PikPok's Rival Stars Basketball Bounces into the Play Store - Review
- Published on Wednesday, 29 October 2014 11:16
PikPok has created some solid game titles during their tenure in the game industry thus far. The games they create are well designed and generally quite fun to play. If you have been gaming for any amount of time, I am sure you have played Flick Kick Football, Flick Kick Rugby, Giant Boulder of Death, Into the Dead, Slam Dunk King or Super Monsters Ate My Condo! This time around, PikPok has chosen to revisit the sport of basketball with their latest game, Rival Stars Basketball.
Let me start off by saying this game is not an NBA licensed game, so don't look for LeBron James or Dirk Nowitzki to appear. It is however, a mash-up between card collecting, sim-based game play, and team management, with a hint of actual in-game basketball action thrown in. All together, it works pretty well. I have to admit, I don't generally enjoy card-collecting/management type games. However, I do enjoy basketball games. Since the game was created by PikPok, I felt pretty good about giving the game a try. I was hoping it would be their usual high-quality game. It does not disappoint in this area, and it is a game that allows you to play in a few moments, if you only have a few minutes to spare.
"Welcome to the game that Basketball fans have been waiting for. You will be one who brings together a collection of star players and leads them to the pantheon of legends. Draft tremendous athletes and use their skills to leave your rivals in the dust. Make thrilling clutch plays with a swipe of your finger. Slam the decisive dunk home and leave their jaws on the floor." - PikPok
The game starts off with you creating a character and a team name. This process is pretty easy and fairly detailed. You have a relatively robust amount of choices for your lead player and team outfits. From there, you are given four other players/cards added to your team, and then it is time to hit the court. The game is broken into a main campaign and live tournaments. The main area currently, is the Beach Zone, with other areas expected to be added later. There are 11 tournaments within the Beach Zone and each tournament has 4 games to play. There is quite a bit to play in the game, even if the live tournaments were not included.
There are a large number of teams that you will be competing against.Each game is four quarters, but it only takes about 3-4 minutes to play 4 quarters. I created the Thunnites and started my season/campaign. You get right into the action after the opening Team vs. Team screen. You instantly see colorful basketballs (based on your team color) from both teams being shot into the hoops. The game is played in portrait mode, and your team player's cards, are shown below and your rivals above. The score board is off to the right and the clock showing showing the quarter and the time remaining in the game, is on the left side of the screen. After the initial play, you either will go into a Power Play, which will require you to swipe the screen to pass the ball, shoot it, dunk it or do a lay-up. The controls are simple in nature, but sometimes difficult to execute, because it requires perfect timing once your character is in motion. This is part of what takes the game beyond card collecting and makes it enjoyable.
Your success in the game largely depends on your collection of players/cards, and how you choose to manage them. Just as in the actual sport of basketball, it is all about the player's skill and the ability to execute those skills at the right time. How this translates into the game, is based on the attack and defend stat that each player has on your team. The challenging part of the game is putting together the right team. The game play revolves around choosing which player on your team is going to go up against or cover the player on the other team. The AI in the game will choose whether you will be attacking or defending, and the player from the opposing team. This is where the strategy comes in with this game, especially starting out in the beginning, because you only have a couple of cards with good stats.
The leader of the team usually has the highest stats. Since the quarters don't last long, it basically equates to a few plays per game. If you are successful in picking the right card, and your player has the better attack/defend stat, an animation occurs that shows you were successful, and the rest of the team becomes on fire. Their chances of making a goal is increased. If you choose a player that has lower stats, then it shows you failed, and the team goes ice cold. At that point, you make fewer shots in the quarter. When you win, you get in-game cash and new players. The cash is important because leveling up your player primarily occurs by spending cash. You obtain XP points for the MVP player in the game, by winning the game, but the bulk of it occurs by spending the cash you accrue.
Upgrading your players takes place in the team management screen. In this screen you can level up your players, evolve them, sell them and edit your line-up prior to each game. You also have to manage how many players you keep on your roster. It starts off lower and can be increased to twenty players by playing the game or spending 'gold' basketballs which are a little more difficult to acquire. This is where the free-to-play aspect of the game comes in. If you want better cards, you are going to have to buy them. Those cards are in the section labeled Premium Draft. You get 1 rare player for 250 Gold Basketballs (coins) or 4 rare players for 1000 Gold Basketballs. After playing over twenty-five games in the campaign, I still didn't feel the need to purchase a rare card, though curiosity got the best of me. I used 250 of the Gold coins I had accrued through game play. It is important to note here that you get 50 gold coins after you win each tournament. What kind of card did I get? That is a good question to ask. I will never know because the game locked up on me, because I lost my connection to the server because the game crashed. Here is what I see as a downfall of the game, it requires a constant online connection.
The game is enjoyable, but you have to be connected to the server. I would imagine it has to do with the availability of live tournaments. The live tournaments work like any other game in this genre. You have a handful of people to go up against. Their cards are stored on a server. Their portion of the game is simulated and you actually pick your cards during the game play. If you are involved in a tournament, you find out who played your team while you are away, and if you won or lost. This sets up a list of grudge matches you can play. You are also able to try and see if you can retrieve points that were taken from you during that game if you lost. There are also other games you can choose to play and you pick the team from a rival list.
The good thing about the live tournaments is that each tournament has prizes, and depending on your rank when the game is over, you will either win gold coins, cars, or other gadgets that you can then sell for silver. Playing tournaments is a much easier way to rack up gold coins, so you can obtain players with rare stats. The problem is that currently there is only one tournament happening at any given time, and that tournament could last a few days. The more games you play and win, the better your rank in the tournament will be. I don't know if this is specific to my device or not, but when I played for over fifteen minutes, my device really heated up, and that is not something that usually occurs with my device. This happens every time I play this game. I can only attribute it to the game and the online requirement, but I could be totally incorrect about that.
Rival Stars Basketball Features:
- Master one-swipe game play with steals, passes, shots, and dunks
- Draft from hundreds of unique, fully-animated star player cards
- Immerse yourself in deep card management with infinite strategy and plays
- Claim outstanding prizes with regular online tournaments
Overall, Rival Stars Basketball is a good game. There is a lot of detail in the game and many items to manage/accrue. The free-to-play element has not dampened the game play experience for me. The in-game music is good, there is a story that loosely goes along with the campaign/season, told through cut scenes. PikPok has paid attention to the finer details that make this game one to play on a regular basis. Though there isn't a lot of controlling the actual players, what you do control, when you have the opportunity, equates to pretty exciting game play. The animations, though somewhat repetitive, are not boring. PikPok has even thrown in cheerleaders to rejoice with you when you win, and cry on your shoulder when you lose.
The game is available to download now for free in the play store and does have in-app purchases. There are also in-game banner ads and the ability to watch videos to accrue more gold coins. There is the ever present stamina bar, that is included in most free to play games. This one however is quite generous, unlike some other free-to-play titles I have played recently.
If you like basketball or games that require team management/strategy, you should give Rivals Stars Basketball a shot. It takes a lot of different angles in the game, but ultimately, I think it sinks a three-pointer from just beyond the arc.
Google Play: Rival Stars Basketball
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source: droidgamers
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