Nintendo is Great is a Substack devoted to exploring the world of Nintendo - their games, their consoles, their merchandise - in mostly chronological order, starting with the NES and continuing to the upcoming Switch 2.
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Double Dribble
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Konami
RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1987 (US), Dec. 13th, 1989 (EU)
ALSO AVAILABLE ON: Amiga, Arcade, Commodore 64, Famicom Disk System, MS-DOS, Wii Virtual Console
Double Dribble is ugly basketball. None of the sprites have faces, not the players, the crowd, none of ‘em. Crowds walking into the basketball stadium resemble a grey mass, like vomited gruel. Even the cheerleaders look like department store mannequins, shaking their money makers for a crowd who can’t see a thing anyway.
But Double Dribble plays well, and that’s what matters. On offense, you throw the ball to your teammates and hope for the best, hope they make the shot. The game’s so fast, you’ll hardly register what’s happening to you, particularly when playing defense. The other team knows what they’re doing, they’ve been playing faceless basketball for years. They steal from you, make every shot they take, how do they do it. But you? You’re a rookie, just getting started. You’re used to having a face. What’s this now, just because you made it to the big leagues, you can’t have eyes or a nose anymore? You can’t yell at your coach for benching you? What kinda tradeoff is that?
Three teams, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. No other teams, no roster of real or fake player names. Each quarter lasts five, ten, or fifteen minutes. Three difficulty levels, and even the easiest difficulty feature gangbuster opponents. Get another friend and battle it out, versus mode is where Double Dribble really shines.
Yeah, Double Dribble isn’t the prettiest, but it’s got flair. The halftime show with the mannequin cheerleaders is sensational and unexpected. The Slam Screen, where the action zooms in on a single player’s slam dunk, is theatrical, operatic even. And, of course, the narrator mumbling “Dubba Dribba” on the title screen is hilarious and timeless. The basketball’s fine, but it’s the little touches we’ll remember most, long after the balls stop bouncing, and the NES has been turned off for good.
Straight From the Arcade
*images courtesy of Coin-Op Parts, Pixelated Arcade, The Arcade Museum, and Moby Games
Other Versions
AMIGA
COMMODORE 64
DOS (CGA)
*all images courtesy of MobyGames
Lode Runner
PUBLISHER: Broderbund
DEVELOPER: Hudson Soft
RELEASE DATE: Jul. 31st, 1984 (JP), Sept. 1987 (US)
ALSO AVAILABLE ON: Atari (5200, 8-bit, ST), Apple II, Arcade, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, DS, GBA, iOS, Macintosh, Mobile, MS-DOS, MSX, NEC (PC-88, PC-98), SG-1000, TurboGrafx-16, VIC-20, Wonderswan, Sharp X1, Xbox 360, ZX81/Spectrum, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U)
Lode Runner is the tale of a wandering minstrel and his bags of gold, lost within labyrinthine confines, surrounded by lumbering guards of surprising intelligence.
You play the Runner, equipped with the power to disintegrate bricks temporarily and force untold amounts of gold in his pockets. The upbeat music blasting through his adorable red headphones gives him strength to run like the wind. Nevertheless, his lode is heavy.
Across fifty levels, you must retrieve all the gold you see and not get caught by the guards. You’re outnumbered three-to-one, and you can’t see the entire screen at once, so guards run up on your person unexpectedly. Make holes near you with your special power, so the guards fall in. They won’t stay there forever, though. Run on their heads to safety on the other side of the screen where more gold awaits.
Most of the fifty levels are comprised of malleable bricks and immovable blocks, but there are also ladders to climb and bars to shimmy across. Gold is everywhere: buried beneath layers of brick that you tunnel through, on top of bars, and occasionally, in places that will trap you if you’re not careful. Luckily, if you find yourself stuck, hit ‘Select’ and you can restart the stage. And if there’s no more gold to collect, but you’re still unable to escape the level, trap the guards to get them to drop their gold. Thieving brutes.
After fifty levels of grueling back-and-forth, the Runner has all the gold. He’s wealthy, rich beyond his dreams, but he’s also forever trapped within the game’s programming. May as well head over to Edit Mode and make some custom levels, give him something to do. You won’t be able to save any of your creations, but the Runner will have some purpose. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?
Straight From the Arcade
*images courtesy of eBay, Arcade_Museum via X, The Arcade Flyer Archive, and Moby Games
Other Versions
AMSTRAD CPC
BBC Micro
PC-98
WonderSwan
*all images courtesy of MobyGames
Have you basketed the balls with Double Dribble? Are you officially a gold-encrusted millionaire thanks to Lode Runner? Please let me know in the comments!
"Monet would be pleased" killed me hahahaha
I'll never forget Dubba Dribba solely for that intro sound byte and the cinematic dunks. I thought basketball games could never get any better, and I was right!