Howdy folks. Thanks for still hanging around this area.

Anyway, as you have probably read in the previous post, I'm pretty fed-up with my family. But hey, guess I still have to consider God's will so I'll try to hang on for as long as I can.

In the meantime, I guess I can share something with you all. And it's gaming-related.

Now, a question, which one of you owns a Nintendo DS or DS Lite?

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*crickets chirping*

Well, anyway, I wanna share my comments about a new game that just recently came out for the DS. And what's that? Why, it's called "Mario Basketball 3-on-3".

'Mario?! Playing Basketball?!' is probably what you're thinking now. And just for the record, I find it pretty ridiculous myself too. However, after reading reviews and viewing videos and screenshots about it, I'd say that Nintendo and Square-Enix really managed to pull a good one this time.

'Wha?! Even Square-Enix?!' you say? Yup, so don't just expect the usual morty crew of the Mario Brothers series, but some cameo appearances from Square-Enix's treasure-trove.

Now, currently, I've only managed to get the Japanese release of the game, considering the fact that the English will only be out somewhere in the 4th quarter of the year, but that's not a big issue with the game really.

First off, the game is a import-friendly partner to every NDS(Nintendo DS for short)/NDS Lite owner, despite its japanese origin. It's language labelling may seem daunting but once you boot this baby up from a DS, it instantly brings you through a series of tutorials which includes japanese texts(duh!), and thankfully, graphical demonstration of the various moves and tricks in the game. So there's really nothing much to stop you from getting your hands on this one.

Secondly, the game really rocks. And Nintendo has proven that time and time again with its previous attempts to adapting the Mario crew into various sports, such as the popular Mario Power Tennis for the GBA(Gameboy Advance). They have once again, redefined this traditional sport into something colourful, fun, exciting, yet still holds the same challenge and andreline-rush of basketball. By utilising the bottom-touch-screen, Nintendo has allowed more freedom of control over dribbling, passing, blocking, etc. Not to mention, each character has a unique special ability to pull of stunning, yet powerful shots and dunks.

Once again, you don't even need basic Japanese knowledge to know what's going on.

But I guess the only downside of the game itself, though it's a small issue, would have been it could have included Wifi gaming support, around the world. Though it does have multiplayer for both cart-owners and non-cart-owners alike, I feel that with the inclusion of the internet service the game would have been a blast!

In overall, I'd give it 9.7/10.

For more info, check out popular game websites or Nintendo's to find out more about the game.

Till then!