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Never mind Tap Off, this is where the real basketball action is! Originally released by Hewson a year or so ago - to no real effect - Future Basketball is in some ways a poor man's Speedball 2. It's essentially a fairly straightforward basketball game (i.e. it's nothing like Tip Off at all), except without all that tedious mucking about with 'no-contact' rules.

In Future Basketball, flying rugby tackles on enemy players (with or without possession of the ball) are perfectly acceptable, as is knocking members of the opposing team onto the stun mines which are spread liberally around the court or flattening them with homing missiles. Yep, this is a game that really sorts out the men from the effeminate soft boys you usually find at basketball matches [That's fighting talk from someone 5'8" tall - Ed] and while it isn't as fast-moving or sophisticated (ahem) as the Bitmap Bros' classic of brutality, it's still absolutely loads of fun. Believe me, you haven't lived until you've sent one of your players hurtling full-stretch into an opponent, knocking the ball from his hands and sending him flying backwards into a landmine...

That aside, there's not a lot to say about Future Basketball. It's got all the usual options you'd expect to find in this kind of sport sim, and there are four difficulty levels, the easiest of which gives the most hopeless player a decent chance to win and the toughest of which is a severe test for the most talented. Really, basically, it's a bit fab.

Simplistic and perhaps short-lived future sport game with all the features you expect from a future sport (power-ups and violence). It was maybe a bit thin at full-price, but makes a brilliant budget game. Get it.