Month of Mario: Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (DS)

A touch screen basketball game sounds like a risky gamble. It’s not too hard to imagine the controls being too gimmicky or getting in the way when you want to perform a simple action, but the developers over at Square Enix were clearly onto something when they concocted the control method for Mario Hoops 3-on-3. Also known as Mario Slam Basketball in Europe, introducing the touch screen to the equation not only gives you surprisingly strong control over some elements of basketball that are missing in many video game adaptations, but it also works as a perfect fit for the more fantastical additions the sport received after being combined with the whimsical world of the Super Mario series.

When you hit the court in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, you’ll find your basic motion is controlled with the directional pad, positioning wisely left out when the touch screen needs to cover a great deal of other actions. One of those actions, interestingly enough, is dribbling, although thankfully you will at least do small automatic dribbles so there’s no risk of a traveling penalty even before you notice the lack of penalties entirely. Tapping the screen causes you to dribble the ball, but notably, it also determines where you dribble the ball in reference to your character. When an opponent comes and tries to smack the ball out of your hand for a steal, you can actually keep them guessing and dodge their efforts all just by tapping in the proper places to avoid their swipes. This degree of ball control makes the interaction between the ball carrier and the defender more layered since both sides can be reactive or adjust their strategy based on a player’s behavior. The defender also get a useful tool in the form of a barrier they can hold out in front of them, this wall sacrificing your ability to swiftly steal but able to deny some space and, if maintained long enough, will even give you a stronger steal attack for being able to corral the ball carrier long enough. What’s more, defenders are also able to leap up and do a ground pound, the action easy to see coming, but if a player tries to stall with the ball in one place and is too slick with how they deny steals, the ground pound can be whipped out to smash the ball out of their hand.

Already it’s clear Mario Hoops 3-on-3 has not only considered how touch screen controls can enhance the game, but it’s placed smart counters in place so they don’t get out of control. This becomes incredibly important when you consider how Mario Hoops 3-on-3 approaches scoring. When you sink a shot here, you’ll either get 20 or 30 points depending on your distance from the basket, games expected to go well into the hundreds because those are only the baseline values of a shot. Out on the court, question mark panels exist that can be dribbled on to accrue coins. You can carry up to 100 coins at once and lose them if you get injured, but when you sink a shot, every coin you had on your person is cashed in for points. Thus, it becomes incredibly important that players can not only feasibly build up coins but also lose them, the balance between offense and defense crucial to prevent runaway games were players too easily build up 100 coins and then sink their shots on the regular. Those question mark panels provide something to the defense too. Run over them with one of your three players, and you will turn the panel into an item. Not only can you use this to prevent a player from gunning for a coin opportunity, but the items are fairly effective if used right. Hit someone with a shell and they’ll drop the ball and a good deal of coins, throw a bomb and you can deny a good chunk of the court to anyone who doesn’t want to get blown up. Admittedly, the Star items feels like a step too far in strength, making a player invincible. While rare, a Star can be far too disruptive in the wrong hands, the potential for landing a huge point payout unopposed inevitably leading to a grouchy player on the other side since item luck is mostly random and unpredictable.

A few other elements can impact a basketball match here, the choice of characters for your team certainly important. While Mario is joined by a familiar roster of characters like Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Princess Peach as well as a few rarer sights like the winged turtle Paratroopa and the monkey Dixie Kong, the real strange element of this roster is there are unlockable Final Fantasy characters joining in the fun. While having a Moogle and Cactuar present reference familiar enemies from the role-playing game series, the others are based instead on classes from the original Final Fantasy, making them not quite as special conceptually for the first time these two franchises crossover. Already it is a bit odd it’s happening in a three on three basketball game though, but your choice of character for the team will impact things beyond character speed and aim when taking a shot. There are special shots available, these worth a baseline of forty points although if you use them too far from the hoop you’ll need a second player to swing in and dunk the ball to finish the move. Special shots do require a special input to pull off though, the player needing to tap specific areas on the bottom screen repeatedly to execute it. Players can see the ball start to glow when a special shot is winding up and come in to sabotage so it is appropriately risky for someone to go for it, especially since the necessary inputs will mean you dribble in a recognizable way for people familiar with your required pattern. Once they activate they are all fairly similar beyond aesthetics, but it provides an interesting tool for trying to get a boost to your points and a way to punish a lax defense who might otherwise be running off to grab items hoping for a lucky break.

Already there are a good deal of factors impacting the action in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, but the court can even introduce unique features without loading things down with too many considerations. At Daisy Garden for instance, the hoops are actually replaced with the fanged plant Petey Piranha, and while he’s safe to approach when asleep, try to dunk while he’s awake and he’ll knock you away himself. In Sherbet Land, not only does a special item called Freezie give you the ability to freeze a player you hit with it, but players will slip if they get sloppy and miss a running steal. Pirate Ship does perhaps take it a bit too far, cannonballs rolling across the deck and detonating a bit too often and the tentacles of Gooper Blooper make the sidelines dangerous to boot. However, Jr. Street provides the kind of ridiculous swing situations you might seek out for an extra bit of fun. The ritzy court’s slot machines take center stage, but you choose how you engage with them. Dribble on purple panels and you’ll select a line on the slots, the player able to invest up to three purple coins to try and hit a jackpot. Jackpots can multiply your coins, but hit Bowser Jr.’s face instead and the entire value of the shot is removed. While it could be disheartening, it’s also a gamble you opt into and decide how much to risk, Jr. Street excellent for a shake-up while also sporting one of the game’s best musical themes. While Mario Hoops 3-on-3 features some remixed Mario series music, it also concocts some unique themes especially through its use of vocals, the sound design in general a great match for the sport and one that gives it a bit more personality in the realm of Mario sports spin-offs.

A wide range of unlockables including courts, characters, balls, and costumes push you to perform well in single player and even find out some secrets. The Dribble Race and Coin Hunter modes add a more navigation and battle focused supplement respectively, but there is one unfortunate elements of Mario Hoops 3-on-3 when you’re first starting out. The game’s four tourneys, most consisting of three matches each in unique courts, comes in both Normal and Hard difficulties. Normal feels like a misnomer though, the game’s computer-controlled players all too willing to stand in place and watch you dribble up tons of coins even in the higher tourneys. Hard mode at least adds to their aggression a good deal and comes with a range of unlockables so it’s not just there to find a real challenge, but playing against another human is definitely where the carefully crafted elements thrive best.

THE VERDICT: While computer players can start off a touch dumb in the lower tourneys, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 really starts to take off when both sides can make the most of its strong interplay between offensive and defensive options. The touch screen controls quickly become natural, there even being small allowances like holding a button down to make sure you pass properly if you are worried about the accuracy of your swipes. The courts and items make for varied matches and the coin system is an excellent way to add greater tension and risk taking to play, so while it is strange that basketball brought Super Mario and Final Fantasy together, they are participating in a version of the sport that is more layered than a standard three-on-three game.

And so, I give Mario Hoops 3-on-3 for Nintendo DS…

A GREAT rating. Specific elements like being able to sink a dunk for 120 points or hit the jackpot in Jr. Street sound absurd, but they are features available to both sides and able to mitigated by smart play. This is why at first Mario Hoops 3-on-3 does seem a bit tepid as the AI players won’t challenge your obvious efforts to build up coins, but once they get in gear (thankfully before Normal mode wraps up entirely), you do start to see how well everything mixes together. The touch screen controls are responsive and do their job well, making defending the ball in your hands more involved without leaving the defensive players without recourse against a quick and canny dribbler. Some courts like Pirate Ship are a bit overzealous in thrusting their gimmickry at you, but most introduce small but meaningful considerations that lets you appreciate their differences without feeling like the game hinges too much on the location most of the time. Items are also nearing the sweet spot, it marred a touch by the Star but otherwise they shake things up well and even homing items like the Mimic chest can be avoided with some smart movement. The factors at play in a match help play stay fresh once all players involved are skillful enough to play both sides of the court well, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 the kind of sports game where you can feel relief after a hard-earned win or clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. Tourney mode even allows retries so once it gets more brutal you can push on through until you come out on top, not getting denied the unlockables unless you truly surrender. It is definitely appreciated most when two humans are playing though, the multiplayer giving it even greater longevity because it isn’t so simplistic that it would lose its luster quickly.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 took a Jr. Street style gamble on the touch controls and here it paid off handsomely. The controls play an important part in making the minutiae of the sport more involved, but then you have broader creative elements like court design that delight players who might not realize the depth of the interplay between offense and defense. A wonderful twist on the sport albeit one that can take a bit to get going in single-player, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 was a slam dunk of an idea that shows going outside of the box with controls can work out if you do it with purpose and a game plan in mind.