A Mini review for a Mini Game! Facebook Messenger Basketball for iOS and Android device.

Sometimes, we don’t need an overly complex game to entertain ourselves with. This is a perfect example of such a game.

Basketball in Facebook Messenger was introduced to me by another Game It All staff in our group chat from a simple “Bob McBoberton set the new high score of 20 points playing basketball. Play.” After doing a bit of research, I found that this was added in the last messenger update and can be accessed by putting the basketball emoji in the chat and tapping it afterward.

Curiosity did get the better of me and I hit the play button. I was met with the following screen almost instantly:

The game in its core is simplistic, swipe your finger over the ball and aim for the hoop. For the first 10 points, the hoop stays in place in the middle of the screen. Once you reach that milestone, the hoop starts going from left to right in a slow pattern. At 20, the motion speeds up but keeps the same pattern. The furthest I’ve personally seen is 30 which throws you a curve, the hoop starts moving up and down on top of the left to right pattern. I wish I could have made it further but I did get the highscore for our chat and was still pleased even though I missed that shot.

This game can be great for a small group chat as it keeps the chat updated with the latest highest score made during a session from the other chat members. This feature can also be a downfall as every time you launch the game and close it, it posts the results of your highest score. Bob McBoberton for example was listed 8 times in a row trying to beat one of my previous score.

At the end of the day, this game won’t be a killer app, but it will definitely do a good job at passing time especially if you have a friendly competition with someone else trying to get the top score over a friend.