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Basketball really is a pain in the butt, isn't it? There you are, casually spinning the ball on your fingertip, when some irritating, ridiculously tall jerk starts performing a Zambian fertility dance around you. Your entirely natural urge is to pummel him flat into the floor, and you're not even allowed to touch him! *'Snot fair*! Such must have been exactly the sentiment Hewson had when they came up with Future Basketball. Plonk the game sometime in the next century, bung in some not-so-gratuitous violence, and 'ere we go, 'ere we go!

The screen display is viewed from the top, scrolls vertically and boasts a mini-plan of the court tucked up in the left-hand corner. You nab the ball by slipping and sliding into your foe, which has the natty side-effect of conking him out. This also comes in handy when the ball's sat on its tod - give the competition a swift fist up the nostrils and it's yours for the picking (up). But it's the collectables that best bring out the Peckinpah element: bombs, shurikens - it's a maim a minute!

Future Basketball is quite a friend-friendly game too. There are four one- and two-player skill levels, four leagues for up to 32 players, a handy game-saving facility, and a management system whereby you and your mates can buy and sell team members according to attributes like speed, aggression and throwing power. Party time indeed.

You can't knock the graphics. There are three courts, each of which has a sufficient variety of crisp design and colour (although dimming the latter makes things easier to follow). The music, however, is a much less happy affair. Let's just say the theme to Magic Roundabout knocks zits off it.

Let's face it, basketball ain't exactly the world's funkiest game, so it's hats off to Hewson for grafting on a bit of slam-bang-thank-you-ma-am. Motorbikes and chainsaws would have been nice, but what's on offer makes for a suitably tittering time, with smooth scrolling and chunky sprites who charge about at a fair old zip. The management element's pretty groovy too.

Future Basketball is by no means revolutionary, but so long as you shy away from the slightly dull one-player mode and battle away against your pals instead, it's a worthy and absorbing successor to Speedball and its ilk. Cancel all previous engagements for the weekend and invite the gang around.