Year released: 1987 (NES)

Number of Players: 1-2 simultaneously

I like basketball video games. So it made sense for me to get the first well-known basketball game, Double Dribble.

Graphics: The players wear skirts, not to mention that they only have about two frames of animation per direction. Other than that, they look pretty life-like. Oh, I almost forgot, when you make a dunk (well, attempt a dunk) you get a slow-motion up close movie of some guy doing a dunk. They have about four movies.

Play control: Moving is pretty straight-forward. Buttons are not. When you have the ball, you shoot with B and pass with A--something backwards from what most gamers are used to. Not to mention that sometimes you can't pass, so you need to tap the A button over and over. When the other guys have the ball, you can't do anything but run around. When they shoot the ball, you can jump too, but the collision detecting for picking up the ball is horrible, so there's little use.

Sound: The guy saying "Double Dribble" on the title screen is actually really good for an NES voice clip. Bouncing the ball is also realistic, well, in comparison to the normal host of sound effects. As far as music, if you like baseball music, then you're in for a treat.

Challenge: The computer knows the controls like the back of its hand, so it will wipe the floor with you the first time. After that, it just gets boring because you know the drill. Think of Ice Hockey, if you will. Multiplayer, sadly enough and unlike Ice Hockey, is the same way.

Gameplay: Boring. You can run directly on top of the guy who has the ball, though, in which case a "shove" will be called and you get to take a foul shot with a weird thing that goes up and down over the net. You need to shoot the ball when the thing is at its lowest. If there were more things like that, this game might be interesting. You can't even make 3 pointers or other cool-ish shots.

Bottom line: Stick to SNES basketball games, or at least ones other than this.

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