Theoretically, videogame basketball should be a pretty easy type of game to develop. The sport itself is underpinned by such a fundamentally simple core that it’s little surprise the digital versions have been so good for so many years. As long as the programmers understand that basketball is won and lost by a team’s ability to rotate the ball around the three-point line before finding an open man then, mechanically at least, their game will be at least moderately successful. Obviously, though, no one told the programmers of Sony’s NBA 07.

If you are in the market for a clunky, unpleasant, stuttering and unfocused version of the sport of giants, then you’re in luck. In trying to set itself apart from the simulation of NBA 2K7 and the arcade hoops of EA’s Homecourt, NBA 07 sits uncomfortably in the middle, never able to chat tactics with 2K or hurl alley-oops to the Street posse, lost in a mire of oddly timed replays and ugly character models.

The most immediate deficiency is in the passing. Even since NBA Live 95 on the SNES, decent basketball sims have allowed players to chuck the ball between teammates smoothly and easily. It’s crucial. Why then, in 2007 and on the beast that is the PS3, do we have to put up with a crew of overly-tall robots awkwardly delaying even the simplest of passes by vital microseconds, negating any concept of flair or quality? It’s maddening.

The shooting’s no better, either. Jump shots are accompanied by a curious meter, which displays the optimum time to release the ball. This meter is terrible, and the reasons why are twofold. One, having an exact guide to whether or not the ball is going in strips the drama out of every shot. And secondly – most importantly – this supposed ‘optimum time’ for release is completely off. If pros let go of their jumpers when NBA 07 suggests they should, then basketball scorelines would have more in common with football results.

NBA 07’s greatest failing, though, is that it gives itself absolutely no reason whatsoever to exist. As a recreation of a sport, it pales in comparison to both NBA 2K7 and EA’s Live series, and it has less than a tenth of the aggression and attitude of Homecourt. And that’s a fact. File this in the folder called ‘pointless’.

Jon Denton