Basketball Legends 2020 — Play Free Online

Basketball Legends 2020 is a quick, cartoonish basketball game built around short one-on-one style matches. There are no full-court plays or complicated playbooks. You and an opponent chase the ball, jump for it, and try to get it into the hoop before the clock runs out. A match takes a few minutes, which makes it easy to fit in between other things.

It sits a little apart from the rest of the Doodle Jump line-up, which is mostly about climbing and bouncing. What carries over is the pick-up-and-play feel: you can be in a match within seconds, the physics are loose and slightly silly, and losing just makes you want a rematch. It is also a game that works well with a friend sharing a keyboard, which most of the vertical jumpers on this site cannot offer.

How to play

Use the arrow keys or WASD to move, and the mouse to aim and to pick options in the menus. On a phone or tablet the game uses taps and swipes instead. Pick a mode from the menu, choose your player, and the match starts straight away.

A round is mostly a scramble: get under the ball, jump at the right moment, and try to shoot from a position where the defender is not directly in front of you. Scoring is the point of every possession, so the game rewards players who stay near the hoop and react quickly more than those who run around.

Tips

• Do not chase the ball constantly. Hold a position between the ball and your own hoop, and let the opponent come to you.
• Time your jumps. Jumping early leaves you in the air while the other player takes the rebound.
• Try to take shots when the defender is off balance rather than forcing a shot as soon as you have the ball.
• If you play against a friend on the same keyboard, agree on who uses which key set before the match so your hands are not in each other's way.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you want more basketball, Bouncy Basketball takes the sport in a different direction, with a bouncing ball and a physics-driven hoop shot rather than head-to-head play. For something with two players working together instead of against each other, Fireboy and Watergirl is the co-op pick on this site. And if you came for the original, Doodle Jump is a solo, one-finger climb with an entirely different pace.

Basketball Legends 2020 suits short sessions, quick duels with a friend, and anyone who wants a sports game that does not take long to learn. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.