--------------------------------- | "Vubble Dwibble!" | | Double Dribble: The FAQ | | The First Cool Basketball Game | | By gondee | | gondee5@yahoo.com | | Version 1.0 | ---------------------------------- Table Of Contents: I. Why This Guide? II. The Breakdown III. Gameplay IV. Tips and Secrets V. Thanks/Credits/Legal ----------------------------------------------------------- I. Why This Guide for Double Dribble? Well, because there wasn't one. :) I always thought this game was really cool and even now I still play it on my NES Emulator just to relive old times. Yes, the graphics are ancient and the gameplay is simplistic but that's what makes this so fun. It's like putting on an old pair of shoes - always easy to get back into. I'm gonna assume that when you read this guide you know the fundamentals of basketball like shooting, dribbling, double-dribbling free throws, defense, dunks and 3-pointers. If not, well, you may want to skip this game. ----------------------------------------------------------- II. The Breakdown CONTROLS: Title Screen ------------- START Button: Starts the Game SELECT Button: Select between 1 and 2 player Select Menu ------------- B Button: Pushing this button makes the player at the bottom of the screen shoot the ball. This lets you choose between the various options like Quarter Length, Team, and other features. START: Push to start the Game In Game Controls: ----------------- Directional Pad: (Up, Down, Left, Right) Moves the Player in the direction pushed. START Button: Pauses and unpauses the game. Offense: B Button: Hold this down to make the player jump. Release to make the player shoot before he lands from his jump. You can move your man while he is jumping in the air (you can do some neat tricks with this which I will explain later in the TIPS section.) A Button: Makes you pass the ball to the highlighted player. Pick a different player to pass to using the D-Pad. Defense: B Button: The B-Button changes the player you are controlling on defense. A Button: Pushing this while you are touching the man with the ball will make you steal the ball. Additionally, push this before the opposing player is done shooting to jump up to block the shot. Note, you can only jump up while the player is in the act of shooting, otherwise the A Button just steals the ball. That's all as far as controls go. Simple as simple can be. MENU SCREEN: ------------ Once you start the game, at the title screen you will hear a Japanese Announcer butcher the words that made Double Dribble famous...VUBBLE DWIBBLE! You will see a large crowd funnel into a domed stadium while hearing the American Anthem. You have lots of fans, so put on a good show! The following screen shows a series of baskets and a player at the bottom. Selecting the basket to shoot the ball into lets you change various options in the game you are about to play. Double Dribble has no tournament mode and no other frills. Just plain, straightforward 1-game competition. The baskets change three options in the game: 1. TIME: You can select 5, 10, 20 or 30 minute quarters. 5 Minute: 75-125 Points 10 Minutes: 125-200 Points 20 Minutes: 200-300 Points 30 Minutes: 300-500 Points! Most of the time I choose 5 minute quarters to keep the game realistic. But if you wanna blow the computer out, (or get blown out, depending on your skill level) you can select 20 or 30 minutes and play for a LOOOONG time. 2. TEAM: There are four teams to select in Double Dribble: Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Each team wears a different color uniform. All the teams can be played any way you want, as they are all EXACTLY the same, except with differently colored uniforms. Over the course of playing tons of games though, I've come to see a few differences in the teams. This is probably a figment of my imagination, but I'm going to give my opinion on what me and my friends decided were the strengths of the various teams. Remember, this is my opinion!! Don't e-mail me saying that you disagree because it's just what I have observed and largely fabricated (made up). Besides, I needed something to say about the teams other than their colors and mascot. :) BOSTON -------- I guess these guys are supposed to be the Celtics, but their mascot is a Frog (or more appropriately, a frog getting ready to pinch someone's butt) so you can make up your own name for them. They wear the GREEN uniforms and they are the team you will always play when you play 1-Player games. Get used to these guys, you'll be seeing a lot of them. GONDEE'S SCOUTING REPORT: Boston shoots mostly jumpers from the perimeter. Playing with them has led me to believe that this is their strength, and they are really good at it. They are a very proficient team. LOS ANGELES ----------- These guys wear the BLUE Uniforms, and they are my favorite team. Their mascot is a blue hot dog (or a blue something else if your mind is in the gutter). GONDEE'S SCOUTING REPORT: Following the 80's basketball trend, these guys would be the Lakers, and the Lakers of the 80's were mostly a fast-break team. So take these guys and drive to the basket. They also have a decent three-point shooter if you can find him. NEW YORK -------- This team wears the WHITE Uniforms. Their mascot is an Eagle. Well, actually it's more like an Egret. Go with whichever you like. GONDEE'S SCOUTING REPORT: I've found that this team is the all-around team. If you want a little bit of everything, pick this team. CHICAGO ------- This is the RED team. Their Mascot is a rather pissed-off looking bull, go figure. GONDEE'S SCOUTING REPORT: Whenever I play with Chicago, I'm always amazed at how many three pointers they can make. So, in my mind, that's their strength - they are the three point team. OVERALL: --------- Heheh, these "scouting reports" are just my opinion. Basically, every team is the same, it just depends on how you play with them. In my experience, each team has one or two players who can shoot three pointers very well, so in order to do well you should pay attention to where those guys are on the court. There also seems to be one guy on each team who can't make ANYTHING, so if you throw up two or three easy shots and brick them, pass the ball and shoot again. There are also various secrets on gameplay that I will describe in the GAMEPLAY section. 3. DIFFICULTY: There are 3 difficulty settings for Double Dribble. Picking each one means different things. LEVEL 1: This is the EASY level. Basically the computer will take their time dribbling up the court, and pass it around quite a bit before they shoot it (almost always from the perimeter.) On defense they also hardly ever steal the ball from you. Play this if you just want a simple game. LEVEL 2: This is the MEDIUM level. Or, more appropriately, the EASY - 1st half and HARD - second half level. The computer will be just like level 1 in the first and second quarter. During the second half, however, they turn into LEVEL 3 Monsters and are much, much tougher to beat. Basically if you are only decent at the game, you should build up a big lead in the first half and ride it out during the second half when the computer gets much harder. LEVEL 3: Welcome to the HARD level. If you have the skills, take these guys on. During these games, the computer will steal it from you almost every time you come down the floor. And they always shoot it quickly and run up the score too. Be prepared to steal the ball every possession and make lots of 3-pointers to beat this level. After this, select END and enjoy your game. Good luck! ----------------------------------------------------------------- III. GAMEPLAY Double Dribble is a basketball game, so you have to like and know how to play basketball to enjoy this game. Aside from reiterating the controls, there are certain things you can do to enhance your chances of success. OFFENSE ------- 1. Shooting: Well, obviously you need to shoot the basketball and make it to win. BAD SHOT DIAGRAM It is VERY important to remember that you cannot make any shots from the BOTTOM of the court, closer than the free-throw line. Your shot will hit the strangely angled backboard and go out of bounds, so shoot only on the middle and upper part of the screen. DON'T SHOOT where the X's are below: Sideline Half Court Sideline ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | |-------------\ | /------------| | \ | / | | \ | / | | \ | / | |----------| \ | | |----------| | Free | | Top of | | | | | Throw | | the key | | | | |----------| | | | |----------| |X X / | \ X X| |X X / | \ X X| |X X / | \ X X| |______________/ | \____________| |X X X X | X X X X| ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sideline Half Court Sideline OUT-OF-BOUNDS SHOT DIAGRAM Additionally, if you shoot the ball jumping out of bounds at the top of the screen, your ball will not fly towards the basket, but instead waay out of bounds in the corner of the court. (This is a bug.) If you shoot where the X's are, your ball will end up where the other X's are below. If you shoot here: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX It'll land --> XXX ----------------------------------------------------------------------- here: | | | |-------------\ | /------------| | \ | / | | \ | / | | \ | / | |----------| \ | | |----------| | Free | | Top of | | | | | Throw | | the key | | | | |----------| | | | |----------| | / | \ | | / | \ | | / | \ | |______________/ | \____________| | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sideline Half Court Sideline There are 4 types of shots, depending on your range away from the basket. DUNK: If you push B close to the basket, you'll dunk the ball. This was probably the coolest feature of Double Dribble and it's still cool today. Whenever you dunk the ball, an animation showing a basketball player in motion comes up and you get to enjoy the show. Then, one of two things can happen, either you'll make the shot and see it swish through the basket, or you'll hear the infamous "BRICK" sound ("BOOONNNGGGGGGG") and you'll miss the dunk. It's really pretty funny when you miss two or three dunks in a row. You'll have an increased chance of bricking the dunk if you do one of these things: A. Hold B-Button too Long: If you try and Dunk when you are on the descending part of your shot, you'll probably miss the dunk. Let go of B at the top of your jump to have the best chance. B. Dunk from too far away: This isn't always the case, but if you try and dunk from at the very end of the dunk range, you could miss it. There are 3 types of Dunks: A. Windmill: This is an awesome dunk where the guy brings the ball up in a 360 arc with his arm and slams it through the rim. The guy in this animation kinda looks like Dennis Johnson from the old NBA Celtics. B. 2 Handed: Just a regular old 2-handed Jam. Kinda lame. C. Reverse: This is my favorite Dunk. The guy comes in from behind and levels a monster reverse jam at the rim. Ironically, the guy in this animation has curly hair and looks like a young Larry Bird, but Bird never did a reverse dunk in his entire NBA career. :) FREE THROW: Whenever you are fouled (or if you are on level 3, foul the computer, heheh) you automatically take a free throw. The free throw is one of the trickier shots in the game because when you go to the free throw line, you have to make a free throw by positioning a small oval right on top of the rim. If you are even the slightest bit off, you will miss. Of course, the computer makes most of their free throws. It really takes a lot of practice to make free throws, so don't feel bad if you miss a few. Thankfully fouls aren't all that common in this game. JUMP SHOT: Just a regular old jump shot. Obviously the closer you are to the basket, the better chance you have of making it. The computer loves these shots and hardly ever takes anything else. Like dunks, you should release the B Button at the top of the jump to have the best chance of making the shot. THREE POINTER: Ahh, my favorite part of this game. Whenever you unleash a shot behind the three-point line, the "whine" of the 3-point shot tells you when it is going up and coming down. If you make it, you're treated to an "explosion" sound effect and the crowd going crazy. I love these shots, no other game has done 3-pointers as well as Double Dribble did. :) These shots can be critical to winning on LEVEL 3 difficulty. Read in the SECRETS section for tips on how to make 3 pointers like mad. 2. Passing Passing is critical to this game if you want to beat the computer at higher levels, because if you dribble for more than a second or two at LEVEL 3, the computer is going to steal the ball. Learn to select different players and you can find passing patterns that will let you score every time. There are a few guys who can be spotted during in-bound plays that you should pay attention to: A. 3-Point Shooters - After the computer scores, there are usually two guys who you can throw an in-bound pass to. The guy to pay attention to is the guy in the lower right-hand corner. Most of the time, this guy will be the "3-point" shooter who can make more 3's on average than a regular player. Additionally, if you see a guy kinda hanging out near the top of the screen and he runs up and down the 3-point sideline, he's probably a 3-point guy too. B. Fast Breaks - Watch the computer on defense. If they are running toward you, pass it right before they reach you. Often times you can catch the defense unaware and go right in for a dunk. C. No Long passes - Long passes have a bad habit of missing the guy and flying out of bounds. Keep your passes short and quick. DEFENSE ------- During the higher levels, there is nothing more critical to winning a game than defense. You must learn to be great at all aspects of defense because although Double Dribble is simple to play, that means the competition can be very tough. 1. Stealing - There isn't an aspect of defense more important than this. Learn how to steal and steal often. Stealing in Double Dribble is probably the simplest in any basketball game, ever. Just run up to the guy with the ball and press A. You'll now have control of the ball. Remember that the computer on level 3 steals like crazy, and just be ready to steal it back. Often times stealing it right after the in-bounds pass is the best time. Other times can be hard to find, and it'll be extra tough to steal against a regular person. Just remember to pass the ball or make straight for the basket after you get it. 2. Blocking the shot: This is tough - way too tough actually. Because you can only jump to block a shot when the guy is shooting, you have to be in range (i.e. really close) to touch the ball. If you can though, there really isn't anything else you have to do as you'll take the ball right out of the player's hands. To couple the frustration of blocking, the computer has a decided advantage with blocking. Sometimes they can block a shot from across the screen! ;) Obviously this is a bug, but luckily it doesn't happen very often. Here's a secret tip to remember: There is no goaltending in Double Dribble. So if you are under the basket, jump while the guy is still in the air and you can grab the ball right out of the rim and rob them of a basket. Cheap and easy (or CHEEZY, heheh). You won't be able to do this much though, so master stealing. ILLEGAL CALLS/FOULS: This stuff is kind of rudimentary, but don't do these: Don't jump and hold B without letting go. That's Up and Down (travelling.) Don't run back across half court after you've passed it the first time. (That's a backcourt violation.) Don't throw up a shot from full-court and then run down the court and try to catch it. That's travelling too, heheh. Don't go out of bounds, lol. This can be aggravating if you are trying to shoot a 3 along the baseline. Fouls in this game are somewhat random, but a good tip to avoid them is not to change direction suddenly when you are in a crowd of opposing players. IV. TIPS AND SECRETS -------------------- Here are a few cool things to try out with this game: 1. 3-POINT SWEET SPOTS: There is a secret to making three pointers in Double Dribble. Do you see those little clusters of "dots" on the floor? Well, those are supposed to be the "rivets" that hold the floor down. In reality though, they are "sweet spots" on the court that let players make three-pointers at a much higher percentage than other spots on the floor. I've listed which spots in my experience are the best on the rough diagram below: (Spots are listed with X's). Look for the small clusters of dots at these points and shoot the threes from there: 3-POINT SWEET SPOT DIAGRAM Sideline Half Court Sideline ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | X X X X | X X X X | |-------------\ | /------------| | \ | / | | \ | / | | \ | / | |----------| \ | | |----------| | Free | | Top of | | | | | Throw | | the key | | | | |----------| | | | |----------| | / | \ | | /X | X\ | | /X | X\ | |______________/ | \____________| | X | X | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sideline Half Court Sideline One of the worst places I find to shoot threes is from the top of the key, although that may work for some people. :) RUNNING THREE POINTER: Just for kicks, dribble down the sideline on the top of the screen and jump right before you go out of bounds. Then shoot the ball before you land and see if you make it. This used to be my trademark shot in Double Dribble, so I'm passing it on to you. Sideline Half Court Sideline ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Dribble here: ----> Jump here:--> | X <-Shoot |-------------\ | /------------| here: | \ | / | | \ | / | Good | \ | / | Luck! |----------| \ | | |----------| | Free | | Top of | | | | | Throw | | the key | | | | |----------| | | | |----------| | / | \ | | / | \ | | / | \ | |______________/ | \____________| | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sideline Half Court Sideline 3-POINT DUNK?! - Believe it or not, you can actually jump from the three point line and dunk it! In regulation play, that would be an actual three pointer since your feet started out behind the three-point line. However, in Double Dribble it's only worth two points. :( The trick to this is to jump from the 3-point sideline at the top of the screen and make your player jump until you are under the basket! Let go of the B-button right as you are underneath the basket and about to land and you should get the dunk animation. Good luck making it though - it's awesome when you do! Sideline Half Court Sideline ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |X <-- Jump here | Jump here --> X| |-------------\ | /------------| | \ | / | | \ | / | | \ | / | |----------| \ | | |----------| |X <--Land | | Top of | | | Land--> X| | here | | the key | | | here | |----------| | | | |----------| | / | \ | | / | \ | | / | \ | |______________/ | \____________| | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sideline Half Court Sideline BRICK CITY USA: If you love hearing the sound of a brick (I do), one of the best things you can do (for laughs too) is to jump to shoot and then turn your player 180 degrees and fire up a backwards shot! You will probably miss it, but man is it funny when you make it. Talk about shooting skill! :) Also for laughs, jump past the rim and shoot the ball from behind the basket, heheh. OTHER STUFF: Enjoy the halftime show, it's an original! Along with "Vubble Dwibble" at the title screen, this game also features decent voice-over for "Free Throw" and "Jump Ball." Pretty cool for a first generation NES game. You may get tired of the bongbongbongbong of the dribbling, but if you turn the sound down you'll miss the roar of the crowd and the "Boom" of hitting a three! Yeah, I turn down the sound too. ;) V. THANKS/CREDITS/LEGAL ----------------------- Thanks to GameFAQs for hosting my guide. I'd like to thank Konami for making this awesome game. I still love playing it every once in a while even today. It ranks as my favorite Nintendo game and Number Three on my list all time. :) Thanks to my friend Jimmy for helping "categorize" the teams. Even though it's probably not true, I still think of the teams this way. Sitting and playing all those games at your grandparents' house is one of my fondest memories. Thanks to Chris Powell for owning this game and letting me play it so that I finally got good enough to beat level 3 competition. If I hadn't figured out the 3-point secret spots, I probably would still consider the game very hard today. LEGAL: This FAQ is Copyright 2002 by gondee. You may not distribute this FAQ without my permission, although that will be freely given if you just ask. When this guide is posted on a web site, please keep it completely intact and retain all credit to me, gondee. This guide is allowed on the following sites: www.gamefaqs.com Please address any comments/suggestions you have about this guide to: gondee5@yahoo.com and be sure to make the comment line "Double Dribble". Thanks again! VEE VEND OV VIS VUVVLE VIVVLE VIDE!