Welcome to another installment of Flashback Fridays. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what’s going on here, please refer to previous articles for more information. Since I have basketball on my mind right now, let’s go ahead and talk about a classic sports game from back in the day. The title that I am going to discuss with all of you was a very limited representation of the round ball related event that it is trying to portray, Double Dribble for the NES.

Before EA and 2K sunk their teeth into obtaining exclusivity rights for professional sports related video games, just about every company was trying to make a quick buck off of their most beloved past times. While some did succeed in offering a satisfying experience (Tecmo Super Bowl), others tended to fall by the wayside. One of these disappointments was a basketball simulator that went by the name of Double Dribble for the NES. After trying the title out just one time, I started to realize that this was more like a traveling violation than a game winning shot, and here’s why.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this sport, here is a quick explanation of how it works. Two teams face off against each other and try to score points by placing a round ball in a basket with a net. The team with the most points at the end of four quarters wins the game, and that’s about it. Gameplay basically centers around this concept, so no need to go into further detail there. Sounds like a simple idea incapable of being reproduced in a crappy way right? Wrong.

So what are my personal thoughts on the game? Well, in all honesty, it’s kind of redundant and boring. The overall visual design was bland and lifeless, The controls were simple but glitchy at the same time, and the sound effects were downright annoying, (Hearing a constant thud every time the ball hit the floor was irritating). Toss in a lack of gameplay modes, and you have the makings of an underdeveloped waste of space that should have never been made in the first place.

Double Dribble for the NES proved that sometimes our favorite sports are better left alone. Please do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs.

That concludes my story on Double Dribble  for the NES, but if you have any fond (or bad) memories of this game please feel free to share them with us in the comments below.

Here is a gameplay video that I found for it, enjoy!