Fun covers a multitude of sins. A game can be shallow or even slightly janky, but fun gameplay can make it a pretty good experience. Case in point: Arch Rivals, one of the few games my wife agreed to play a round with me on despite being neither a gamer nor a basketball fan. A pure-hearted arcade experience, this takes the pesky rules out of the equation entirely: goaltending is allowed, back-court violations don't exist, and of course defending is entirely no-holds barred. Between pulling down the opponents' shorts and rugby-tackling the ref, being able to slip on trash that the crowd throws on-court, and the funny cutscenes that play in between points, this was worth a few laughs.

Unfortunately, each game lasts four 4-minute quarters (adding to a whopping 16 minutes) and there doesn't seem to be an option to change the times; you'll probably see 95% of what the game has to offer within the first quarter, and there isn't much in the way of anything else once you get past the initial thrill of winning the ball with a nicely-placed right straight.

There's a general floatiness and lack of mechanical depth but that isn't really the problem here; I just wish the games were much shorter and there were more game modes (one-on-one or tournament would have been more than welcome). I'd also have loved if there was more variety in cutscenes and they didn't play after every single point, making them more of an event, and giving the player motivation to play more in case they missed out on watching one - Road Rash did this well.

As it is, it's the video game equivalent of a comedy with maybe five good jokes, all of which were spoiled in the trailer.