Basketball Legends Controls for 1 and 2 Players, Explained

Basketball Legends shows its controls once, on a How to Play card, and then trusts you to remember them. That is fine for shooting, but some of the best moves — the dash, the pump fake, the steal — are easy to miss. Here is the full key map, taken from the game itself, and what each key really does.

One player

In single-player modes the game accepts both sides of the keyboard, so you can use whichever feels natural:

• Move: left and right arrows, or A and D.
• Jump shot: Up arrow or W.
• Shoot or steal: X or L.
• Pump fake or block: Down arrow or S.
• Super move: Z or K, when the super bar is full.

A comfortable setup is arrows in the right hand with Z and X under the left, or WASD on the left with K and L on the right.

Two players on one keyboard

In 2 Players mode the keyboard splits down the middle:

• Player 1: A and D to move, W for a jump shot, B to shoot or steal, S to pump-fake or block, V for the super.
• Player 2: left and right arrows to move, Up for a jump shot, L to shoot or steal, Down to pump-fake or block, K for the super.

Sit slightly apart so your hands do not collide. On a small laptop keyboard, player 2 can find L and K awkward next to the arrows; a short practice in Training helps.

The moves behind the keys

Dash

Tap left or right twice quickly and your player bursts forward. This is the move that gets you to the rim. A defender standing still in your path is beaten by a dash and a jump; one who is already moving is not, so pick your moment.

Shoot, lay-up and dunk

The shoot key does different things depending on where you are. From far out it is a jump shot — score from behind the arc and the game shouts that it came from downtown. Close in, the same key becomes a dunk, and dunks are much harder to stop. The jump shot (Up) lifts the release point over a defender.

Pump fake

With the ball, the block key fakes a shot. Computer opponents and excited friends alike jump at it. Let them go up, wait for them to land, then shoot. It is the most useful trick in the game against Hard CPUs.

Steal

Without the ball, the shoot key reaches for it. Stand close to the dribbler and press it as they turn or pause. Missed steals cost little, so try often.

Block

On defence the Down key (S for player 1 in 2-player) is the block. It is all about timing: press it just as the shooter goes up and you meet the ball on its way out. Press it too early and they simply wait and shoot. A clean block gets its own shout on screen.

Super move

The How to Play card calls it the supershot. A bar fills during the match, and once it is full the super key fires the move that belongs to your player: Fast Break, Mega Dunk or Defence, shown under each player on the selection screen. Using it straight away is tempting; holding it until the last seconds of a close game, or into overtime, usually wins more.

Touch screens

On a phone or tablet the game draws its own on-screen buttons for moving, jumping, shooting, faking and the super. Turn the device to landscape for the most room.

Practise before you play a friend

Training puts you on court with no clock, which is the place to get the dash and the pump fake into your fingers. Five minutes there makes the first 2-player game a lot fairer.