Jordan vs Bird: One on One

aka: Jordan vs Bird: Super One on One, Michael Jordan: One on One
Moby ID: 4775
DOS Specs
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Description

Two of the greatest icons of the Golden Age of the NBA match up in this game. On one side, the spectacular dunks of Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls; on the other, Larry Bird's incredible accuracy from the outside.

While Bird feels right home at the three-point contest, where five racks with five balls each are placed around the three-point arc and the player must pick each ball and throw in the the best timing possible to get as many points as possible during the 60 second window, only Jordan has the air-time to perform on the slam dunk contest, where the player has a number of dunks at his disposal, each requiring different timing to get the best score from all three attempts from the judges, and win the competition.

While they are two completely different players, they can still go one-on-one on a half-court match, played to points or with a time duration. Can Bird's stealing and outside shooting ability be a match to Jordan's speed and jumping abilities?

Spellings

  • ジョーダン VS バード ONE on ONE - Japanese Mega Drive spelling
  • マイケル・ジョーダン ONE ON ONE - Japanese Game Boy spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

28 People (19 developers, 9 thanks) · View all

Designed by
Programmed by
Directed by
Produced by
Graphics
Animation
Music
Sound Effects
Technical Direction
Product Management
Introduction by
Design Assistance
Graphics Assistance
Photography
Package Design
  • Woolward; Dickson & Company
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 62% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 31 ratings with 1 reviews)

It’s better than an air ball, but definitely not a 3-pointer.

The Good
The concept of this game is OK. The slam-dunk competition is quite funny, although I couldn't tell what made one dunk successful while another one failed. Maybe it requires VERY precise timing, but to me success appeared to come at random.

EA sports games from that time-period have that little bit of humor that their recent games miss. For instance, watch the two football players in the audience bang their heads together when they applaud, or watch Jordan fall to the ground after failing a dunk. Nowadays their sports games are all so very serious.

The graphics are rather good for 1988. The game has large digitized images of Jordan and Bird. Jordan is also fairly well animated during the slam-dunk contest. Remember that they had to use very simple sprites.

I don't have a very strong opinion about the music & sound effects. It’s done by Rob Hubbard, so I guess it’s pretty good. Personally, I always find it hard to tell one PC-speaker beep from another or tell why one beep A is better than beep B.

The Bad
The controls are a too simple: just the arrow keys and a fire button. The fire button is used for shooting, jumping, blocking, and stealing. Because the game uses such a small number of keys, there are not many different moves. The developers should have implemented a turbo key so you could make a sprint or a dribble key. The lack of such keys means it is nearly impossible to get past a (computer) defender. So when your opponent clears the ball, you basically have to make a 3-point shot and hope for the best. And if you don’t make the shot, you’re usually to late for the rebound. This takes a lot of the fun away. It’s a very serious design flaw.

The players move rather slow & cumbersome, the controls feel quirky.

The Bottom Line
Although the two-player mode back in the (late) eighties, there simply isn't enough gameplay here to keep me entertained. And I am a hardcore basketball fan. Jordan vs Bird: One on One is not without charm, but the novelty wears of fast. EA's other basketball game from that era, Lakers vs Celtics, is much better.

DOS · by Roedie (5239) · 2006

Trivia

Audience

When you take a look at the audience, you'll notice the Bulls mascot on one side and the Celtics mascot on the other side. Also in the audience: a guy dressed in white & red basketball clothes with the number 6 on his breast. Six was the number that Julius Erving (a.k.a. Dr. J) wore when he played with Philadelphia. Not a coincidence of course, because this game is a sequel of the game One-on-One.

Analytics

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 4775
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Josh Routhier.

Commodore 64 added by Trixter. NES, Genesis added by PCGamer77. Game Boy added by Thomas T.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Roedie, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, Kayburt.

Game added August 14, 2001. Last modified January 27, 2024.