Game Review ( Mario Hoops: 3-on-3 - DS )

Mario Hoops is a hard game to review. A great piece of work, but being repetetive, might not last too long, depending on the player. Some may love it and play it for months, some on the other hand, may play it for a week and drop it. I'm reviewing this game assuming that you plan on playing it for at the bare minimum a month.

Graphics: 5/5 Spectacular - easily the best looking DS game I've ever seen. The character models look fantastic, and the animations, even better. The courts all different and are really creative and interactive. Definitely a high point of the game.

Sound: 4.5/5 Very good. The music might annoy some, but it fits the game, and the in-game sound is VERY good. The background music is different on every court, the sound effects are good, and the trademark sounds made by characters are all good, too.

Control: 4/5 Definitely unique, but not perfect. You do some movement with the touch-screen, others with the D-Pad and buttons. You can do a unique block feature by sliding the stylus across the screen, you can dribble fast to pick up coins on the court, ( leading you to a higher score ) and you can use weapons. Thing is, the control is kind of strange at times, but mostly simple, and the button layout is also pretty strange.

Fun: 4/5 Mario Hoops: 3-on-3 is not by any means a bad game like most reviewers say. It is relatively easy for the most part, ( There are different difficulty settings, but the game is never terribly hard ) and it will be easy to fly through the game, but there is single and multi-card multiplayer mode, which is pretty fun, there are tournaments, ( laid out like in Mario Kart with seperate tournaments ) and plenty of unlockables, including characters from Final Fantasy. Overall, Mario Hoops is a good game for awhile, but the game gets repetetive if you play it for a long while, and the game seems to be more focused on you collecting coins than to try and just play a game of basketball. Most anyone will like this game, even if it doesn't last a really long time.

4/5