky shots. The Network mode is also a solo mode but here you can compare yourself to how other players have done. The centrepiece of the game is clearly the Career mode: 50 missions present gamers with quite a challenge, and trust me, they higher levels pack a mighty punch. I had to make several attempts just to make it through level 5. The selection of feats you will be asked to performed is nicely diversified (score, combos, etc.):

• Swish: Score without hitting the hoop or board
• Bounce: Hit the ground first then score
• Bankshot: Hit the board before scoring.
• Prayer: Score with a high ball trajectory
• Downtown: Score from a far position
• Missile: Score with a hard shot

Points are doubled after each triple score, tripled when you score six times in a row, etc. This is a great option if you need to make a lot of points fast (in Frenzy mode, for instance).

Bottom line:

What sets Tip-Off Basketball apart from other basketball apps is that everything about it is just right. Everything works as it should and the graphics are fun—what more could we ask for?

Nice graphics and nice controls: well done, Tip-Off Basketball!

Tip-Off Basketball was a pretty smooth ride all the way on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, save for when pausing the game, during which I experienced a few very brief bumps.

Tip-Off Basketball is free but with ads in AndroidPIT App Store and Google Play Store. A lot of items and the second half of the career have to be activated using coins which you earn in the game. These coins are not really sufficient which is why you kind of have to buy more if you wish to play beyond the 50 levels within career mode (which is plenty).