Basket Master

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game, also known as Fernando Martin Basket Master, is a nice looking one-to-one basket game in which you're playing against the former Spanish player who gave his name to this game or against a friend!! Oh yes, the game offers a two-player mode as well, which is a great and unique feature for its time! Your player can dribble, shoot from every position (!), dunk, defend and...of course, make fouls. The game also features some impressive replay scenes. In terms of difficulty, this is a Dinamic game, which means it's too difficult to play! It's almost impossible to keep the ball for more than a few seconds, especially when your opponent is the computer! Although its high difficulty, the game offers great fun and a few great for its era features, like the zoomed-in replay scenes!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics on the Amstrad are great. I like the colors that give better visuals compared to all the other 8bit versions (the CPC version features better details when compared to the C64). The playing field is well designed, with animated spectators on the background (ok it's a two-frames animation but still is quite impressive for its time). The basketball courts are nicely done and there are even on-court Ads showing the Amstrad logo! The player animations are also great, especially when watching the replays (I was amazed by the number of frames Dinamic used here!). As in most 8bit computer games, the sprites animation plays smoother on the C64 compared to the CPC, Spectrum and the rest. The game's sound is also cool, featuring a nice intro tune while there are a few impressive sound effects during each match, such as ball bouncing, the net and crowd cheering when scoring.