Compared to this guy, Bo Jackson is a slacker. Mario continues to spread his mushroom magic over all of sports, having already taken an exciting spin on baseball, amping up tennis, and even getting Americans to love soccer. But he’s only just now taken up the one sport the bounding Brooklynite seemed made for; basketball. And like every sport given Mario’s touch, it’s become gold. Though the usual Mushroom Kingdom gang isn’t the only crew you’ll find shootin hoops in this game as Sqare-Enix has lent a number of their icons to the game, adding a new mix to the already exciting Mario sports series.
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Mario Hoops: 3-on-3 is basketball with a bunch of fun things thrown in, and some annoying things taken out. What’s been added are “?” blocks that drop weapons when you step over them. All the classic Mario Kart weapons are here, including homing red shells, speed boosting mushrooms, and bombs that explode almost a quarter of the court. You’ll also find several stage specific items like ice blocks and bob-ombs. If you have the ball, you can acquire gold coins from blocks. Dribbling faster over them will yield more coins. The coins come in handy because they all add to your score whenever you make a basket. You can also earn coins by knocking them out of opponents or with spectacular slam dunks.
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What has been taken out of the game are penalties. There no fouls of any kind, including out-of-bounds. The traditional scoring style has also been taken out and replaced by one that rewards style, aggression and occasionally luck. Also, by having only three players as opposed to the five on a traditional basketball team, the screen is less crowded with players, making room for environmental hazards and vivid backgrounds.
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There are 16 courts, each with unique obstacles or challenges. For example, Daisy Garden has piranha-plants for hoops that knock would be dunkers away. Jr. Street has a slot machine hooked up to its hoop, giving you a chance to double or triple the value of a score. The Pirate Ship is just a madhouse of exploding cannonballs and kraken tentacles that assure nobody has the ball for long.
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Through all of this, the game is made accessible by a brilliantly simple set of stroke commands given with the stylus. To pass left, stroke left. To shoot, stroke up. To dribble, tap on the screen. Even the advanced shots are executed by a simple pattern taps on the screen, like an “M” when playing Mario or “N” for the Ninja. The stroke commands are not without flaw, though. It takes a slightly longer amount of time to stroke the stylus down for a steal than it would be to press A. You can, however, switch the controls to a more conventional button system if you find this to be problematic.
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The game’s difficulty gradually gets you adapted to the unorthodox gameplay. The first four cups were each childishly easy; each beaten the first day I played. However, once I unlocked hard mode, frustration was my center. By the time I reached the Special Cup on hard mode I was tempted to smash my DS against the wall and finish off the cartridge with a sledgehammer. For a game called 3-on-3, it feels more like 1-on-3, since your teammates don’t do anything on their own. The computer even gets some moves that you can’t match, including intercepting passes and blocking special shots. Only because the learning curve is so gradual was I ever capable of beating the game, but I don’t think I’ll ever earn the gold rank for every cup.
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Beating cups and scoring points unlocks new balls, courts and characters. A few suprises await fans of Square-Enix as a few icons of the Final Fantasy series can be unlocked as characters, including a Moogle, Cactaur and Ninja. Each of the over 20 characters has their own strength, be it speed, technique, power, or just well roundedness.
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I was a little disappointed in the multiplayer. First off, there is no Wi-Fi support, which I figured was a no-brainer for this game. Second, you can’t download play an actual basketball game, only mini-games. Third, only the mini-games support more than two players at once. I would like to be able to have another human on my team to possibly even the odds against the computer’s unbridled prowess, but that isn’t possible.
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Still, the game is fun and has lots of replay value. The difficulty keeps it from getting old after a week. Though it could benefit from some more modes of play like other Mario sports games have. Whether you like sports games or not, Mario Hoops: 3-on-3 is a game anyone can pick up and have a quick game, but still has many subtleties to master.
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