Perhaps – just perhaps – building a game that is named after an easily transmissible infection might not be the wisest decision anyone could make in 2021… yet here we are.   

To be fair to both Spotify and British rapper AJ Tracey, Flu Game – the online basketball game they have created together – is named after Tracey’s second album which, in turn, is named after a legendary 1997 NBA game where Michael Jordan had flulike symptoms but still helped the Chicago Bulls to victory over Utah Jazz. (Historic side note: there were suggestions it should have been called the Hangover Game as that was what some claim Jordan was really suffering from at the time.)

It is a POV game where you are in a basketball court in what looks like West London (where Tracey is from) and the object is to try, by angling the trajectory of the shot correctly on your phone screen, score a series of baskets. 

It is a lot harder than that sounds. One each of the 16 levels, your position on the court changes so that you have to constantly recalibrate your shooting technique for each one. As you progress, different objects (people, road signs, giant pizzas) appear and try to block your shots. If you mess up one level, you are thrown back to the start.

Tapping on the tape icon in the top left of the screen opens a mini Spotify player which plays short clips of every track on the album and you can click through to the Spotify app to hear the album in full.

Often tie-in games that are made available for free to push a single or an album tend to be quite simplistic – often prouder of the fact they exist rather than the quality of the actual gaming. This one has a lot more thought and detail put into it, making it as tricky as it is addictive.