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Like most titles featuring Nintendo's favourite plumber, you cannot fault Mario Sports Mix for effort or production values. Certainly, it attempts to cram in countless familiar elements, characters and locations as they can and does so with customary panache. However, this remains a bizarre mix of sports that includes little on the franchise or the party game genre that Nintendo created yet still dominates.

What you'll get are four main sports-C Basketball, Dodgeball, Volleyball and Ice Hockey-C along with a few extra party games. The principle events can be played in Quick Match or Campaign Mode, in either frantic 3x3 or perhaps more stimulating 2x2 configuration. Campaign has a typically silly back story before launching you into Mushroom, Flower and Star Cup tournaments that unlock new players and power ups when you progress from the rounds on the finals, which might be played in excellent stadiums.(cheapest ps3 games)

Power-ups are collected by running your player over coins which might be strewn across the courts. The coins either add to your score or reveal Star Powers, for example Koopa shells or mini mushrooms which might be activated by pressing A & B buttons together. But the stunted AI, specifically in early rounds, makes it easy to accumulate massive winning margins without resorting to power-ups at all.

In the western world playable characters, a lot of the usual suspects can be found: from Mario and Luigi to Bowser and Wario, by using a precious few like Princess Peach clad in sporty new costumes. Character abilities are graded reported by speed, power and technical skill, with speedier players maintaining call the shots(cheap ps3 games).

All four sports are simple enough to get and play, even though the quality, familiarity and playability differs. Ice Hockey, by way of example, bears little resemblance to any known version in the sport, with bollards appearing on court to close shots and stymie players. Meanwhile, Dodgeball's throw-and-catch gameplay curiously doesn't involve dodging at all, even though the party games are basically silly variations to the main sports, just like dodging bombs or throwing fruit at the giant plant(buy ps3 games).

Despite these complaints, don't go thinking Sports Mix is actually a totally lost cause. Both Basketball and Volleyball combine similar effective controls with enthralling end-to-end action, raising the score to something approaching respectability and suggesting what may have been. With many ever better chosen events and a major rebalancing of AI, Mario Sports Mix could have been a contender rather than a missed opportunity that appeals more to Mario completists than either sports or party game fans.