A quick basketball shooting game for PC

Hoop Shot is the basketball shooting game in Games by Zaweba. You get sixty seconds, one hoop and a shooting hand that won't quite keep still, and you score as much as you can before the clock runs out. It is free, original and plays offline on Windows.

It feels like the arcade hoop at a fair: quick, noisy and just hard enough to want another go.

Shooting the ball

Press anywhere, drag back away from the hoop and let go. The direction you drag sets the angle, and the length of the drag sets the power. Only the start of the ball's arc is shown, and your hand wobbles slightly, so you have to judge the rest. That is the whole skill: finding the drag that lands the ball in the hoop from where you stand.

Once you find a good shot, try to repeat it exactly. The wobble means no two shots are identical, but a consistent drag keeps them close.

Twos, threes, swishes and streaks

Baskets score 2, or 3 from beyond the arc. A clean swish, where the ball drops through without touching the rim, adds 1. Three in a row adds 1 more. So the points can climb quickly once you are in a rhythm.

Whether to shoot threes is the big choice. A three is worth more, but if you miss more often from further out, steady twos can score better. Many players warm up on twos, find the rhythm, then try threes once the shot feels reliable.

Making the most of sixty seconds

Speed matters. Sixty seconds goes quickly, and every second you spend thinking is a shot you didn't take. But rushing leads to sloppy drags. The sweet spot is a calm, quick rhythm where you shoot as soon as you are set.

Streaks are worth chasing. Three in a row earns a bonus, so a missed shot costs you the streak as well as the basket. When you are on a streak, keep the same shot rather than trying something new.

Your best score is kept on the game's tile, in a scores file on your own PC.

The clock is the thing to keep in mind. With only sixty seconds, a run of misses early on is not a disaster, but a long pause to rethink your shot costs real points. If the wobble is spoiling your shots, take a slightly shorter drag rather than a longer one, since a softer shot often drops in more kindly off the rim than a hard one that bounces away. Once you have found a shot you trust, keep shooting it for as long as it keeps going in.

Opening Hoop Shot

Hoop Shot is on the Skill & sport shelf of Games by Zaweba. Press Ctrl+F and type hoop to find it, or star it for Favourites. The title card explains the rules, F1 brings them back, Esc pauses the clock and F11 fills the screen. The game pauses itself if you switch to another window, so you won't lose time to a stray click.

No adverts, no accounts, nothing online. If you like the drag-and-release feel, Bin It on the same shelf has you flicking paper into an office bin past a desk fan.