Nintendo and Square Enix have officially kicked off the 2006 basketball season with Mario Hoops 3 on 3, a charming but seriously flawed sports game starring (Who else?) the famous overall-clad plumber and a host of his friends. Yup, the entire Mushroom Kingdom has decided to settle its differences on courts that put Rucker Park to shame, lush and imaginative places full of palm trees, haunted mansions, and slot machines. But despite the attractive window dressings, Mario Hoops isn't the slam dunk that I was expecting.

When I first jumped into the game's training mode I was immediately intimidated. Instead of allowing me to run around the court and shoot with the face buttons, I was forced to learn these bizarre touch screen controls. Slashing up on the touch screen to shoot, tapping it wildly to dribble, and swiping down to steal (among other head scratching commands) almost made me toss my DS back into my messenger bag, but thankfully, the control scheme became second nature after a few moments and it's actually quite enjoyable to use. Before long, I was making blocks, draining long-range shots, and jamming in Koopa's face and I was having a blast, but then little things began to (and still) annoy me beginning with the pace. Mario Hoops is just too slow. Granted, this isn't anything like 2K Sports' NBA 2K videogame franchise, but I really want to bust out on a fast break and feed a cutting Luigi for the slam and it just never happens. Everyone just plods down the court, and the passes are always these high lobs that make the game seem like a weird cross between basketball and football. Even worse, it's often times difficult to even make a pass, as the touch screen controls continuously fail to respond.

Then there are the actual moves that each character can do. While most of them have signature dunks, there's very little celebrating after a victory or a nice shot. This is definitely a far cry from NBA Street and it's a shame because Square Enix could've really gotten nuts with this title. I keep having visions of Mario and Luigi doing crossovers in NBA Street V3 but those images are bitter sweet.

Furthermore, the game just isn't all that challenging. The first cup (one of several) is way too easy to win, and while the AI becomes more adept at stealing the ball, scoring is never a problem. It sucks, because I'll find myself wanting to play a few quick games but then I'll grow angry at the computer's deficiencies. Most times (on the easy setting) it just stands there as I rack up coins and shoot, often times uncontested. At least put up a fight!

Another feature that upsets me is the mini games. Most of these Mario sports titles have some cool bonus games that help to beef up the replay value, but no such animal exists in Mario Hoops. There are a handful of mini games but they're shockingly lame and therefore not much fun.