Choose your court, pick your team and take on the other kids in the street at a three-on-three basketball match. With a courtside view of the action you control the direction and actions of one of your team members while the computer keeps the rest of the field active. You can make your players pass the ball, tackle the opposition or take jump or hook shots, or even slam dunks.

Being a Street Sports game, the full rules of Basketball are only observed insofar as successful shorts score two points. So there are no penalties for front-to-back passing or overly offensive dribbling.

After the excellent pre-match presentation, which even extends to having a neat flipping (or is it a flipping neat?) coin sequence I was all set for the best game of computer basketball ever.

But it didn't appear. The first inkling of doubt appeared when the players ran onto the court. They were all nicely drawn and each character is easily recognisable - important when you consider that each player's game has different strengths and weaknesses.

But the game's flaw is the player animation which has huge jumps between the sprite frames. This isn't just an aesthetic point either, as it lessens the feeling of control you have, resulting in a few moments of confusion. Once you learn to compensate for this, the game isn't too bad, but that takes some perseverance.

This is a really aggravating game, because it's so close to being good, but is ruined by dreadful sprite animation! The players are really well-defined, and the programmers have included such thoughtful touches as turning their heads to look towards the ball, but the four sprite frames are drawn out to such an extent that they look like they're skating over the court.

The enormous leaps between positions are so disorienting that it's difficult to work out what's going on, and the resultant loss of gameplay is quite off-putting. Definitely one to try before you buy.

Presentation 80%
Very nicely presented, with a choice of four courts and ten team members.

Graphics 69%
Nicely designed with some neat touches but jerky movement is detrimental to gameplay.

Sound 42%
Mildly groovy tune but in-game effects would have benefited from the inclusion of player shouts.

Hookability 69%
Excellent presentation means first impressions are good but the game is confusing to play.

Lastability 73%
If you can get used to the movement problems, the game is good fun, especially with two players.

Overall 68%
Not bad, but could have been so much better.