Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
January 30,2008 - Whenever the worldwide Olympics roll around, whether it is in the spring, summer, fall, or winter, there's always a generic video game that follows. Why are they generic? Because they're always a compilation of minigames that really suck. Now that Sega has their hands on the Beijing 2008 license, they're doing all they can to avoid making a monstrosity of a game. Their full-blown effort? They've received the right to put a whole bunch of Nintendo characters (along with their own characters from the Sonic series) to create Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the first game based on the Olympics that doesn't suck.

The main reason why the game essentially doesn't suck is because it's on the Wii. Yeah, fanboyish reason. But honestly, because of the motion-sensitivity features the Wii possesses, Sega has done a lot of right with the game. Like other games bearing the Olympic name, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is just a whole bunch of minigames stuffed into one disc. The beauty of the game is that, unlike games like Wii Sports or Wii Play, it requires much more of a physical presence as it actually will make you tired (of both playing and at how stupid some of these minigames are). We don't know if that was Sega's intention of totally emulating the Olympic Games, but the fact had to be made known.
There are twenty Olympic events which are divided into eight different classifications; athletics, aquatics, gymnastics, shooting, rowing, archery, fencing, and table tennis.

The Athletic competition features a set of games for track and field. At first, you only have a few, and the rest can be unlocked. Most of the games in the category feature "Wii running", which is done by alternating moving the Wii Remote and Nunchuck at your sides up and down, like you're running in place without using your feat. Believe it or not, this is the most tiring set of games you'll do in the whole game, which makes them the least fun in the single player mode.

The Aquatic competition is just a set of water-based games where you rely on your character's swimming ability. Abilities are based on your character's stats, and different characters have different methods of control. Unlike the Athletic competition, this isn't all that tiring.

The rest of the competitions have only one minigame each. Some are pretty fun to play, like Table Tennis and Cycling, which are played in a completely understandable fashion. Table Tennis is pretty much played like it was played in Wii Play, and Cycling is played by holding the Wii Remote at a certain position and driving, ExciteTruck style. With that, you have to take the bad with the good, games like Archery, Fencing, and Shooting, are just plain unplayable. Archery isn't too bad, but the method of control is pretty complicated. You have to take your Wii Remote, hold it back, and then force your Nunchuck out forward to make your shot, and it has to be timed with a certain cursor that randomly moves about on the target. To make thing worse, the wind is more of a factor than it should be. Then while fencing is a pretty cool idea for a Wii minigame, it's done in the worst way imaginable. It's done in a 2D, sidescrolling perspective, and you simply move the Wii Remote at wherever direction your opponent is to stab him with the rapier. Shooting is probably the most annoying event in the game; the game plays like the shooting game in Wii Play and like Duck Hunt. What's wrong with that? The size of your shooting cursor varies, and your targets (which are way too small) are on and off the screen before you can even see them. To make things worse, you only have as much ammunition as there are targets.

Then there are the Dream Events, the unlockable minigames that you're striving to play. Dream Events are your average Olympic events in the game, but with that Sega and Nintendo flavor. You can compete in a kayaking match, different flavoring of Table Tennis and Fencing--eww, and a couple more.

The overall goal of every minigame is to beat them all with the highest rating and fastest time possible. If you think you're one of the elite, you can go ahead and upload your scores to the worldwide ranks using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Aside from that, you also have the ability to send replays and all sorts of other stats.

The game looks just like any other sports game featuring Mario and Sonic would, very colorful. There aren't any glaring holes in the visual style, nor are there any problems with the character design. Each character looks the way they look on the box, which isn't a bad thing. You can complain about the lack of detail in the water, but honestly, that's all futile.

It's been said an infinite amount of times for any game of this genre; the sound is mediocre at best. You have crappy voice acting for every character, which isn't surprising, and the announcer sounds as annoying as you'd expect. The music is nice though and it gives the game an Olympic feel, despite it not being as serious as anybody hoped. So in terms of visuals and sound, there's nothing extraordinary, but there's nothing totally wrong either.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is the first game where the characters of the Mushroom Kingdom and Sega's marquee characters finally come into contact with each other. Sure, it's pathetic to see Mario go neck-and-neck in a footrace against Sonic, but what can you do? While the game is incredibly tiring to play, it's a whole lot of fun when you're playing with other people. Other than that, it's just another game based on the Olympic Games... or it's just another Mario sports game. However way you look at it, the game is solid, but you might want to think before picking it up at full price.

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