Mario Hoops 3 on 3

"Come on, Nintendo, seriously"

I really wanted to like this game, really. I mean, why shouldn't I like this game? It's a Mario Sports take on my favorite spectator sport with an interesting control scheme on my new nearly-favorite system. But something's just not right with this one.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are nothing to write home about, but they are certainly well suited to the game. The game looks really great in motion, with no slowdown whatsoever as far as I've seen. I've also seen no clipping or glitching whatsoever in my time playing the game.

Sound: There isn't much to say about the sound in Mario Hoops. It features the standby character voices that have been in the Mario series since right around Super Mario 64. Whether this is good or bad is up to the individual. I'm personally a little annoyed by the post-N64 Italian stereotype Mario, but it's not gamebreaking by any means. Dunks don't sound as loud as they should, but stealing the ball is almost always extremely satisfying.

Gameplay: This game is FUN. I was skeptical about the stylus control, but it becomes second nature after just a few matches. Nintendo must have put a lot of care into making sure you can't perform actions by accident, as I've never popped off a jumpshot by accident or sidestepped when I meant to steal. The scoring system is fun (you collect coins and then shoot, gaining 20 points for the basket in addition to whatever coins you had at the time), and the items add another dimension to the game. However, this leads us to the game's downfall:

The AI in Mario hoops is absolutely pitiful. And I don't mean the opponent's AI. That is fine, and gets somewhat hard the further in the game you go. But in a team sports game, it is unforgiveable for your own teammates to be 100% worthless. I have never once seen one of my teammates set up a screen, block for me, or even so much as use an item against the other team. As has been said in other reviews, the game devolves from "3-vs-3" to "1-vs-3 with 2 other random slackjawed morons standing around."

Now, this AI problem would almost be acceptable in a sports game if it had good multiplayer. You'd think that a system like the DS with a good Wi-Fi system already in place would make awesome use of Mario Hoops, right? Wrong. You can't play this game on the Wi-Fi network. At all. If you have multiple cartridges, you can play locally with your friends, but it's 1-on-1: each player controls one team, instead of each player controlling one character. The local wireless 1-on-1 is really fun, but this game would gain two full points in my review if you could actually play Wi-Fi 3-vs-3 with five of your friends. I just don't understand this omission from a sports game.

This game is very confusing to me, as a game that is somehow a great use of the DS while still being disappointing. The game is FUN, no doubt about it, but omissions by Nintendo (omissions like good AI and decent multiplayer) stop it from being the kind of game you can play for months at a time. Buy it if you think you can deal with the bad AI, otherwise, wait for it to get cheap.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/06