Mario Hoops 3on3, also known as Mario Slam Basketball in Europe and Mario Basketball 3on3 in Japan, is a Mario sports game developed by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. It features Mario and his friends participating in basketball. This is the second time Mario has starred in a basketball game with the first being the GameCube version of NBA Street V3 along with Luigi and Peach.

In the beginning, it was meant to be an original intellectual property, but Square Enix felt that it would work well if it were a part of the Mario franchise, and so Square Enix contacted Nintendo, who then allowed it to use the Mario label. This game is the first in which Mario and Final Fantasy characters appear together as playable characters.

A followup called Mario Sports Mix, which includes not only basketball, but volleyball, hockey, and dodge ball as well, was released for the Wii in 2010 (2011 outside of Japan).

The main mode is Tourney mode, where a team of 3 is chosen and they compete against other teams for the cup, in generally 3 matches. Exhibition mode is like quickplay, as well as customizable.

Almost all of the gameplay in the game is controlled by the Touch Screen. The only exceptions are moving a character, which is controlled by the +Control Pad, and a special form of passing, which uses the L Button button. This can be switched around with the buttons controlling movement and the R Button button for passing for lefthanded players.

There are many moves for offense and defense. The player's team of three is identified with a red circle below them, a blue circle for the opponent team's players. The player's team's basket is always facing ahead of them, and the opponent's team in the back, even when switching court. Therefore, generally, stroking up on the touch screen is used for offense and stroking down is used for defense. For more on moves, see the Practice section.

The match starts at half court, with the center of each team preparing to jump for the ball that Lakitu will release at the start. Matches are played in at least two periods lasting two and a half minutes. At the end of each period, each team's coin count is reset to 0 and another jumpball at half court is initiated. Whichever team has the most points overall when all periods are played, wins the match.

Scoring is a bit different in Mario Hoops than in a real world basketball game. Each shot made is worth 20 points. Shots made outside of what is normally the 3point line are worth 30 points (therefore, the basic shot is multiplied by 10 in Mario Hoops). Special shots, regardless of position are worth 40 points. To compound the points, coins also come into play. Players can collect coins by dribbling over the ? Panels scattered about the court. Regular coins add 1 point each to the score, and red coins add 10 points to the score. Every time a team makes a basket, their coins are reset to zero. Getting hit, either from items or other players, will result in some of the player's coins scattering on the field, which can be picked up by anyone, including the character who lost them. The limit to the number of coins one team can have is 100 (therefore the maximum normal score for one shot is 140, and for Jr. Street, the maximum score is 420), and the more coins one has, the more are lost on a hit. If the player make a shot with a lot a coins, the player can really go from losing to winning in a matter of seconds. If the ? Panels aren't on the field, then the shot value is divided by ten, making normal shots worth two points, threepointers worth three, and special shots worth four.

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