Mario Slam Basketball Review

nother month, another bout of deja vu as we revisit a game that should have been out last year but is only hitting shops now. And straight off, the thing that's clear about Mario Slam Basketball is that these are the best 3D graphics on the DS so far.

Every court looks stunning, with details and special effects you wouldn't think possible on the DS. You can play on a giant raft that's drifting down a rushing river in the DK stage, or on one of those cannon-filled floating ships from Super Mario Bros. 3 as a thunderstorm rages.

The character models and the fluidity of their animations are equally impressive. Top this off with a slick frame rate and you have a game that has to be seen to be believed.

This game sets new standards in visual quality on the DS, and it attempts to do the same in innovative use of the touch screen - but it doesn't quite manage it. Using the D-pad or buttons to move around the court, you use the stylus to bounce the ball, shoot and perform crazy manoeuvres.

The basic moves are simple - tapping the stylus bounces the ball, an upwards swipe takes a shot, and stroking downwards when in defence activates a tackle. To pass, do a side-swipe in the direction of the recipient. It's a clever system that lets you do more than you could with buttons. For example, you can control where the player bounces the ball by tapping parts of the screen. If a defender comes in from the left, tap the right of the screen to bounce the ball there. Ingenious.

But this system doesn't always work. Say you want to pass to a team-mate who's in front of you. Your natural reflex is to stroke upwards, but that makes you take a shot. Then there are Super Shots, which are performed by tapping a pattern on the touch screen, only the patterns are different for each character so you have to learn them.

Mario Slam Basketball also tries something new with the points system. Instead of simply scoring points, you have to gather coins by bouncing the ball on item boxes. After you grab a bunch of coins you have to put the ball through the net to transfer the coins to the scoreboard. This sounds like the quirky sort of idea that you'd expect from a Mario sports game but it changes the focus of the game and turns it into a coin-grabbing contest.

Add to that the wacky items (homing Red Shells, bombs and other Mario Kart weapons) and there's not much basketball left. Crazy items make the action, well, crazier, and a lot of the time they can be fun, but they interfere with the sport a bit too much, and the explosions and Shells can be frustrating.

Luckily, earlier tournaments in the single-player game allow you to get used to the game's control style and remixed scoring system. If anything, they're a bit too easy, with CPU-controlled players just standing around. Then, suddenly, the difficulty shoots up and the computer becomes invincible.

I Wish I Was A Baller

After steaming through the toddler-difficulty of the earlier Cups, a burst of trickiness is like running head-first into a wall. The computer will have you constantly marked, passing is tough and performing a Super Shot is near impossible. If you like a challenge you'll welcome this difficulty, but younger gamers will be stumped.

This doesn't ruin the game though, and all the mayhem makes for a brilliant multiplayer mode. With a single cartridge you can play coin-collecting challenges against a friend, but if you want to play basketball both of you will need your own copy of the game.

Mario Slam Basketball is a fine addition to Mario's sports range. The control system is flawed, the difficulty curve is wonky and the coins detract from the sport, but if you're not precious about the rules of basketball you'll have a lot of fun here.