---------------------------------
| "Vubble Dwibble!" |
| Double Dribble: The FAQ |
| The First Cool Basketball Game |
| By gondee |
|
[email protected] |
| 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:
[email protected] and be sure to make the comment line "Double Dribble".
Thanks again!
VEE VEND OV VIS VUVVLE VIVVLE VIDE!
