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IGN Review of Mario Hoops 3 on 3
Until you start unlocking some of the hidden characters in the game, you'll never really be hammered over the head with the whole Square-Enix connection in Mario Hoops 3-on-3. The fact that the Final Fantasy development studio co-produced this Mario-branded sports title is entirely downplayed in the production, but the importance is huge: it not only solidifies the once weakened partnership between Nintendo and Square-Enix, it also shows that Square-Enix has one hell of a talented DS development studio. It's hard to argue the technical and visual prowess of Mario Hoops: as of right now it could kick any DS game's ass in graphics, sound, and presentation, and if you're looking for a polished DS experience with tons of bells and whistles, this one's your game. But where it doesn't excel is in the key component: its gameplay isn't nearly as spectacular as the rest of the package. It's just an okay playing game of B-Ball.
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is Nintendo's Mushroom Kingdom take on the sport of basketball, just as Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Superstar Baseball hit their own respective sports with both realistic and over the top Mario-esque elements. The game's called "hoops" for a reason: though it's got a full court, a round orange ball and two nets on, it's really not much of an emulation of basketball. Just as games like Midway's NBA Showtime and Electronic Arts' NBA Street embellishes on the sport, so does Mario Hoops 3-on-3. But without the professionals, high-priced bling, and mad b-ball skills.
Nintendo and Square-Enix's hook for Mario Hoops is its touch screen control and focus on coin collection: each coin collected is a tick on the scoreboard if you manage to stuff the ball into the hoop. Dribbling the ball onto a question block will net that expected "bading!" of coins, and the faster and more accurate you dribble by tapping on the location-sensitive touchscreen the more coins you'll get leaping out for your collection. This game is all about point inflation, too, since a standard two point shot is now 20, a beyond the line jumper is 30, and though it seems stupid to bump up the standard basketball score ten-fold, it makes sense in context: coins are absolutely key to winning this game. And maybe it's this coin collecting thing where Mario starts to curve south.
Visually, the game is absolutely spectacular. And not just in DS standards, either. The game is bright and colorful, with tons of detail in the character and environments. With all that's going on Mario Hoops 3-on-3 it's easy to get lost in the game's production, because the team did such a fantastic job throwing everything it could to make Mario Hoops 3-on-3 one of the most polished games on the system. After years of playing handheld games, it's refreshing to see so much effort put into a portable game to bring it up to current console standards.
But the gameplay just isn't as tight as you'd expect. Kudos to the designers for attempting a unique way of playing a basketball title: it's D-pad or ABXY buttons to control the character on the court, with stylus stroking to shoot, pass, dribble, and pull off fancy moves. For example, a swipe to the right or left will pass the ball to the player in that direction, and how accurate your angle was on the swipe will determine how close that ball will be thrown to that player. A stroke upwards will shoot the ball (or, if the shoulder button's held, forward-pass to a teammate), and a quick scribble will do some fancy airborne moves for extra coinage. This new touch screen control works but it sort of lacks immediate response, giving it a soft, mushy feel -- a stylus stroke isn't as quick as a simple button press. Even if the touchscreen control offers more variety on the court, it just doesn't feel as satisfying as it should be. Some touch screen controls are more complicated than you'd expect -- special moves need to be tapped out in a specific pattern twice, maneuvers that feel too disconnecting from the rest of the ball-handling control.
And the whole coin collection element detracts from the actual sport. Instead of a game of ballhandling, passing, and shooting skill, many times this game boils down to just how long can you hold onto the ball and tap squares as fast as possible.
Early on, the single player game is an absolute joke. It's amazing how the computer opponents simply stand around and let you score. Sure, the game requires a bit of a learning process, so having "dumbed down" competition helps to get a grasp on the unique mechanics of the design. But good grief, it's almost a chore playing through the first three cups because it actually takes effort to lose. Scores in the first few rounds of competition get into the "silly" area, with tallies of 500 to nothing if you're really good at seeing the idiocy of the computer AI.
Of course, the game does have a rising difficulty curve, but you have to spend an exhaustive amount of time getting to that level, and when that happens there's a risk that you might not even care. Try to tough it out, because the game does get challenging, and offers a good amount of incentive for those that push themselves to get through the stupidly easy batch of tournaments. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is, obviously, more fun and challenging with a second person, so tracking down a human opponent with a copy of the game definitely makes the game a way better play. Surprisingly, the single cartridge modes are simple challenges derived from the basketball engines, like a coin race and a cool but loose Mario Kart style battle mode for four players. To play the basketball game, you need multiple carts -- Square Enix and Nintendo didn't manage to squeeze in even a limited version of the sport for sampling purposes.
©2006-09-12, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is Nintendo's Mushroom Kingdom take on the sport of basketball, just as Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Superstar Baseball hit their own respective sports with both realistic and over the top Mario-esque elements. The game's called "hoops" for a reason: though it's got a full court, a round orange ball and two nets on, it's really not much of an emulation of basketball. Just as games like Midway's NBA Showtime and Electronic Arts' NBA Street embellishes on the sport, so does Mario Hoops 3-on-3. But without the professionals, high-priced bling, and mad b-ball skills.
Nintendo and Square-Enix's hook for Mario Hoops is its touch screen control and focus on coin collection: each coin collected is a tick on the scoreboard if you manage to stuff the ball into the hoop. Dribbling the ball onto a question block will net that expected "bading!" of coins, and the faster and more accurate you dribble by tapping on the location-sensitive touchscreen the more coins you'll get leaping out for your collection. This game is all about point inflation, too, since a standard two point shot is now 20, a beyond the line jumper is 30, and though it seems stupid to bump up the standard basketball score ten-fold, it makes sense in context: coins are absolutely key to winning this game. And maybe it's this coin collecting thing where Mario starts to curve south.
Visually, the game is absolutely spectacular. And not just in DS standards, either. The game is bright and colorful, with tons of detail in the character and environments. With all that's going on Mario Hoops 3-on-3 it's easy to get lost in the game's production, because the team did such a fantastic job throwing everything it could to make Mario Hoops 3-on-3 one of the most polished games on the system. After years of playing handheld games, it's refreshing to see so much effort put into a portable game to bring it up to current console standards.
But the gameplay just isn't as tight as you'd expect. Kudos to the designers for attempting a unique way of playing a basketball title: it's D-pad or ABXY buttons to control the character on the court, with stylus stroking to shoot, pass, dribble, and pull off fancy moves. For example, a swipe to the right or left will pass the ball to the player in that direction, and how accurate your angle was on the swipe will determine how close that ball will be thrown to that player. A stroke upwards will shoot the ball (or, if the shoulder button's held, forward-pass to a teammate), and a quick scribble will do some fancy airborne moves for extra coinage. This new touch screen control works but it sort of lacks immediate response, giving it a soft, mushy feel -- a stylus stroke isn't as quick as a simple button press. Even if the touchscreen control offers more variety on the court, it just doesn't feel as satisfying as it should be. Some touch screen controls are more complicated than you'd expect -- special moves need to be tapped out in a specific pattern twice, maneuvers that feel too disconnecting from the rest of the ball-handling control.
And the whole coin collection element detracts from the actual sport. Instead of a game of ballhandling, passing, and shooting skill, many times this game boils down to just how long can you hold onto the ball and tap squares as fast as possible.
Early on, the single player game is an absolute joke. It's amazing how the computer opponents simply stand around and let you score. Sure, the game requires a bit of a learning process, so having "dumbed down" competition helps to get a grasp on the unique mechanics of the design. But good grief, it's almost a chore playing through the first three cups because it actually takes effort to lose. Scores in the first few rounds of competition get into the "silly" area, with tallies of 500 to nothing if you're really good at seeing the idiocy of the computer AI.
Of course, the game does have a rising difficulty curve, but you have to spend an exhaustive amount of time getting to that level, and when that happens there's a risk that you might not even care. Try to tough it out, because the game does get challenging, and offers a good amount of incentive for those that push themselves to get through the stupidly easy batch of tournaments. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is, obviously, more fun and challenging with a second person, so tracking down a human opponent with a copy of the game definitely makes the game a way better play. Surprisingly, the single cartridge modes are simple challenges derived from the basketball engines, like a coin race and a cool but loose Mario Kart style battle mode for four players. To play the basketball game, you need multiple carts -- Square Enix and Nintendo didn't manage to squeeze in even a limited version of the sport for sampling purposes.
©2006-09-12, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved