All-Pro Basketball


All-Pro Basketball, known as Zenbei!! Pro Basketball in Japan, is a basketball video-game developed by Aicom and published by Vic Tokai for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is played using two teams of five players on a full-length basketball court, and a roster of eight different fictional teams.

Gameplay

There are four modes of gameplay. One-player, which pits the player in a solo match against a computer opponent. Two-player, which is a Cooperative [video game|co-op] match against a computer opponent. Versus, which is a two player mode that pits the players against each other. And finally, Watch, which allows the player to watch a computer-controlled match.
The court is displayed in a vertical fashion, from a top-down perspective, revealing only half of the court at a time. If the ball travels past the half-court line, the screen goes black temporarily and changes over to the other half of the court. This is done to alert the player that they have travelled to a different side of the court. When a player attempts a slam dunk, gameplay will pause and cut to a detailed animation of the maneuver.

Teams

  • New York Slicks
  • Chicago Zephyrs
  • Boston Redcoats
  • Los Angeles Breakers
  • Dallas Stallions
  • Phoenix Wings
  • Seattle Sonics
  • ''San Francisco Bayriders''

    Reception

Stan Stepanic of Game Freaks 365 rated this as the second best basketball title on the NES, citing reasons such as its innovative usage of a vertically scrolling court and a well-programmed, computer-AI defense. His score in its gameplay category was nearly a perfect 10. He states: "It's definitely worth a look for even the casual NES gamer, and I assure you if you take the time to learn it's intricacies, you'll be happy in the end".