This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Evan Lahti.

As Nintendo continues to tour Mario & Co. through nearly every athletic event in existence (we're still waiting on word of Mario Rugby and Luigi Super-Cricket), it looks like our red-hatted friend will be making a basketball-inspired pit-stop on the DS, aptly named Mario Hoops 3 on 3.

Planned for a mid-September release, and developed by sports-games specialist Square-Enix (that's a joke, kids), we got our hands on a basic multiplayer version of the game at E3 this year. Sitting at a booth of networked DS Lites, we first chose our trioed-team by dragging characters with the stylus and into the respective "1P" and "2P" hoops. The standard cast was on hand: Wario, Luigi, Waluigi, Daisy, Yoshi, Peach, DK, and Bowser Jr., and there may be others that weren't revealed. Once we had our squad picked out and our high-tops laced, our characters hit the court.

The whistle blew, and after winning the tip-off, we started to get a feel for the game's controls. Like other DS titles, Mario Hoops requires what's commonly referred to as the "monkey grab" configuration, where players hold the portable in one hand as they trace the bottom screen with the stylus in the other. Considering that all of the dribbling, passing, shooting, and movement was controlled between the stylus and directional pad, it was a little tricky to master, but fun nonetheless. Swiping the pen across the screen horizontally passed the ball to teammates, while drawing upward and releasing performed the shots, layups, and dunks. On defense, pulling the pen downward performed a steal. The controls seemed a little unresponsive, but considering we're expecting the game in late Fall, we'll probably see some fine-tuning.

Visually, the court view is captured from a behind-the-back perspective. The camera is closer to the ground than most traditional basketball sports games, and flows north-south as the ball moves about the floor. Item boxes decorate the playing surface, and as players ran over them in multiplayer items like green, red, and blue shells, bombs, banana peels, and the other standard Mario equipment sprung from the court for use.

Mario and a few of his friends just can't seem to get in shape after playing hours of tennis, golf, soccer, and baseball – let's hope Mario Hoops 3 on 3 will help them drop a few pounds. We've only seen the multiplayer, but if the game can pick up a solid single-player mode along with some minigames, it could be a slam dunk for basketball fans.