Basketball Stars Modes and Awards: Quick Match, Tournament and 2 Players

The Basketball Stars menu is short — 1 Player, 2 Players, Quick Match and Tutorial — but there is more behind it than it looks. Here is what each option does and what to aim for.

Tutorial

A guided minute that teaches the basics: move with the arrow keys, hold Up to shoot and release at the top of the meter, and use the dunk spot. If you skip it, you can come back to it later from the menu. New players should do it once; it saves a lot of missed shots.

Quick Match

The fastest way into a game. Quick Match drops you straight into a match against the computer, with no choices to make. It is the best mode for practising your shooting or for a short break.

1 Player

The single-player menu is where the real depth is. You can play individual matches or start a tournament, a bracket of opponents you work through one match at a time. If you stop halfway, you can continue the tournament later. There is also a harder difficulty for players who have mastered the normal one.

2 Players

Two people on one keyboard, in a one-on-one or a two-on-two match. Player 1 uses WASD with B and V; player 2 uses the arrow keys with L and K, and a How to Play screen shows the full list before tip-off. Sit side by side with your hands on your own keys and click inside the game once so it picks up both. It is the most fun way to play, and every point becomes a shouting match.

Awards worth chasing

Basketball Stars keeps track of achievements across your games. Some of the ones in this build:

• Mega Dunk and Dunker — for throwing it down.
• Block Scorer — for turning defence into points.
• Points Leader and Match Leader — for dominating matches.
• Tournament Leader and the Gold Cup — for winning tournaments.
• Hard Match Leader, Hard Tournament Leader and the Hard Gold Cup — the same on the harder difficulty.

A path through the game

1. Play the Tutorial once.
2. Warm up with a few Quick Matches.
3. Win a normal tournament for your first Gold Cup.
4. Challenge a friend in 2 Players.
5. Try the hard tournament when you are ready.

More basketball on this site

If you want more hoops, Basketball Legends 2020 adds two-on-two and special moves, Basket Random is floppy one-button chaos for two players, and Court Kings 3D takes it to three-on-three street courts. All of them run in the browser.