This game was made before the dawn of Steph Curry and it shows.

The design of how you translate a real life sport into a casual arcade style sports game is perhaps something only I care about. Still I lay here thinking about my experience with Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and feel like it just doesn't get it. If you're going to translate the sport of Basketball into an arcadey variant, making it slow and grindy with few defensive options isn't it. I get it's hard to communicate the athleticism that lies at the core enjoyment of basketball, but making dribbling one of the core verbs of design doesn't really do it. I wish sitting around while grinding up coins wasn't such a viable tactic, each one may just represent a fraction of a score but since there's no shot clock then it's better to grind than give the ball up to the opponent sooner. I hate how it makes it so you and your opponents start at half court immediately after a score. I hate special shots have no currency tied to them so they can be fired off whenever regardless of how slow they are. I really wish characters would have clear stats instead of being just grouped into abstract groups where there's no explanation what they do better (what does tricky mean??).

I know I'm spilling a lot vitriol, the game gets a solid bit of the fun of basketball. Dunks and 3-Pointers are very satisfying to pull off. Rebounds and blocking shots are wonderful if you can pull them off and I'm sure there's a level of entertainment to multiplayer, but I doubt I'll ever try to get a game set up for it anyhow.

Mario sports titles certainly aren't uncommon in general, but you might have noticed that some sports are more popular than others. Tennis, golf, soccer, and baseball have all been the subject for multiple Mario games in the past, and of course there's also the biannual Mario & Sonic Olympic Games series. But one sport that doesn't come up often is basketball; it's only been featured in 3 games, and 2 of those were compilation types. But the first Mario game to feature basketball was also the only one to focus fully on it-2006's Nintendo DS title, Mario Hoops 3-on-3.

Basketball isn't a super popular sport in Japan, so that might help explain why this was Mario's only outing into the sport. Mario Hoops does all the essentials good enough, as you might expect from a Mario sports game. Controls are good, especially considering they rely mostly on the stylus, which makes playing the game feel a lot more engaging. There's a strong roster here, with a good mix of starting and unlockable characters totaling up to 21, which is more than some modern Mario sports titles seem to to be interested in including. In fact, there's a good degree of variety in general; there are 16 courses total, 4 of which are unlockable, and a few dozen basketballs to unlock as well. There's actually a surprising amount of depth to this game, especially for players who wish to 100% it.

Unfortunately, that depth has a trade off, and it's a pretty significant one. Unlocking all those characters and balls and courses is going to take time, and this is not a game that feels worthy of that time. And it's not because the game feels bad to play; no, it's because there is virtually no challenge in this game. The AI opponents, even on the hardest difficulty of the hardest tournament, are mediocre at best, and woefully incompetent at worst. It's not that big of an issue if you're just looking to play through a quick game or too, but any long-term exposure to this game will quickly become boring. There's only so many times outscoring opponents by hundreds of points can feel fun before it gets tedious, and if you want to experience all this game has to offer, you should prepare for some pretty tedious gameplay. And although Nintendo DS era Wi-Fi is long since obsolete, it's disappointing to learn this game never had a true multiplayer mode, either, so there wasn't really any chance for a player to get any real sort of challenge out of it.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 isn't a bad game per se, it's one that just has to be experienced in extremely short bursts to get any serious enjoyment out of it. But when you notice that you've relegated yourself to only shooting full-court shots in an attempt to make the game competitive, that's when it might be time to put it down for a while. It's frustrating because on the surface, it's quite a well designed game, and the sheer amount of content it offers-especially as a handheld game-would put some modern Mario sports titles to shame. If Nintendo ever was to develop another basketball game in the future, they would definitely have Mario Hoops as an excellent springboard. But it might be good to make it feel like you're actually playing against someone in the next one.

We all know about it, and we all see it. It's obvious. Nobody ever wants to admit it, but it's there.

People on this subreddit hate Kobe Bryant. The first question to ask: why? Why do you all hate him? The obvious answer: you didn't watch him in his prime.

Likely explanation: I know that most of you are around 14 or 15 years old. That means you only got into basketball in the last couple years. So you never watched Kobe in his prime.

And because you didn't watch him in his prime, you try to compensate for that by diving into stat sheets and analyzing box scores. But here's the thing: basketball isn't played on Excel spreadsheets. The moment somebody brings up "true shooting percentage" or "win shares" I know they know nothing about basketball. Kobe's game cannot be encapsulated by one stat. He's the second greatest guard ever, and one of the 5 best players to ever play the game.

So when I hear somebody say that LeBron is better than Kobe, I laugh, because I know that anybody who watched Kobe in his prime wouldn't think that. Unlike you guys, I have watched basketball for a significant amount of time, so I know that Kobe is better.

You might be jealous of Kobe's new contract, or jealous of his status as the greatest scorer in NBA history, or whatever. Unless you're a Bulls fan who watched basketball in the 90s, or a Lakers fan who watched basketball in the 2010s, you don't know what real, cold-blooded, killer instinct, will-to-win basketball looks like. And there's nothing wrong with that. This sub would make you think that Kobe isn't even a top 100 player ever.

So don't go spouting bullshit about players you didn't watch. Talk about your "greats" like LeBron, The Best Player in the World™, but leave the Kobe talk to the adults. Fair?

Despite balling being defined most profoundly by this tweet, expressing how hard one's life will be and how factually one must tackle this inevitability, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is the one Mario title thus to inherit balling true and crystal clear endeavour.

So huh, a Mario sports game not developed in the gaol currently holding Camelot. Sporting (heh) a wonderful soundtrack composed by none other than Soken, able to impress with his role in a recent small indie project and a great presentation thanks to its vast roster, 3D models and animations. I rocked the Ninja Luigi Cactuar team because I had to ball like that.

Hoops 3-on-3 deceptively keeps its deep and quite complex gameplay in the tutorial sections and honestly it's a shame because there's a lot to learn thanks to using both the dpad and the touchscreen, but you won't need as much mastery of the game to clear its most difficult hurdles. It's hard to explain because it's very specific, but it feels almost as playing The World Ends With You. Made by Square? Ahhhh that explains it.

Aside from that, if you don't play with friends after unlocking each character, there's not much else to do. Complex movements can end up not registered and that is very frustrating, yet when everything clicks the game is fun and especially slam dunking feels rewarding and engaging.

In conclusion, a BBall game on the DS sounds weird but it works surprisingly well, has a lot of fun potential and a steep learning curve. Won't keep you occupied long but it's got charm. So, I'd say, Fuck it we ball, worth checking out.

Ótimo jogo de basquete até para aqueles que não curtem, jogam, ou acompanham o esporte como eu. Muito criativo a forma como se usa a stylus para driblar, bater a bola nos blocos, atacar, e usar superpoderes.

O jogo tem várias coisas pra desbloquear (personagens, bolas, estadios), segredos, multiplayer bem divertido, crossover com personagens da serie Final Fantasy, quadras dinâmicas, etc.

Uma bela parceria entre Nintendo e Square Enix!