Mario & Sonic Olympic Winter Games Review

Mario and Sonic hit the slopes for another round of Olympic sports!

Some gamers might cringe at the idea of partnering Mario and Sonic in an Olympic sports game but for Nintendo and Sega, it was a partnership made in heaven. Sales figures for the original title have topped 10 million copies worldwide and the game is still going strong. As inevitable as it was, it would have been crazy for the dynamic duo not to give it another go.

Taking the double–act antics from Beijing to Vancouver to compete in the Winter Olympics, the sequel shifts gear with a whole new array of 25 competitive winter sporting events for family and friends to enjoy. The events on offer include skiing, snowboarding, figure skating and even snowball fights. The game also comes complete with a cast of 20 recognisable characters straight out of the box plus a few ‘special guests’ that make their debuts in the career mode.

Titled ‘Festival’, the career mode will take you through the entire Olympic adventure and teach you the basics over an 18 day period. The challenges on offer include completing training sessions, competing against other players and facing–off against guest challengers. It’s not a long career (we were able to speed through it in a few short bursts) but it does provide a suitable introduction and allow you to learn how all the games work at a steady pace and with a decent learning curve.
 
It isn’t difficult to wrap your mind around how these games work and the game comes equipped with a number of control methods depending on your set up. The possible control methods include using the Wii remote, the Wii remote and Nunchuck and/or the Balance Board. Whilst not all the games use the board, about half of them do and it makes the absence of motion plus precision a little more forgivable. The controls take a little getting used to, and without beating a dead horse, many of the games do involve a fair share of waggle.

25 sports are on offer here but admittedly a handful of these share similar styles with minor changes. Our pick of the crop was the ski and snowboarding events (both of which make up a majority of the games selection) which offer flexible control styles and overall felt the most fun and competitive. Snowball fights are an interesting change of pace to the other events but the controls feel a little tacked on. A bit more work and this minor appendage could have been something far more addictive and fun. Bob sleighing also felt a little unwieldy using the Wii remote which just didn’t offer the precision needed to get the most fun out of this game.

 
Figure Skating hilariously puts you in the skates of your character and challenges you to pull off some swish moves whilst skating around a rink in Elite Beat Agent’s style. We recommend picking a character like Egg Man or Sonic and enjoying the hilarity of watching these characters gracefully dancing on ice. Thankfully, the ‘waggle fest’ games are limited to the boring Speed Skating events where you simply move the remote from side to side at a constant speed.