Review Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)

For many years games based on the Olympiad have had a tarnished reputation. The truth is that they are usually rubbish. But that changed in 2007 when SEGA sent Mario and Sonic along to the summer games in Beijing. The result was a huge success both critically and financially - with sales of over 10 million.

February 2010 sees the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver but Mario and Sonic are already there enjoying 16 different snowy events.

16 events in dreamland

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is built around 16 disciplines from the real Olympic world, based in nine main sports.

The game begins with the classic Olympic competitions such as downhill skiing, slalom and ski jumping, continues with skating and snowboarding, and finally enjoys team disciplines such as hockey and curling. Common to them all is the involvement of Mario and Sonic and that sports are interpreted with the Wii in mind. At the most basic level you can play with the Wiimote alone, but players get extra depth if you connect both the Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board to the machine.

Your can play these events singly or as part of a comprehensive Festival, which is the game's biggest addition in relation to the Beijing edition. This part of the game takes you through the Vancouver Games, including the opening and closing ceremony.

The object of the game is simple - score the most points by winning medals and clearing challenges that crop up along the way. The festival brings new challenges from day to day which help you explore the many different sporting disciplines. New players are also aided by training sections too.

The game isn't always played entirely straight. Away from the traditional Winter Olympics are 11 dream events. These are a mixture of Mario Kart, modern Sonic titles and dream scenarios. For example you can ride downhill at breakneck speeds with loops and speed boosts while collecting classic Mario Kart weaponry. Such game modes are clearly designed for the more hardcore Mario and Sonic fan to keep up the interest away from the traditional depiction of the winter sports.

Finally there are several party games provided in the Wii Play style. As with other parts of the game you can enjoy these on your own or play with up to four players.

Good multiplayer but uneven disciplines

Played both alone and with friends the festival is an excellent way to be introduced to the events, learn control layout and also get around the game's content.

It takes around two hours to get through each festival, which is neither too slow or too fast for a nice, social gaming experience that can be enjoyed by both beginners and experienced players. In that same time collecting points will allow you to unlock costumes for Mii-characters, giving extra layer of competition and motivation. It is also good that the characters are different beyond the cosmetic. Sonic is such a Speed-figure for the benefit of skating, while Donkey Kong bears great power which he uses in particular in bobsleigh.

Since you must go through many disciplines in the Festival, the characters' power differences and player experiences are evened out. Competition tends therefore to be close no matter what the players' skill levels and the result is a good time for all.

Fluctuating disciplines

Therefore, it is a pity that not all disciplines are unique and designed with attention to the Wii-interpretation of rules and techniques.

Despite the variety of events often the control methods seems surprisingly similar, reducing the real variety of gameplay on offer. For example downhill skiing operates roughly like a faster version of the one-man luge.

This lack of consistency is sad given some of the events are very well designed. Take curling for example - here the developer has done a great job of transforming the various techniques used in the sport into logical and simple Wiimote controls. The result is an event which is both exciting and will keep you occupied for a while.

Figure skating is equally well designed. Probably aiming this event at young girls the developers have provided a simple yet brilliant interpretation of Elite Beat Agents. The result is respectful to the sport yet fun for even the youngest player.

For all these good design decisions there are many that leave a bad impression and eliminate the urge to replay them again and again.

The problem becomes even more elaborate when one moves from the authentic events to the Dream Events. In dream-Downhill is the core gameplay mechanics and physics are copied from the other kind of downhill skiing, while there has turned up the pace, made sharper turns and added demanding precision elements. Suddenly, you lose total control of your character, who ends up swinging randomly in the air in even the smallest jump. You will lose all chance of reaching arms blocks and speed boosts, and you are left with an impression that you only had control of half of the game.

It is a pity because the ideas behind the many dream-events are actually quite original. Elements from the Mario Kart and Sonic Adventure series fit incredibly well together, and could in principle constitute their own game rather than a detour in this Winter Olympics. The problem is that they are being held down by the simple mechanics of the second part of the game. It is terribly unfortunate, and we hope that SEGA would take the philosophy of 'Dream Events' and build an independent game based on them.

For now, it feels the two parts of Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics only half completed. The game has some incredibly strong individual disciplines, especially ice hockey, curling, 500m skating and ski jumping. In other disciplines, in contrast, others have control methods pasted in where they do not below.

Weak graphics

There's a lack of optimisation in the game's graphics.

The technique also lag in the graphics that are not optimized enough. The degree of detail in both the characters and surroundings are very good for the general Wii and it is great to see how the developer has built a live audience rather static figures.

Other hand, you often experience significant framerate drops, poor animation and times where rules of physics are completely ignored. The graphics lack the kind of polish you'd expect in such a high profile release.

Game world's answer to Eddie the Eagle?

The game offers good social gaming experiences and a great innovation in terms of the Festival section. The way inexperienced gamers are led through the game is particularly good.

The big problem with the game though is rather that the quality of individual disciplines fluctuates too much. You can clearly recognize when an event has been designed from scratch with logic and entertainment in mind. Many others feel copied and pasted, with controls, physics or the rules not nearly representative enough of the real sport. Let's hope Sega uses the time before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to greatly improve on this release.

As it stands now, Mario and Sonic Olympic does have some scope as an entertaining multiplayer game, but isn't really thrilling enough to be remembered as a classic outing for these videogames icons.