Super Mario’s Most Underrated Sports Game Debuted 20 Years Ago, And It Still Doesn’t Have a Sequel

Mario has expanded over the years from the protagonist of his own series and company mascot into a brand all on his own. Even beyond the mainline platforming games, Mario titles expand to include starring roles in fighting games like Super Smash Bros., multiplayer experiences like Mario Party, and foundational arcade-style racing games like Mario Kart. One of the most entertaining sub-franchises of the Mario brand has always been the Mario Sports line of games, which features the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom coming together for a round of golf, a tennis match, or a game of soccer.

Along the way, there have been some experiments that didn’t quite land, such as the abandoned Super Mario Spikers volleyball/wrestling combo. At least Mario Hoops got a chance on the Nintendo DS, even if that platform shrunk down the court and felt like it was squandering a lot of really good potential. Twenty years after it debuted on the handheld device, it’s worth looking back at Mario Hoops 3-on-3, why it didn’t work, and why it deserves a new edition.

Why Mario Hoops Didn’t Become A Hit

Developed by Square Enix and released on the Nintendo DS in Japan on July 27, 2006, before reaching the rest of the world, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is the only dedicated basketball game in the Mario Sports spin-off franchise. The game sees a large roster of Nintendo and Final Fantasy characters — the first ever formal crossover of the two properties — joining teams of three to play games of basketball for a chance to climb the ranks of various tournaments. Players move around using the D-pad, while the touch screen is used to set off passes and shots. Functionally, the game works as a standard arcade basketball game, albeit with some unique touches. Deployable items like Bob-ombs or mushrooms could suddenly throw a game into colorful chaos. On-court complications like coin pads were another interesting wrinkle — with certain win conditions depending on players earning a certain amount of coins.

While the somewhat blocky graphics were very consistent with what the DS was capable of at the time, there’s a distinct quality to the character design that keeps the players from blending together. Unfortunately, the game struggled compared to other Mario Sports games. The game received mixed reviews from critics, with the controls and gameplay variety earning compliments but the limited multiplayer options and poor balancing negatively impacting the review score. While the game did manage to sell 1.5 million copies globally within a year, it wasn’t enough to bring the series back onto a larger scale. It’s a shame, too, because it has always felt like a console version of Mario Hoops 3-on-3 could have been a lot of fun and really embraced the chaotic potential of the premise.

Mario Hoops Could Have Had Real Staying Power

Mario Hoops feels like an ideal game for the GameCube and Wii era of Nintendo. This was a period that saw a real surge in arcade sports titles, thanks in no small part to the success of the EA Sports Big line of games. NBA Street was popular enough to earn several acclaimed entries, each one pushing the gameplay into more bombastic directions. Mario Hoops could have followed suit, especially after Mario, Luigi, and Peach’s guest appearances in NBA Street 3 proved that the characters could fit in on the court. Ultimately, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 suffered from the inherently smaller scale of the DS platform. The controls, while responsive, lost a certain effectiveness by not being part of a typical controller. The graphics were far blockier on the handheld than they would have been on the home consoles, which could have brought a vibrancy to the title that was lacking on the DS.

Games like Super Mario Strikers and Mario Super Sluggers proved that arcade sports titles starring the Mario cast of characters could provide straightforward experiences with plenty of unexpected wrinkles. Hopps 3-on-3 has that element, but without the full space to show it off. It’s a shame too, because the DS game isn’t bad. It just feels, especially twenty years later, like underutilized potential. Fans would get a taste of what a home console Mario basketball game would feel like with 2010’s Mario Sports Mix, but that game lost much of the unique flavor that did elevate the gameplay of Mario Hoops 3-on-3. It’s frustrating because there are several other Mario Sports titles that have gotten multiple games over the years, whereas Mario Hoops never got the chance to truly prove itself. A Switch 2 reimagining of the game could incorporate motion controls with the Joy-Cons and would be an ideal game to give the online multiplayer treatment. Twenty years later and with titles like NBA: The Run proving there’s an appetite out there for arcade basketball games, it’s a shame Nintendo hasn’t taken the chance to revisit one of their most underrated sports concepts.