Mario Hoops 3on3, known in Europe as Mario Slam Basketball and in Japan as Mario Basket 3on3 is a sports game developed by Square Enix and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in 2006. The game is the first in which Mario and Final Fantasy characters appear together as playable characters, and the second Mario game developed by Square Enix, the first one being Super Mario RPG. It is the first Mario basketball game ever to be released, although characters from the series have appeared in the Nintendo GameCube version of NBA Street V3. The game was released on the European Wii U Virtual Console on May 26, 2016 and it was released on North American Wii U Virtual Console on November 3, 2016.
The game features a series of three versus three basketball tournaments on different courts, each of three games. The game uses the Nintendo DS's touch screen extensively, and features items and coins from the Mario series. Critics praised the game for being amusing and fun, but criticized the weak AI and limited multiplayer options, with full basketball games only being playable across two players locally who each had a copy of the game.
Mario Sports Mix is a Mario sports game for the Wii featuring Mario and company competing in four sports: hockey, basketball, dodgeball, and volleyball, along with the Final Fantasy characters who have appeared in Mario Hoops 3on3 as well. Slime, a Dragon Quest mascot, makes an appearance in this game. This game was developed by Square Enix, who also developed Mario Hoops 3on3.
The game supported the Nintendo WiFi Connection feature, which enables players to play with other players in their region. To save any game data, three blocks of memory have to be used on the Wii system. However, due to the game's WiFi compatibilities, the game data is copy protected, which means it cannot be transferred onto other Wii systems. As of May 20th 2014, Nintendo has terminated the Nintendo WiFi Connection service, meaning that it is no longer possible to play Mario Sports Mix online.
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