Nerdicus NES Review #37 - All-Pro Basketball

Title : All-Pro Basketball

Publisher :  Vic Tokai

Genre : Sports

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $3-5

Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Sport games. Ugh, how I hated them on the NES. Seriously, I think ICE HOCKEY was one of the only ones I actually enjoyed playing when I was a kid. Biased since I'm a huge hockey fan, and the fact that you have guys that look like Mario and Luigi. Oooh...they need to make a Mario Hockey. Sorry, side tracked.

Like I said in the beginning, sport games are the bane of my gaming obsession, so lets get this one over with. And what do we have here? All-Pro Basketball, eh? Fake Teams. Fake Players. Wonky Controls. Yay, can't wait.

You've got four modes of game play to choose from. 1 player versus the CPU. 2 Player co-op. 2 player versus. And a watch mode...yes that's right..you can just watch. Why watch a game on TV with real people when you can watch pixelated NES players duke it out. I'll stick with the CPU version for this review.

And since I'm from New York, I'm of course going to pick the NEW YORK...uh..SLICKS? Uh......sure...I mean it does have all the star players like Borofsky. Who can forget Borofsky on the NY Slicks. And Frizzell. He was unstoppable. What a team, man. What a team.

Before you start the game you choose which direction you want to run the ball. It doesn't really matter, it just determines what basket your shooting for and the screen switches once you hit half court. Surprisingly enough, the way they angle the court is done really well and performs quite smoothly. Graphically the game is pretty decent.

The dramatic cut scenes that take place in the game once a player performs certain moves gives for a good chuckle. Who knew the NES could be so snazzy.

The game just poses one major problem. It took me an insanely long time to get used to the controls of this game. It moves insanely fast, and the computer is just dumb as bricks. They'll run back and forth for awhile before they even decide to move up for pass the ball. The game starts out rough around the edges, but once you get used to the controls and the game play mechanics you'll go on non stop scoring runs and decimate your opponent.

All in all - not too bad for a basketball game. Not that good either. Will never play it again though, sorry. Unless my friends and I are drunk one night and decide to pop in an old school basketball NES game, then this one shall grace us with its presence again.

As for now, I'm off to Madison Circle Field to watch the NY Slicks play.

BOOM! YOU JUST GOT PWNED!

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!