Mario Hoops 3 on 3 Import Hands-On

At this point, is there any sport Mario can't play? We're still waiting for Mario Squash, Mario Cricket, and Mario Curling, but at least Nintendo and developer Square Enix are filling in the more obvious sports in the meantime with games like Mario Hoops 3 on 3, a new DS basketball game that just hit shelves in Japan and that is due out on this side of the Pacific in September. We snagged an import copy of the game to put it through its first paces in advance of its domestic release, as well as to crank out some new gameplay movies of this unique take on basketball.

The rules of basketball have changed just a bit in Hoops 3 on 3, which, as you might have already figured out, lets you play with only three players on each team. There are coin blocks embedded throughout the court, and dribbling the ball on top of them will rack up coins in your stash. Then when you make a basket, those coins will act as a modifier that enhances your score, so it's possible to score more than a hundred points on one basket, for example. There are no free throws; instead, when you score, the ball is turned over to the other team and play resumes from midcourt.

Player-to-player interaction is fairly rough. You can get up in the other team's face to steal, jump, and knock players out of a dunk before they complete it, and you can even butt-stomp the ground next to them to knock them down and make them lose the ball. And much like in Mario Kart, when the other team has possession of the ball, you can pick up items like green and red turtle shells, super stars, bombs, and so forth to attack the other team and try to gain the advantage yourself.

Typically, DS games have relied on the traditional D pad and face buttons for direct character control, leaving the touch screen for performing more esoteric game functions. But with games like the upcoming Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and now Mario Hoops, Nintendo seems to be emphasizing the use of the touch screen to directly control your characters. In Hoops, you always run your character around with the D pad, but by default you swipe with the stylus in different directions to pass, dodge, jump, steal, and so forth. We found the stylus control in the game a little hard to get used to, as we sometimes had to swipe multiple times to produce the desired action, but for the most part we thought it worked reasonably well. And at least you can turn on the face buttons (they're off by default) and play traditionally, if you want.

The one aspect of the gameplay in Hoops 3 on 3 that requires the touch screen is the use of each character's special shot, which is activated by tapping out points in a particular pattern (depending on your character). For Mario's special, you tap out an M; for Peach, you do an inverted triangle; for Luigi, an L. These special moves don't vary much. Characters generally have some kind of colored aura surrounding them, and then they go flying through the air and score a guaranteed basket. These moves are balanced out by the fact that you have to stand still for a few seconds while you're powering up, so the other team can easily run up and knock you down or steal the ball if you haven't put enough distance between you so that you have time to complete the pattern.

In typical Mario sports fashion, there's a lot more at play in Hoops 3 on 3's arenas than you would find on a typical basketball court. In addition to the aforementioned Mario Kart-style weapons, each of the courts has different obstacles and other unique features based on its theme. In the Donkey Kong river raft level, for instance, there are barrels that come rolling from both ends of the court that will knock you down and make you lose the ball if you aren't careful. The Luigi's Mansion level has ghosts hovering all over the place that will occasionally snatch the ball when you pass or take a shot, and you'll have to jump up to reclaim it. Another level featured a giant piranha plant in place of each basket, which obviously made dunking a tad more difficult. Finally, a casino-style level pops up a slot machine every time you score a basket, with the resulting point total being affected by the outcome of the slots.

Like in Mario Kart, the tournament mode in Mario Hoops is broken up into mushroom, flower, star, and rainbow cups, which present progressively harder teams and courts. All the classic Mario characters you'd expect to see are here, along with some lesser-known ones you might not normally look for. And though we haven't unlocked any ourselves yet, we hear tell that some classic Square Enix characters--moogles and black and white mages, for instance--will be unlockable once you progress further in the game. There are also some single-player minigames where you can hone your skills, as well as two very rudimentary multiplayer games through single-cart download. Lastly, you'll be able to play a three-on-three basketball match against another player if both of you have a copy of the game.

So far, Hoops 3 on 3 is looking like a decent game of b-ball that definitely has the Mario stamp on it. We're looking forward to getting our hands on the English version to unlock all those new characters and see what else is hidden in there and to try out some real head-to-head Wi-Fi action. The North American release is just a few weeks out, so we'll bring you more on the game soon.