Double Dribble
System: NES
Release Date: September 1987
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Sports
I saw Double Dribble coming up and I thought, alright, basketball, I love basketball! But then I played some Double Dribble and was very disappointed. It’s a facsimile of the sport, but not even good in the arcade sense of the game.
You pick your quarter length, I stuck with the default of 5 minutes. You pick from four teams. New York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. They vary in the color of their jerseys. Then you pick your difficulty level from 1, 2, or 3. Then it’s play ball.
It’s five on five, but only two AI players and the user controlled player are on the court at any given time. On offense, you pass with the A Button and shoot with the B Button. If you’re close enough to the hoop when you shoot, you may get a slam dunk animation. There are three animations the game chooses from. Enjoy each of them here.
On defense, you change your controlled player with the B Button and steal with the A Button. Stealing is important, because the computer doesn’t miss. There are also fouls, which are annoying, because offensive fouls give foul shots, which is wrong and makes me mad.
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics are terrible, except for the dunk animations, which honestly aren’t any good, but are totally novel.
Sound: 1.0
Sound is bad. The dribbling sound of the ball is super annoying.
Gameplay: 1.0
Gameplay is bottom of the barrel. Everything sort of works, I guess, but not well.
Difficulty: 1.0
Rubber band AI is my least favorite kind of AI and that’s what we have here.
Fun Factor: 0.5
Basketball is my favorite non-professional wrestling sport and this is a bad example of a basketball game.
Overall Grade: 1.0
Double Dribble earns a D. It’s not a good game and I certainly don’t recommend it.