This game is tricky for me to talk about. This has so much style, content, mechanics, and characters, it hits every single checkbox on a game that I would like. With that said the controls are not comfortable at all, as you do everything with the stylus and touchscreen. To be fair, there is an option to play with buttons, but it is so stripped down you are effectively handicapping yourself. If you can get a handle on the controls, this is a fantastic sports game for a console that doesn't have any available on it.

I put the new Forgis on the Jeep
I trap until the bloody bottoms is underneath
'Cause all my mans got it out the streets
I keep a hundred racks inside my jeans
I remember hittin' the mall with the whole team
Now a man can't answer calls 'cause I'm ballin'

The d-pad and touch-screen centric control scheme for a basketball game is initially a little odd, but as soon as you get the feel of it it’s a very natural and satisfying approach to thinking and feeling like you’re playing basketball.

The music is really great and the graphics are awesome and very polished, it’s up there with the best-looking 3D titles on the DS. It’s a shame then that despite the varied and wonderful environments, theres a pretty limited amount of things to do once you’ve beat the brief campaign. Even in the game’s heyday the lack of internet play meant you were limited to playing the game with others on local play who also owned a copy of the game. I might rate it higher if I had someone beside the simple AI to hone my skills against.

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.

Sometimes I'm on this site and I'm just blown away by the things that pop up like this game that make me go, "I used to play that so much, how did I forget!" Sometimes this was just too gimmicky of a game, I appreciated that they had options to take away a lot of the point spamming and just play basketball. I only "completed" this game with Action Replay, but I really loved how big the cast of characters was, especially now that Nintendo's ruined every Mario game by INSISTING that Link and fucking-worthless-piece-of-crap Isabella need to be in every GD game!!! But still in a world where NBA is just a steaming pile of LAME, this game needs a Switch port or a sequel (maybe with full 5 on 5 action, just more like Super Rush and less like Battle League).