Well to begin with, I am scepticle on sporting Mario games, but to be honest this game surprised me. The content that you can unlock is absolutely crazy, but you begin with very little unlocked, so unlocking everything is an achievement worth bragging about. The game breaks down mostly by being controlled on the touch screen. It takes a little getting used to, since moving and passing (part L button with a slash on the touch screen) are the only moves that require the buttons on the system. The rest (stealing, shooting, jumping) are pure touch screen. The play starts ou relitively fair, as the tournements aren't hard to begin with, but as you progress foreward they get increasingly difficult and require you to step up your game. A fun twist on the action is the character specific and unique "Special Shot" where you poke out a letter in the bottom screen over and over, and your onscreen character charges up a shot that can't be blocked (only by the best) and some are simply wonderful to watch (Baby Bowser whips out a paint brush and hits the ball). The game overall is an experience I enjoyed (and still am) and changed my mind about Mario and the gang. Talk about a slam dunk!

This is a DS game that shouldn't be worth $29.99. There are numerous reasons for this...opinion. One example would be the controls,and another reason would be the unreliable teammates. But let's get down on the controls first. The there are two control schemes: The touch screen layout and the button layout. The touch screen layout is not difficult, but can be frustrating for some gamers.For instance,swiping up shoots the ball, while swiping horizontaly in either the left or right directions will pass the ball to one of your teamates. This seems simple yet sometimes the game will think you meant to shoot when you actually wanted to pass, and vis a' versa. The button layout is easier to use, although you cannot perform special moves using this layout. The other thing that plaques this game are the unreliable teamates.If the ball is rolling on the court,WILL NOT go and retrieve it. They also won't make any defensive or offensive plays,making the entire game seem like a 1-on-3 match. The final strike is the sloppy multiplayer. Single card download play is just a dribble race or collect-all-the-coins mode, and the game doesn't support Wi-Fi.All in All, this makes for a terrible multiplayer experience. So to conclude this review, I would just like to say that,unless you just HAVE to have Mario sports games, $30 can get you WAY better games than this,especially on this console.Thank you for reading this review, if you did.

This Game Was Good. Easy Learning Skills And Not To Hard Gameplay. The Only Thing This Game Lacks Is That After 2 Months You Find Yourself Wanting Another Game. Besides That It Is Interesting And You Think It's Easy To Win The Game Once You BEat Normal But When You Get To The Last Mission Of Hard Is When You Really Start Having To Compete At The Best Of Your Skills.

Did you think a MARIO game that is based on BASKETBALL and is on the DS could go terribly wrong? Think again,noob. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 PWNS. When I was wondering which Mario sports game they were making,I heard it was basketball. When I found out it was made for the DS and it was made by Square Enix, I was dumbfounded. So I was uneasy if I wanted it or not,but I bought it. ANd when I was playing it, I,once again,was dumbfounded because that game was dang fun. The best part is the touch-screen advantages,which you need for blocking,doing tricks,handling the ball,and making special shots. The gameplay in the game is pretty simple like an ordinary basketball game. The difference is, you have to collect coins by dribbling the ball on the squares on the floor. And like any other Mario Sport,you can throw items at each other and beat the poop outta each ohter while handling the ball. ANd what I mean by "beating each other", is by saying you can punch a person who's handling the ball. The problem is,there isn't any much game modes to play. The dribble race is sorta alright,but isn't that fun. The exhibition is kinda fun, and is worth playing if you want a few new ball colors,like the black and red ball and the watermelon. But,when it comes into one streak,Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is a game that's worth buying.

Mario's back and this time he's taking it to the hoops. Mario makes other basketball games suck. But this game isn't the best basketball game out there it's one of them. What Graphics better than mario kart.Also there's a this twist,there's always a twistin mario.You use your pen thing to control the player and even the special moves.This will be a great game for long trips and other things.You really shouldn't pass this mario sport game.

story:the latest mushroom kingdom craze is basketball pfft lame story, but the mario sports titles never or have a good story controls:i think the controls are great the stanterd controls are almost all on the touch screen and they are pretty easy to memorize.i found the button controls are much harder because you have to press multple buttons at once to do something i give the controls 5 out of 5 gameplay:the gameplay is ok but there is way to much focus on colecting coins and baskets are minimum worth 20 points and for every coin its one additional point and u can collect up to 100 coins.there are several differnt game modes including tourny,coin race,exibition and wireless multiplayer.the download play is ok you can do dribble racewhich is u race to see who can collect 100 coins and pass the finish line first or coin huter which all u do is kill the other person(people) until there coin count is 0.there is also alot of unlockable charecters and items including final fantasy charecters. i give gameplay 4 out of 5 frustration: the hard tourny is the only frusterating thing let me just say NINJAS SHOLDNT PLAY BASKTBALL BECAUSE THEY ARE NINJAS!!!!! frustration 2.5 out of 5 grapics best ds grapics to date nuff said grapics 5 out of 5 overall: overall its ok it could of been better but its still ok i give mario hoops 3 on 3 3.5 out of 5

Mario has been in an overwhelming amount of sports games from tennis to baseball. So now he's decided to try some basketball. Right away you'll notice one hell of a control scheme that makes you use the stylus for nearly everything. Shooting, passing, block, stealing, dribbling, all with the stylus is a very big positive. As far as the rest of the game goes, there aren't enough modes. Tournament is what you'll be doing about 95% of the time. Exhibition mode is kind of pointless and to play an actual game against a friend they have to have the game as well. Sure you can unlock lots of characters, (including Final Fantasy characters) pointless basketballs that you just use the same way, and stupid outfits that have no effect on gameplay. In fact, almost all of the characters play the same way. Oh yeah, how do you unlock all that junk? TOURNAMENT MODE!!! TOURNAMENT TOURNAMENT TOURNAMENT!! NOTHING BUT TOURNAMENT! There's a lot of great Mario themed courts that actually do effect gameplay such as Pirahna Plants as baskets that you can't dunk on. For 30 bucks you get a very decent game. VERY DECENT. A game with a few good features that don't fully pick up the slack for the missing ones. Mario, please stick with soccer.

"Mario Hoops 3 on 3", or as it should be called "Mario Hoops 3 on 1", since your "teamates" do virtually nothing but stand around, is truely a one of a kind experience. What really separates this game from the NBA 2ks and NBA lives, besides the fact it has "Mario" in the title, is the concept that nearly everything you do in the game is controlled by your actions with the stylus. The ability to dribble in any direction by tapping your stylus in a particular direction on the screen is nothing short of brilliant. You can also pass, shoot, steal, and perform special moves by performing various simple strokes with the stylus, which prove to be both extremely fun and intuitive. This unique control method is not without its flaws, however minor they may be. Some strokes are dangerously similar to others, so from time to time you may find yourself mistakenly shoot when you meant to pass. However, if you can get past these minor inaccuracies, you'll fall in love with this system in no time. This game can get challenging as you progress; almost too challenging, especially since your teamates are not much help. Some may see this as an issue. Aside from this and a few other flaws such as lack of online play, poor team AI, and slightly iffy controls, this game really proves to be a fun basketball game that stands out from the crowd. It's a shame, because this game could have been so much better, and Squarenix definetly dropped the ball on a few things. However, when it's all said and done, this game is the most fun I've had in quite some time.