Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

"It's Mario Party, only with Mario and Sonic together"

Mario and Sonic being together in a game was practically unheard of and people would think you were crazy if you were to say that this was really going to happen. Zoom to Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and we see two of the biggest icons in video game history compete for the gold. Under all that glamour and flash, it's just another mini game.


Most of the games you'll play are based off real life Olympic sports like the 100m relay race or the pole vault. You'll unlock more games as you play and eventually you will unlock dream games, events that put a magical spin on some events. The controls here will test your stamina as you are required to use the remote and/or the nunchuck in rapid, and sometimes jerking motions in order to play. This can easily tire you out if you play for too long and the game is not made to be played for hours without stopping. You'll really feel how sore your arms will be as you keep playing the game. While most of the controls are spot on, a handful of other games either have jerky or non responsive controls, making you very frustrated. Not only that, but most of the instructions on how to play are told through the controls menu before each game, which are made up of several pages. The manual is useless since it does not tell you how to play each game specifically.


The game has several modes, but its main beef consist of two modes; Single Match and Circuit. Single Match is a free play mode where you can pick any event and play it. Circuit mode is a series of events you play in while earning points based on your overall rank in each event, pretty similar to Mario Kart. What makes Single Match mode easy to set up is any number of players can join in before picking characters without having to do long set up. Mission mode is also like the mission mode in Mario Kart DS. Each character has different missions with specific requirements, like finishing a swimming race in 2nd place or beating Sonic in a relay race. Some are easy and some are tough.


The Gallery is where you can learn some real facts on how the Olympics works, but they are locked! To learn about the Olympics, you're forced to play some boring mini games like counting how many Goombas are on the screen or memorizing who spoke in what order, which don't end until you lose. This is also annoying since once you get past the goal requirement, you just don't want to keep playing unless you want to set a record for yourself.


There are 16 characters in the game. 8 from the Mario side and 8 from the Sonic side. Each character has different stats in Strength, Stamina, Speed, and Skill. Of course, each character excels in one particular stat so it's up to you to decide who is good in what. Even though Mario has a lower Speed rating than Sonic, it still baffles me how Mario could outrun sonic. You can even use your Miis as playable characters, but the downside is their stats are not shown and are randomized. Most of the catchphrases from the Mario characters have been rehashed from other games while the Sonic characters don't say a whole lot either, using the standard "I won," "I lost," or "That's me" lines. Sadly, there are no hidden characters.


The graphics seem to be at Gamecube level, something most Wii fans are a bit tired of seeing. The graphics don't "look" bad, but we've expected at least a step up in the graphics. The music is generic and is very forgettable, save for a few classic Mario and Sonic tunes you can listen to in the Gallery.

As you play the game, you can unlock achievement items like trophies and emblems for completing various things. They are for nothing but bragging rights. You can also use the achievements icons for your profile when you upload your records online.

While the boxart claims online support, it's actually gimped since the online feature is only used for leaderboard rankings and how you compare to people near your rank. Full online play would have been nice.


The game is pretty much, sadly, just another mini game. Good game with friends, and quickly gets boring alone. The dream events are fun to play, but sadly there are only 4. More dream events could have been used to make the game last a bit longer. Replay value is pretty minimal since there's not much to unlock and the events end very quickly. Tiring controls don't make the game playable for a long session and the online feature is useless. Rent if you can, but don't buy the game until a price drop.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07, Updated 12/04/07

Game Release: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (US, 11/06/07)