Commodore Format


One On One

Publisher: Ariolasoft
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Commodore Format #43

One On One (Electronic Arts)

Here's a nice change to a normal team sports game, in the form of one on one basketball. The idea is to take one basketball ring, two people, and a ball. All they have to do is score points. Simple, really.

So the two players battle it out, doing all the normal basketball moves with all the normal basketball rules, except for the fact that there are only two people. Dead simple.

Before you actually start, there are lots of lovely options that you can change to alter the way the game works, such as the choice of locations, park, college, and college pro (really difficult) and which of the computer players you want to slug it out with. As well as this, you can select timed or scored game, and which man-outs on each point.

One-On-One: Julius Erving And Larry Bird

What makes this game so damned memorable, though, are the actual abilities of your player, as not only can they dribble without the ball bouncing weakly off the side of the court whilst everyone laughs, but they really can jump. The variety of different jumps you can do is quite reasonable, letting you fly past the basket and drop the ball in, twist through 180 degrees and then score your point, or just stand at the back of the court and throw from where you start.

It's not as simple as that, though, as either player can jump up and snatch the ball either from mid-air or while it's rolling around the top of the ring in a tense basketball film-like fashion, and take your own shot.

For entertainment's sake, there's also the ability to pull the ring clean off the wall on some courts, at which point a little blokey comes along and sweeps up the mess. If a foul is committed, a bloke who looks far too much like Danny DeVito comes along and points at you in a threatening manner.

Altogether, this is a damned nice little game. There's no need to spend ages staring at screens and screens of statistics, just as there's no need to spend at least an hour getting used to the unmanageable control system.

For added fun, there's a two player option, letting you play One On One with a friend, or get some practice in against a shop window dummy. All of this means that One On One's one of the most enjoyable sports based games seen in a long time, and graphical polish only adds to the fact that this is an enjoyable and playable little game, well worthy of your joystick's attentions.