One-on-One

Way back, I know you're not gonna believe this -- but EA used to be good.

One-on-One is a basketball sim that's a landmark in sports games and what I would call the first truly timeless basketball game. The court is limited to just a single hoop and two players, a joystick and buttons, but what you can do with them is amazing. You can dribble, intercept, shield, strike, slam-dunk, in a variety of ways that never gets tiring.

Also adding much needed modernity to basketball games: Actual celebrity endorsement! Realistic crowd cheering noises upon landing points! Instant replays! Yes! This is the first sports game with a replay option! Though for some reason, the replay would always play when the computer was making sweet shots, and other times he would brag about being able to break the backboard(a surprisingly comedic element that added a lot of personality to this and EA's future sports games).

This first came out on the Apple II, and as novel as it was is probably one of the worst versions to play today. The crowd cheer, while sounding amazing the first time, gets to be too noisy and grating because of the limits of the Apple II, and I also find the AI in this version to be a tad too hard, and the controls hard to tame.

The Atari 800 port by comparison is much easier on the ears, on the fingers, and on the lashing. The AI is easier, the crowd cheering is more subdued, and you now have two handy buttons to perform your wanted functions, although they both do the same thing. Only now you need to double-tap(once for jumping, and once for shooting) to shoot the ball, but it is an element which I would say can be intuitively grasped.

Play it with a friend, and if you like to have a short match, do the score-based match where you both need to get 24 points. The 'real' game simulates actual quarter times, and for those already on the losing streak it might be too much and too tedious. It certainly is on the Apple II, and losing against the AI for such a long time is not fun at all.