Posted

Jun 5th 2009

Mood

Mario Hoops 3 on 3

Format: Nintendo DS
Other Formats: None
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Square Enix



I'll be saving my Pokemon Platinum review before leaving to texas later this month as well as the Prototype which I would probably do before or after my texas trip coming up.



Golf, Tennis, Karts, Baseball and even Dance Dance Revolution. Mario has pretty much done it all in spin-off standards. other videogame heroes try to follow this trend such as Sonic and his sega pals but they all seems to fail under the plumber's might. After making an appearance in NBA Street V3, it only seems fitting that Nintendo would put together their own basket ball game to the mix. As well as inviting their old friends, Square to join in on the game.



It was clear that Nintendo and Square had nothing too special in mind when making this. There's no opening before the game starts or anything like that. Basically, its the game. the 4 modes of play and that's about it. Practice mode would be the first thing you go to first where you learn the step by step guide in how to play and you'll be amazed in how unique this feels. you tap on the touch pad with your stylus for dribbling the ball and you make strokes to pass it. You can also dribble the ball on the spot in different directions like in real life. you also use the stylus to knock the ball off from opponents, defend, shoot and when you want to pass to another character, you press L and you stroke. The D pad is used to move your character around as well. All in all, pretty simple stuff but that's what a good game should be. Easy to pick up and play. You can also use the stylus to perform a sequence to activate a super shot but its not recommended unless your fast and far away from the opponents. Not usually like me to get in full depth on the controls but hey, they were that simple and there's no plot to talk about, I had to talk about them.



you have 16 Mario characters to choose from as well as 5 Final Fantasy character thrown in as well. Don't get too excited, fanboys. there's no one "special" like Cloud or Septhoroth (thank god!), just the classical characters like Ninja, White Mage, Black Mage, Cactuar and Moogle. And I have to say that the illustrations on the character designs are just amazing to look at. The 3D models don't look half bad either . The models are simply smooth and animated well which proves that the DS is good for graphics in this generation. Oh, and the music is pretty good too with some classic remixes of the ol' mario tunes.



The only major downside of this game however is that it was made in the time where Wireless online multiplayer was nothing more than a mere after thought for portable games. Chances are that no one else you know would buy it. Mutiplayer are really the highlight of these mario sports games When you've finished Tourney mode and unlocked all the characters, courts and bals, theres nothing else to do other than play against the computer who would either be too easy or a dirty cheater.



Speaking of dirty cheaters, Princess Peach is a slut in the game because unless you've chosen her in your team, she'll team up with bowser in the end of Rainbow Tourney. Guess the Princess does have a thing for Turtle cock after all, huh? At least with Daisy, she's more faithful and has more of a personality. yeah, fuck peach, bowsers been plowing that ass for years and Mario still pulls a happy face....like if he were on shrooms or something.


Who are you kidding, sweet and innocent my ass!