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There are an awful lot of basketball games coming out on consoles lately, and here's one for the Nintendo. A conversion of Konami's Basket Master coin-op, one or two players compete against the machine or each other respectively across the four American cities of New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Each match is played through four quarters, using normal basketball rules to slam-dunk the opposition out of the league and push your team a notch closer toward the championships.

As well as three skill levels, there is also the option to vary the length of each tournament between 20, 40, 80 and 120 minutes. A chatty referee blurts out the odd phrase every now and again, and there's even a spot of light entertainment at half-time, when those lurvely, all-American cheerleaders come on and do what all-American cheerleaders do best - look bimboesque and wave fluffy balls around.

Double Dribble is a really rather good conversion of the coin-op, with a lot of sensible front-end options allowing you to alter the gameplay to suit your ability. Once you've got past the jolly screen showing spectators pouring into the stadium, the real task of beating the opposition begins, and what fun it is too.

Player sprites are smashing, much more likelike than the squat, cartoony figures seen on a lot of similar games recently, and the ball travels most favourably. Unfortunately, there isn't a shadow underneath the ball, and to begin with, placing your man correctly is a hit-and-miss affair, but with practice it isn't too difficult.

Sound is a bit of a letdown; the speech is fine as are the, albeit short, tunes, but effects are practically non-existent. Two-player mode is recommended to get the most out of Double Dribble, but if you have no brothers, sisters or friends, one-player can have loads of fun playing this more than pleasing basketball sim.