Mario Hoops 3-on-3

Mario Hoops 3-on-3, also known as Mario Slam Basketball in Europe and Mario Basketball 3on3 in Japan, is a Mario sports game developed by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. It features Mario and his friends participating in basketball with two competing teams of three characters. This game is the first Mario sports game to be dedicated around basketball. While the game plays with the traditional basketball rules of shooting the ball into a net, various Mario-themed mechanics are incorporated into the game to differentiate from the real sport. For example, players can dribble the ball into ? Panels to obtain coins that better their score whenever a shot is taken, and when on defense, these ? Panels provide Mario series items to use against the opposition. Players can additionally perform Special Shots to ensure that the ball makes it into the hoop. Unlike most other Mario sports titles, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is controlled entirely by the touchscreen, with nearly all moves using swipe or tapping controls via the Nintendo DS stylus. The game supports local play with multiple cartridges and download play with a single cartridge, and it supports up to four players.

Originally, the game was meant to be an original intellectual property, but Square Enix felt that it would work well if it were a part of the Mario franchise, and so Square Enix contacted Nintendo, who then allowed it to use the Mario label. Due to Square Enix being the developer of this game, this game is the first game that has Mario and  characters appear together as playable characters, in addition to other Final Fantasy elements present in this title.

A follow-up to this game, Mario Sports Mix, also developed by Square Enix, was released for the Wii later on, returning the basketball sport from this game, while also including other sports as other modes.

Gameplay
Almost all of the gameplay in the game is controlled by the Touch Screen. The only exceptions are moving a character, which is controlled by the, and a special form of passing, which uses the button. This can be switched around with the, , , and buttons controlling movement and the  button for passing for left-handed players.

There are many moves for offense and defense. The player's team of three is identified with a red circle below them, a blue circle for the opponent team's players. The player's team's basket is always facing ahead of them, and the opponent's team in the back, even when switching court. Therefore, generally, stroking up on the touch screen is used for offense and stroking down is used for defense. For more on moves, see the Practice section.

The match starts at half court, with the center of each team preparing to jump for the ball that Lakitu will release at the start. Matches are played in at least two periods lasting two and a half minutes. At the end of each period, each team's coin count is reset to 0 and another jump-ball at half court is initiated. Whichever team has the most points overall when all periods are played, wins the match.

Scoring is a bit different in Mario Hoops than in a real world basketball game. Each shot made is worth 20 points. Shots made outside of what is normally the 3-point line are worth 30 points (therefore, the basic shot is multiplied by 10 in Mario Hoops). Special shots, regardless of position are worth 40 points. To compound the points, coins also come into play. Players can collect coins by dribbling over the ? Panels scattered about the court. Regular coins add 1 point each to the score, and red coins add 10 points to the score. Every time a team makes a basket, their coins are reset to zero. Getting hit, either from items or other players, will result in some of the player's coins scattering on the field, which can be picked up by anyone, including the character who lost them. The limit to the number of coins one team can have is 100 (therefore the maximum normal score for one shot is 140, and for Jr. Street, the maximum score is 420), and the more coins one has, the more are lost on a hit. If the player make a shot with a lot a coins, the player can really go from losing to winning in a matter of seconds. If the ? Panels aren't on the field, then the shot value is divided by ten, making normal shots worth two points, three-pointers worth three, and special shots worth four.

Tourney
Tourneys are the equivalent of tournaments in the Mario Kart series. After picking a team of three, players go on to compete in a set of matches (2 periods of 2:30 each), each on a different course. In fact, the tourney is composed of a 8-4-2-1 basis. The other 7 teams are chosen random, and are represented by the captains (center / first character picked) on the elimination screen (shown right). When the player beats the first team, the captain breaks through a classic block while the losing CPU captain comes up with a deactivated block. The gold trophy stands at the top of this screen, with a ? Block below it. The player goes through Round 1, Round 2, and the Finals. Each time the player loses a match, he or she can try it again as many times as necessary to win and move on (i.e. there's no ranking out like in Mario Kart).

When the Final Fantasy team steals the trophy after the Rainbow Cup, the ? Block reveals a tall vine, which the captain climbs up to the Rainbow Ship, initiating the Extra match.

There are four tourneys, and they nearly follow suit with the Mario Kart series in being named Mushroom, Flower, Star and Rainbow. Once all four tourneys are won, their respective hard mode versions are unlocked. Each of the eight tourneys receives a bronze, silver, or gold trophy (separate from the automatic trophy presented upon winning, this is like a grade on how well the player did). They are determined as follows:
 *  Gold  - Winning all matches by 200 points or more over all cpu in the tourneys
 *  Silver  - Winning all matches by 100 points or more over all cpu in the tourneys
 *  Bronze  - Winning the tournament

Therefore, losing even once automatically puts gold & silver out of the question. By abusing the quit feature (which saves the player's position upon winning each match) when about to lose or win by too little, "redos" are possible.

Upon winning the tournament, the player is asked whether he or she wants to move on to the next tourney. If it is the Rainbow Tourney, the credits roll.

Exhibition
Players can choose a team of three, even the opponent's players if desired (each spot left blank is chosen randomly), and jump into any course played and won in Tourney Mode. There are some settings to enhance the one match as well: * Unlocked after winning Hard Rainbow Tourney.
 * Time per Period: 1:40, 2:00, 2:30 (default), 3:00, 3:20.
 * # of Periods: 2 (default), 4.
 * ? Panels: On (default), Off. If off, shots inside the outer line are worth two points, outside of the line three, and special shots worth four.
 * CPU Level: 1 (Amateur), 2 (Weak, default), 3 (Normal), 4 (Tough), 5 (Brutal), 6* (Pro).

After the match, the player can play with the exact same settings or quit the mode (there's no way to just change the course or one character).

Challenges
Challenges contains both practice modes and then a true extra challenge-like mode after completing the main practice mode.

Practice
Practice game skills to use during games. Choose a skill you want to practice from the menu. As Mario, players will practice basic techniques upon starting the game, then advanced techniques after winning the first tourney (Offense 2 and Defense 2). If a defensive man is needed for practice, it is always Wario.

The following is a table of each lesson, which explains the control mechanism for each move, as well as each exercise to practice the lesson. If the requirement is just a number, the player must do the move that number of times. If it's a time limit, the player has that much time to do that objective (i.e. block a player from dunking).

Special Shots
"Practice dribbling commands of players who've mastered their special shots !" Players can practice Special Shots with any player unlocked (the shots themselves don't have to be mastered, despite the in-game description). It acts like a lesson, with the objective to do the special shot 3 times from anywhere on the court, with two other characters supplied for alley-oops.

Dribble Race (Time Trial)
"Get 100 coins from ? panels and head for the goal! Beat the best time !" This extra mode allows the player to pick any character and try to gather 100 coins from ? Panels and cross the finish time in as little time as possible. There are three of these mini-courses, to unlock the last one the preset records must be beaten in the first two.


 * Peach's Castle - Green Shells come out of three pipes. Each ? Panel has 10 coins. (45 sec)
 * Sunshine Road - Metal flatteners line this course. Most ? Panels have 5 coins. (55 sec)
 * Rainbow Road - Blue fireballs erupt out from under the course. Colorful Bombs can here found. Most ? Panels have 5 coins. (1 min)

Matchup
This is the multiplayer mode of Mario Hoops. DS Wireless Play includes three modes, while DS Download only includes two of those three.

Exhibition
"Mario Hoops Face-off! Game results will be recorded in the player ranking . Win matches to earn points and rank up !" The single mode that is limited to local wireless, two players can choose their team of 3 and face off against each other, subject to the same settings as normal Exhibition Mode.

Dribble Race
"Dribble Race Versus Friends! Nab 100 coins from ? panels and beat everyone to the goal!" Same as Dribble Race Mode, except it's not a time trial: the first to cross the finish line with 100 coins wins, and is available with 2-4 players.

Coin Hunter
"Coin Hunting with Friends! Throw items and scramble for coins ! Hold on to coins until the end to win!" This is a non-basketball related mode that draws heavily on Mario Kart's battle mode. Each player (up to 4) starts with 50 coins. Players then use items to reduce the other player's coins. The single player remaining with coins wins. In a three or four-player game, players eliminated early can stick around to annoy players still in the competition (similar to Mario Kart 64). There are four courses; the last two are unlockable by winning five of these battles in a row.
 * Mario Classic 1-1
 * Mario Classic 8-4
 * Mario Classic 2-2
 * Forest Stage

Controls
The overall gameplay for Mario Hoops 3-on-3 can be controlled using the Stylus or the buttons of the Nintendo DS.

Playable characters
Character Types Mario Hoops 3-on-3 has twenty-one playable characters, five of them being from Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise. Ten characters are playable from the start, with the other eleven being unlockable (See the Unlockables section for the methods of unlocking each character). There are five different character types, listed at the side, each character type having its own pros and cons, that can help or halt the players progress in a game. Additionally, all twenty-one characters have a special move called a Special Shot, with each character having their own unique Special Shot.
 * All-Around characters are balanced. No high stats, no low stats.
 * Technical characters have a good aim but they can be slow and weak.
 * Speedy characters are very weak, however, they are quick to go around.
 * Powerful characters are very slow but are good at stealing and have a far shot.
 * Tricky characters have one large stat, the rest are rather low but they have trick moves.

Non-playable characters
These characters either appear as stage hazards, features, or as noninteractable objects as part of a scenery. Toad holds up signs in the main menu, where players can tap on them to view records or adjust settings.


 * Bloopers
 * Bob-ombs
 * Cheep Cheeps
 * Dry Bones
 * Freezies
 * Ghosts
 * Goombas
 * Gooper Blooper
 * Lakitu
 * Malboro
 * Mimics
 * Petey Piranha
 * Thwomps
 * Toads

Courts
The fourth course of each tourney (excluding Rainbow Ship) is an unlockable and can played only in Exhibition Mode. The rest of the courts are played in Tourney Mode as well.

Unlockables
Two minor unlockables, the other courses in Dribble Race and Coin Hunter modes, have already been mentioned in this article. There are many more unlockables in the game, including characters and courses previously mentioned.

From Tourney Mode
Most of the unlockables come from winning trophies in Tourney Mode, including all but one character, costume changes, and most balls. By getting silver or gold on the first try, more than one unlockable can be obtained.

The following is understood: Winning the Rainbow Tourney unlocks Hard Mode, winning the Hard Rainbow Tourney unlocks Pro difficulty in Exhibition matches.

When selecting characters by placing them in the hoop, holding the D-pad in a direction or a button at the same time causes a cosmetic change if unlocked, not affecting gameplay abilities. Yoshi and Fly Guy each have three different changes, while the others have one.

Courses

 * Sunset Beach - Playing an exhibition match on Koopa Beach during the sunset; that is, 4:00-6:00 PM (or in military time, 16:00-18:00 hours, according to the DS's internal clock).
 * Malboro Garden - In the Flower Tourney, dunking the ball three times in Daisy Garden, then finding a blue seed in a ? Panel.
 * Glare Desert - Getting 800 points or more on Jr. Street in the Star Tourney.

Last character

 * Cactuar - Its head moves across the sand in Glare Desert. Dribbling on it a few times will cause it to run off the course. Winning the exhibition match unlocks it.

Items
During play, ? Panels always produce items very similar to the Mario Kart series. To use most items, players stroke with the stylus in the direction the item is to be thrown, or simply use the button.

Offensive and Defensive items
The following items can be used by any player, regardless if he or she is on offense or defense.

Defensive items
The following items are exclusively given to a defensive player who runs over the ? Panel.

Official soundtrack
An original soundtrack that is based on the game is released only in Japan and is published by Square Enix, the same company for the game. It has thirty-one songs from the game.

Staff
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 was developed by Square Enix, well known for their Final Fantasy franchise and its characters, some which are playable in this game. It is their first Mario-themed game they have developed for the Nintendo DS, the other being the Japan-exclusive Itadaki Street DS later on, which also features Mario characters crossing over with another of Square Enix's IPs, Dragon Quest. Shin Azuma directed the game, who would later reprise his role as a director in Mario Sports Mix, the follow-up title to Mario Hoops 3-on-3. Masayoshi Soken has composed the game's soundtrack, and he would also later compose the soundtrack for Mario Sports Mix.

Reception
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 has received generally positive to mixed reviews, scoring a 69 on Metacritic based on 40 reviews and a 70.36% based on 42 reviews in GameRankings respectively. General praise has been given towards the game's crisp graphics and animations and the Mario-themed take towards the sport to make it feel different from other basketball games, though the touchscreen-centric controls have been a major point of contention, with reviewers either thinking that it adds to the gameplay or that it subtracts from it. Another common criticism is that the game lacks replay value and is very light on content, and the lack of online play makes this game difficult for users to pick up again.

Jeff Gerstmann from GameSpot gave the game a 7.1 out of 10. Gerstmann has praised the game for the innovative touch-screen based controls, the Mario-themed environments and hazards in the courts and the game's graphics, though has criticized the game for its lack of content, the repetitive single player mode, the lack of variety of sound clips and animations, and the lack of online play, where the download play has only "tedious minigames". He has recommended the game to people who wish to play in local multiplayer modes, but has advised for solo players to ignore the title due to lack of longevity. Aaron Kaluszka of Nintendo World Report gave the game a 7.5 out of 10. has stated that the game feels awkward at first that it controls entirely with the touchscreen, though has remarked that after a few minutes of play, the controls start to feel intuitive. He has additionally praised the game's graphics and sound, calling the presentation "fun". Some criticisms of the game he has was with the game AI, saying that the game feels like "Mario Hoops 3-on-3 often plays more like Mario Hoops 1-on-3." as AI teammates "don’t really do much besides stand around waiting for a pass." and the game's multiplayer, limited to only two player offline play and four player support only being available in Mario Party style minigames.

Craig Harris of IGN gave the game a 6.8 out of 10, criticizing the touch-centric control scheme, saying, "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." He has also criticized the method to collect coins, calling dribbling on the ? Panels to obtain coins to score more points, saying that "this game boils down to just how long can you hold onto the ball and tap squares as fast as possible." Another criticism of his was the game's AI, saying that the AI is stupid to let players score while they sit around in the early game, though the game has a difficulty curve and it takes time to reach challenging opponents. One praise of the game that Harris offered were its bright, colorful, and detailed graphics, especially for Nintendo DS standards. Keza McDonald of Eurogamer, giving the game a 6 out of 10, has echoed similar thoughts regarding the enemy AI, saying that they just stand there, and they cannot prevent steals until Hard mode. Another common complaint was the lack of online play and a viable single-cart option mode, though McDonald has praised the touch control scheme.

References to other games

 * Game & Watch: Moogle's baller name is "Game & Watch Me".
 * Donkey Kong: Mario's baller name is "The Jumpman", referencing the fact that Mario was named in this game.
 * Super Mario Bros.: There are many references to this game. An 8-bit Small Mario chasing two Goombas is seen on Mario Stadium. Also, Bowser's Castle and Bloocheep Sea's music are remixes of the Castle and Underwater themes, respectively. The ground in Tourney Mode is the same as the one of overworld levels of this game. Finally, the Classic 1-1, 8-4 and 2-2 courts of Coin Hunter are references to the respective levels of this game.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2: The final victory theme is a cover of the ending theme of this game.
 * Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: Luigi's special shot is Green Fire Shot, a reference to his Green Fireballs acting like Mario's. Also, some of the playable characters' voice clips were reused from this game.

References to later games

 * Mario Sports Mix: This is the second project developed by Square Enix using the Mario Hoops 3-on-3 formula. Basketball is one of the featured sports there. Additionally, the Final Fantasy characters return in that installment.

Trivia

 * Although this is the first dedicated Mario spinoff installment in the sports category entirely focused on basketball, this is the second time Mario has starred in a basketball game (with the first being the GameCube version of NBA Street V3 along with Luigi and Peach).
 * This is the first and (so far) only game where Bowser Jr. is a default character, while Bowser is an unlockable character.