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Square Enix and Nintendo team up once again. Their creation, Mario Hoops, isn’t what you would have expected from the house that Final Fantasy built but it a nonetheless engaging, lighthearted and fun take on basketball.
Mario Hoops takes a few liberties with the basic rules of basketball. Instead of having shots worth two or three points depending on distance, the game’s scoring system has you collecting coins as you dribble down the court with the shot being worth the total number of coins you have collected. Of course, you can lose these coins if you aren’t careful and the opposition aggressively defends you. You collect these coins by standing on top of them and then hitting the touch screen (which shows an aerial view of the court). The game includes the ability to charge up steals and dunks, which generally results in a crazier game of basketball than you would otherwise expect.
Undoubtedly, the game’s biggest selling feature is that you can play basketball with Nintendo’s classic characters. These characters include everyone from Mario, Luigi and Browser to Yoshi, Peach and Diddy Kong. Mario’s branding will also be found in the courts that you play on. Classic Mario items and characters like thwomps, bob-ombs and rings of fire are also present in some of these courts to keep things interesting. Square Enix did a good job of accurately recreating the Mario theme very well.
The gameplay is great but single-player (which consists of exhibition games and some tournaments) will only keep you entertained for a handful of hours before you’re ready to move on. Thankfully, the game includes local wireless multiplayer although your friend also has to have a copy of the game. Multiplayer is really the way to enjoy Mario Hoops and remains entertaining for hours on end. This would have been a perfect Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection title but unfortunately that feature is not supported.
Mario Hoops has sharp 3D graphics. The bulk of the action takes place on top screen where you’ll see the 3D character models playing basketball. All of the character models look fairly good, most closely resembling their appearance in Nintendo 64 games. The animation is fairly smooth although the actual number of animations is quite small. Nonetheless, the game still has that classic Mario game look so you can bet that it is bright and colorful.
The audio isn’t quite as charming. The sound effects are pretty good, with classic Mario sound effects for coin collecting and for when you lose coins. The sounds of basketball are pretty good and fit the game very well. The soundtrack is a bit too repetitive, though, and never really manages to be catchy. There is some voice acting but it is very limited and repeats too often.
Mario Hoops’ take on basketball is very enjoyable. It takes a fun and lighthearted approach to the game. If you plan on playing multiplayer or for some reason really enjoy the Mario brand of sports, Mario Hoops will not disappoint. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 18, 2006
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