Step aside, 2K.

It's Purple Guy vs. Kermit the Frog at a no-holds-barred 1v1 on Planet Basketball, winner takes all. It's incredibly simple, you move and shoot with the stick and button, and all you need to do is run into the ball to steal it from your opponent. You can hold the button down with the ball to aim it at the cost of standing in place, leaving yourself open to stealing, and the game just becomes this frantic scramble to get the ball and throw it in the hoop ASAP before you get cornered and the ball stolen. I've played this occasionally in the past with other people and it's pretty consistently gotten good times out of the multiplayer just for how goddamn simple and goofy the core gameplay is.

I honestly thought this game was like combat in that it was multiplayer only for the longest time, but lo and behold, I found out today that there is indeed a singleplayer mode where the AI plays as Kermit. All I can say is goddamn can this frog ball. Seriously, the computer opponent is no joke, as it has one sole purpose in life; to make sure the ball goes in the hoop under any means necessary. This mfer dodges and weaves around you to get net using constant rapid diagonal movements, and he very rarely ever misses any shots he takes so you gotta just rush his ass and hope that you can steal the ball in the tiny window when he's trying to shoot. Conversely, if you have the ball, you better believe this guy is gonna be on you to steal your ball and IMMEDIATELY go after getting more points before you can even process what's happened. I genuinely wasn't expecting my ass to get clapped so hard by an Atari 2600, but I perservered. The manual states that there's some kind of dynamic AI at play, where the closer the game, the greater Kermit's lust for points becomes. It states that if you can win by a lead of over 4 points, you are a "superior player", and I can confirm that yeah that about sums it up alright. I had to remove my power limiters and do the ol' plug-a-genesis-controller-in-the-atari trick so that I could even keep up with the CPU since dear god the constant diagonals the CPU makes felt deliberately planned in order to make it as difficult as possible to chase with the real Atari joystick. (how the hell do you use that thing comfortably???)

I have learned some tricks up my sleeve though. The top right corner of the court is a safe space that Kermit will just kinda hover around you but not actually steal the ball from you, so if you want to stand a chance, aim for shooting from up there. Conversely, if both players get close enough with the ball, it will erratically vibrate between both players like an atomic particle as both players exist in a state of stealing the ball. Sometimes you can get the AI to be stuck like that in the bottom right corner, so an easy way to become a certified Superior Player is to get an early point lead and then sacrifice Purple Guy to seal away the evil aggression of Kermit the frog by trapping them both through the power of Atomic Balling. I have also discovered that even though the CPU is controlling the second player, pressing the button on Player 2 will still make them jump anyways so you can also use this psychokinetic power to force Kermit to jump against his will, slowing him down so you can make some easy shots. If real basketball had strats like this, I'd be watching ESPN like a drug addict.

It's simple, it's dumb fun, it's fucking basketball on atari. The golden age of basketball games began and ended here for all I'm concerned. Even when times up and the game is over as the system rotates around the attract colors for Planet Basketball, you can keep playing either with a friend or against the AI like nothing changed, there just won't be any points that count. No other basketball game is going to be as dedicated towards balling eternally as this one. If you have the means to do so, definitely give this a try (preferably with a friend). atari games rule

I have some mild nostalgia for Basketball, having played it somewhere I don't remember as a kid, but despite that I'm struggling to give it more than a 2. It's certainly not anyone's fault that a sports game on the Atari 2600 isn't the most engaging thing around in 2021.

This is a 1-on-1 basketball game between two players or player and stupid-but-frustrating AI. You can steal and shoot the ball as well as block shots, and that's about all you can do with your one button and stick.

Is it fun? Not really. With another person it's mildly fun but it's still mostly frustrating. If you want to play a retro basketball game by yourself or with someone, I say go straight to NBA Jam.

2 - Average: Just another game in a world with far too many

historia: -
jugabilidad: 7.2
apartado artístico: 4
apartado sonoro: 2
multijugador: 6
impacto: 6
duración: 6.2
ritmo/agilidad: 7
diseño: 4

7.2
7
6
6

26.2 // 6.55 || 10

3/5
⭐⭐⭐

This is as simple as a 1v1 sports game could ever be, yet similarly to the NES title Ice Hockey (which would release a full decade later), there's delightful competition to be found in the simplicity. The ability to steal the ball from the other player is crucial, and creates a manic back-and-forth which is nearly as fun as realizing that you can make baskets from the top or bottom of the court despite not being remotely lined up with the basket. There is no depth of field, and there is no depth of mechanics, but that effectively means the game is what you make it.

My son and I got SO LOUD playing this. We'll be coming back to this one for a long time.

The joyful simplicity of a game that only requires one button really needs to be appreciated. Between the extreme limitations of the Atari 2600 and the gameplay they managed to squeak out of it, pound for pound this is one of the most impressive sports games ever made. Even 35 years later, it’s a lot of fun to boot this up and make some crazy pump fake plays after stealing the ball from your homie over a couple of beers. Any game that’s been around this long and is still fun to play is a gem. Even the AI is pretty fun to square up against.

You can pump fake, you can dribble, you can shoot, you can steal. It's simply the best basketball game ever made.

I laughed, I cried, I was filled with child-like wonder.

Must play.

Basketball is an early basketball title, surprising I know, that while not the first home basketball video game - I think there was one on the Odyssey that beat it to the punch - it is the first one on Atari systems.

Its a 1 vs 1 representation of a lesser known basketball variant named Squareball. You would assume it will be just completely irredeemable but actually it ends up being sort of fun, weird flashing stanky leg characters and all. This might be the first sighting of a janky but entertaining game. The ball- er square dribbles and you can pass it to yourself. Best of all there aren’t any glaringly predatory and anti-consumer microtransactions so its automatically superior to any basketball game made since roughly 2014.

Basketball also might be one of the first console games to show up in a movie as it makes an appearance in the film Airplane, which was one of the last great pieces of American art. And I mean the scene where someone is playing the video game in the Air Traffic Control terminal, and not the hilariously problematic Basketball in Africa scene that will always get my dirtbag socialist ass cancelled by woke corporate liberals for laughing at.