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Console:	Nintendo DS
Region:
Year:	2006
RFG ID #:	U-087-S-01360-A
Part #:	NTR-AB3E-USA
UPC:	045496737337
Developer:	Square-Enix
Publisher:	Nintendo
Rating:	(ESRB): Mild Cartoon Violence
Genre:	Sports
Sub-genre:	Basketball
Players:	1-4
Controller:	System Controls
Media Format:	DS Card

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• 87 of 7639 collectors (1.1%) have this game in their collection
• 12 of 7639 collectors (0.1%) have this game in their wishlist.
• 0 of 7639 collectors (0%) have this game for sale or trade.

Before I start out with this review, I must say, this is one of the most complex games I've ever had to review. On the surface it is your typical Mario sports game, simple, easy to pick up, and somewhat fun to play. However, thanks to Square-Enix, there are so many enough options, maneuvers, gimmicks, and attacks to make take this game leauges above your typical Mario sports title in terms of complexity.

This definately isn't your typical basketball game. You don't get two points for making a shot, you get 20. In fact, you could hypothetically get infinite. All over each court are ? spaces which, when dribbled upon give the player coins. These coins count towards more points when a basket is made. Incidently, the defensive players can run over these spaces to obtain an item to attack you with; your typical Mario affair, shells, lightning bolts, bannana peel, etc. Simply put, this is far from your typical basketball game.

The game mechanics take a while to get used to. You control character movement with the D-pad, while using the touch screen to perform practically every other function. Tap the right side of the touch screen to dribble right, tap faster to dribble faster, etc. With the flick of the wrist in the correct direction of a teamate you got yourself a pass, or a shot if you are attempting to score. You can also power up your shots and passes by holding the stylus against the touch screen before sliding it to obtain more accuracy. To get even more complex, you can perform spin moves, alley oops, you name it. As far as defense goes, slide the stylus back to attempt a steal, rub it left and right to set up a barrier, attack with items, flick up to jump and block shots. Those are just the basics.

What makes things even more complex would be the special shots and jumping in general. First of all, you can jump anytime you want by simply flicking the stylus upwards. You can jump to block a shot or tip in a basket. What's interesting though, is that while in the air you can quickly swivel the stylus left and right to spin. While on defense this knocks away any potential slam dunks, and while on offense, when performing a dunk, you accumulate coins. Special shots are a clever little addition to an already deceivingly complex game. Each character has their own special shot and alley oop. In order to perform this special move you must perform a pattern on touch screen. In Mario's case, you tape the five points of an M twice. If you suceed in doing this, and are inside the three point line you perform an unstopable slam dunk, otherwise it's just an alley oop that can be missed.

This game boasts an outstanding cast of characters and courts as well as decent multiplayer. Ranging from Bowser Junior to Dixie Kong to Final Fantasy's freaking cactus enemy, there are tons of characters, each with their own stats. As far as courts go, they are all different. Some have canons firing at you, others have octopus tentacles attacking you, and others are your standard courts. As far as single card multiplayer there are two modes. Battle, which is a lot like Mario Kart, and dribble race, where you collect coins and cross the finish line. Both are fun but you need two cards to play an exhibition and there is no wifi.

This game definately takes a while to get used to, and even longer to understand the complexities that you aren't used to seeing in a Mario sports game. There are flaws though, sometimes the AI is relentlessly difficult, and special shots are often exceedingly hard, near impossible to pull of on the more difficult settings, but all in all Mario Hoops 3 on 3 is a fun game.

Console	Reg.	Type	Title	Publisher	Year	Genre
Nintendo DS		S	Mario Basketball 3 on 3	Nintendo	2006	Sports
Nintendo DS		S	Mario Slam Basketball	Nintendo	2007	Sports
Nintendo DS		S	Mario Slam Basketball [Demo]	Nintendo		Sports
Nintendo DS		S	Mario Slam Basketball	Nintendo	2007	Sports

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