Game Review: Five Hoops (Mobile – Free to Play)

When it comes to making simple, easy to understand and ad-laden free to play games, Voodoo might be the most recognisable name. They have nailed exactly what ‘pick up and play’ means and can rightfully be called one of the more dominant forces on the free to play market.

However that doesn’t mean their output is solid gold. In fact, it rarely is. Instead they seem content with flooding the marketplace with similar games that have very little replay value and over-laden with ads.

We’ve reviewed so many Voodoo games already and while Five Hoops is far from the worst, it has some fairly unforgivable issues. This review is for version 15.

The concept is as simple as always. Swipe the screen in the direction of the hoop. Get your ball in and you’ll move back a step. In total there are five different positions to get the ball in per level. To add some challenge, you’ll be facing off against opponents which the game claims to be other players.

Simply put, I believe this is not the case at all. It is becoming the norm for developers to do this. Claim that you’re facing off against human-players but actually they’re just bots with names that could imply they’re humans. It’s deceptive and while there is no proof that is the case within Five Hoops, all the warning signs are there.

That trickiness aside, gameplay is solid and the increasing challenge of more complex hoops is welcome. AI controlled or not, facing off against others makes for a more frantic experience. The sense of satisfaction when you’re two behind only to claw it back and win is nice.

To add some much needed longevity to the game, you can of course unlock new skins. Skins for your character and skins for the balls. You do this by earning blue gems through gameplay or by watching ads.

The latter would be tempting if the game wasn’t so heavy handed with them. As well as constantly trying to get you to watch them to earn more gems, you’ll be putting up with automatic ones that play after every single level.

Voodoo sure love games that can best be described as ‘ad experiences with a little bit of gameplay’. Five Hoops is no different although the ever increasing challenge does rank it a little higher.