Mario Hoops 3 on 3

THE BAD:
- No Storyline.
- Doesn't Have Online Mode.
- The Game Is Easy.
- No Easter Eggs.
- FEW Voice Acting.
- No Replay Value.

SUMMARY:
Mario Hoops 3 on 3 is a good game. You decide to get it or not, depending on what you like and what you don't like:

The graphics are good. This game is using the DS's Graphics abilities to the top. When you are in the character selection screen and in the main screen, the characters have "Cartoon" style. But when you are playing the game, the characters are in 3D, having very powerful graphics.
The characters in the Main Screen and in the Character Selection screen are very detailed, they don't lack anything. Same in the actual game. In each match, your characters are very detailed, same with your opponents. Also the stage is very detailed, depending on which one you are going to play.

The music is also very nice. The music in the main screen is very catchy, there where times in which I only heard that music instead of playing the game. The music in the character selection screen is also very catchy. The music is simple, and that's what makes it nice.
The music in the matches is also very nice, and it varies from Stage to Stage. The music fits the stage you are playing, and to be honest, ALL the stages have a very unique and nice music. It is not that you will play this game with the sound turned off.

The gameplay... I would say it is the potential of this game. You can use either the touchscreen or the buttons.
In the character selection screen, you use the touchscreen to select your characters (note that you can only select 3 characters. That's why the game is called Mario Hoops 3 on 3). You select the characters and drop them in your basket.
In the actual game, you use the touchscreen and the D+Pad to do everything. It is easier to do everything with the touchscreen, like do your "Super Shot", pass the ball, dodge oponents, and more. However, if you don't like the touchscreen controls, you can always use the buttons. It is harder to use the buttons, but you can do exactly the same.
Also, you can use items to hit your opponents. There aren't "Fouls" or "Outs". Hit your oponents with items or with your hands, whatever you can.
You have to collect coins from the stage too. Each ball you get in the basket, worth's 20 points, if you are close to the line, they worth 30. However, if you have many coins, every shot will worth more. Also the special shots give you 40 points straight.
This game also has many Game Modes. You can select Training mode to learn how to pass the ball, dribble, etc.. There's also a special mode you use to train the Super Shot ONLY. That mode is perfect to practice your shot without anyone willing to stop you.
And the most important is the Cup Mode. Here is where you play to get a cup, and is here where you will unlock everything.

There are many characters, and I mean MANY characters to select from. You can select Nintendo's characters, like you can choose Square Enix's characters as well. That's something very good. I never imagined I would see a black magician from Final Fantasy playing basketball, or a Moogle playing with the ball. Very nice. You can make the team the way you want with your favorite characters.

There are also many stages, and each one has different features. One stage will throw you barrels that you have to skip, another one throws Lava from the floor to stop you, and many, many more things. Off course, there are always the standard stages that do nothing, for relaxed matches. There are some exotic stages, like on under water that makes your character slow, etc..
You decide the stage. However, if you are going to play a standard game to get the cup, you will have to play in stages you don't like.

There are many things to unlock. There are more than 5 characters to unlock, and you can also unlock special Balls that do nothing, but add more costumization to your game. Everything depends on how you do in the Cup Mode. If you play almost perfect, you will unlock a ew balls and a few characters at the same time.

You can customize a few things, but not too many. You can customize your player card putting the character you want, and your default ball (the ball you will use in all the matches). You can also select the team you want. as I said before. Other than that, there isn't too much you can customize.

In the negative things of this game, there were many that affected the score way too much:

This game has no storyline. You just play a cup, win it, and nothing related to a storyline happens, that made the game kinda bored.

No online mode! IT NEEDED ONE! It would have been awesome to play online with many players. This game came BEFORE Mario Kart DS, and that game has online mode, why not this one? Online mode would have kept this game fresh. The lack of online mode affected the score of this game by a lot.

The game is very easy... It took me less than a month to beat it with everything. That's why it needed the online mode, at least to play with some tough opponents.

No Easter Eggs. Everything respects the non-existant storyline. It would have been good to have a few, at least to keep the game fresh without online mode.

FEW voice acting. Everything you will hear is "Ouch!", "Gah!", "Yay!", "YES!", and that stuff. Well, the game didn't need it, anyways, since the Mario Characters are always mute.

No replay value. There's no need it to clear your data and play it again. If it would had easter eggs, this game would have a bit of replay value.

Overall, you decide if you will get this game. If you don't like short games or easy games, I don't recomend it.