Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

By Ellie Gibson Published 3 September, 2007

Together at last.

For millennia, the Olympic Games have brought nations together in a celebration of sporting prowess and global harmony. Apart from that year the Nazis did it and the ones in the eighties with the Cold War boycotts. Now they are bringing the world's most famous videogame characters together in a glorious celebration of shaking small white objects really hard.

This is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, marking the first time Nintendo and SEGA's mascots have appeared in the same game. It's SEGA demoing the Wii version for us today, but the rep is keen to point out that Nintendo's involvement goes right to the top. "Miyamoto-san himself is closely involved with the details," she explains. "Nothing gets out the doors of SEGA without his say so."

Miyamoto isn't the only one with a say in how M&S turns out. The game is officially licensed by the Beijing 2008 Olympic Committee, so all the events follow the same rules as their real life counterparts.

It's not yet clear just how many sports the finished game will cover. We're only being shown track and field events - 100 metres, hurdles, triple jump, hammer throw and archery - but SEGA says there will also be gymnastics, table tennis and more.

Sonic booms

It's all set up in a straightforward way that's simple enough for tiny children and muddle-headed ladies to use. You can compete in a single event or a series of different ones, and there's a Mission mode which challenges you to win events with specific characters.

'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' Screenshot 1

He may be rubbish in Mario Kart, but he's not bad at the old hammer throw.

Again we're not being shown the full range today, but the character select screen is displaying Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi and Princess Peach. From the SEGA side there's Sonic, Dr Robotnik, Tails and Knuckles the Stupid Echidna.

They all have different skill sets: "It's very much like Mario Kart, it's all balanced and anybody can win. It's about your skill in playing." Bowser, for example, is slow but powerful so he's good at the hammer throw. Peach, tediously, is good at jumping, while Mario is an all-rounder. Sonic, as you'd expect, is fast - though not as fast as you'd expect.

"There has to be an even playing field, otherwise Sonic's going to win everything through speed. So we've made his acceleration slower." Makes sense. But still.

Remote possibilities

On to the events. Most make use of both the Wii remote and nunchuck. In the 100 metres, you charge up your character by holding down B. Pulling the remote up sharply gets you off the blocks and you shake the controllers alternately to run.

It's all over in less than 10 seconds and there seems to be an awful lot of menu navigation to go through before you can have another go, the bane of so many sports games. But the rep explains that in the finished game you'll instantly be able to select a replay option, so that's all right.

'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' Screenshot 2

Sonic and Mario are neck and neck! Which seems utterly illogical!

For the triple jump, you pull the remote up to hop, shake the nunchuk to step and repeat the remote move to jump. The challenge comes in getting the timing right. Hammer throwing involves twirling the remote around like you're controlling a lassoo. The trickiest looking event we're shown is archery, where you have to simultaneously line up two cursors using the remote and nunchuk.

Finally we get to have a go. It's the hurdles event, where you have to shake the controllers in time to run and press A to jump. It's knackering. Just one go makes your arms ache and women may want to consider investing in a sports bra. There is skill involved with timing the jumps exactly right, so while the controls are simple you'll improve with practice.

Sporting chance

None of the events seem too complex, though, or as difficult as playing Track & Field with a dance mat. Mario & Sonic is undoubtedly designed to appeal to players of all ages and abilities, just like Wii Sports. And just like Wii Sports last year, this game will surely be making a popular appearance in living rooms across the country come Christmas day.

The simplistic nature of Mario & Sonic could come as a disappointment to hardcore fans. It's about casual gameplay and the appeal of the characters rather than their individual abilities. Those who have waited decades for our heroes to debut in the same game might have preferred a platformer, something which revolved around combining Sonic's speed with Mario's jumping skills.

'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' Screenshot 3

Ah, archery; or if you prefer, darts for the upper classes.

They might also find the visuals in Mario & Sonic a bit unappealing. Each stadium is modelled to exactly replicate the real venues in Beijing, so instead of bold colours, giant castles and grassy knolls it's all concrete and iron girders. Of course, it could just be we're still smarting because Beijing won the 2008 Olympic bid; we were strong supporters of the 'Take a Torch to Catford' campaign (be sure to listen to the song).

In any case, SEGA and Nintendo have clearly worked hard to add their own flavour. The crowds are made up of Toads, hedgehogs and other peripheral characters from previous Sonic and Mario games. Some of them wave flags showing pictures of the characters. Lakitu floats out and measures your score for the hammer throw events and so on.

Mario & Sonic might not be the game old skool platform fans were hoping for, but it was never meant to be. It might disappoint Track & Field fans with the lack of button bashing involved, but it will appeal to those who are frightened of traditional controllers. In short, It's going to offer a casual multiplayer experience and it seems likely do that well.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Genji #1 5 years ago

    Yep. Hell has frozen over.

  • Caimbeul #2 5 years ago

    I think it all looks like a bit of a laugh. Providing it doesnt get disaterously bad scores then i may well pick it up.

    Never thought of track and field with a dance mat!

    a 360 version of track and field would be great. not the other week i was playing virtua athlete 2k on the dreamcast with a few friends! simple but fun and very competative!

  • Killerbee #3 5 years ago

    Couldn't be worse than the Athens game from the last Olympics.

    And whilst another collection of sports-based minigames isn't that high on my wish list (well, until Wii Sports 2 is announced anyway...) I imagine if they inject the right amount of *fun* to make the events worth a repeated play and a suitable price tag (£19.99 or so) I might be convinced.

    I just hope it's more Wii Sports than Wii Play.

  • Pulsar_t #4 5 years ago

    This thread is in dire need of a spell checker! =P

  • Machiavel #5 5 years ago

    Sonic not that fast, Mario not as good as jumping as Peach, madness.

  • peteb #6 5 years ago

    Yep, here comes Nintendo's new age of casual games. We should enjoy Galaxy and Prime while they still make proper games.

  • RedPanda #7 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • JohnnyWashnGo #8 5 years ago

    "Mario & Sonic might not be the game old skool platform fans were hoping for"

    Who would think for a moment that a game with the title 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games' would be a platformer?

  • Eighthours #9 5 years ago

    Who would think for a moment that a game with the title 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games' would be a platformer?

    Nobody. She was clearly referring to what people would want for a first game with the two characters in it.

  • Katsumoto #10 5 years ago

    "new age of casual games." - when did people forget that Nintendo have sold hundreds of millions of video games, including over 40 million copies of the NES mario bros alone! Why are they, only now, considered "casual". They've all appealed to the masses.

  • peteb #11 5 years ago

    Its the content that I'm referring to, not the sales.

  • Pooley #12 5 years ago

    It's all set up in a straightforward way that's simple enough for tiny children and muddle-headed ladies to use.

    It's going to offer a casual multiplayer experience

    I hope it's got some depth, I really do.

  • Arcadiian #13 5 years ago

    @ bengalibengali.

    SEGA hold the Olympics 2008 licence, and i highly doubt it'll be used solely for this game, so you can probably expect an Olympics game for the 360.

  • Eighthours #14 5 years ago

    I heard from a source of mine last week that Sega is putting shedloads of work into this, and that it's going to be very good indeed.

  • PlugMonkey #15 5 years ago

    ""new age of casual games." - when did people forget that Nintendo have sold hundreds of millions of video games, including over 40 million copies of the NES mario bros alone! Why are they, only now, considered "casual". They've all appealed to the masses."

    +1

    Is Tetris still 'casual', or is that now 'hardcore' because it was 18 years ago?

  • SniperWolf #16 5 years ago

    5/10?, as good as Blue Dragon then. This game screams casual, cash in, gimmick.

    Probably get 8/10 from Eurogamer.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/07 @ 15:20

  • mossychops001 #17 5 years ago

    Will this work on my Mega Drive?

  • Pulsar_t #18 5 years ago

    Will this work on my Mega Drive?

    It just might if you have the SNES CD-ROM add-on!

    Oh, wait..


  • blicko #19 5 years ago

    I'd consider Wii Sports a casual gamer's game. If this turns out as good as it, count me in (YMMV etc.).

  • peteb #20 5 years ago

    I'd call Tetris casual, but the term "casual game" is a term only really used nowadays. The novelty of games back in the day was enough to sell them, so they could make them as hard, as long, or as crap (sometimes) as they wanted. Then we saw people demanding more quality with games over the years.

    But now it seems they are content with releasing more of these party style games, as long as they throw in the "novelty" of the wiimote and marketing the machine more and more to the masses, good for business of course, but bad for anyone looking for 30+ hours in a game. I'd like to have a fair share of both to be honest.

    You can't blame 'em really, but it does look like we won't be seeing as many games with depth in the future, if they want to keep the majority happy, judging by some recent comments they have made already about "making games more fun and easier" etc.

    As long as they throw in a good amount of decent games like Mario Galaxy and Metroid prime then I'll be happy
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/07 @ 15:47

  • Flabio #21 5 years ago

    I'd imagine Konami are doing a new 'international track and field' game, same as they always do around the Olympics. In fact, I think they've already announced one for the DS...

  • thefishmonger #22 5 years ago

    loved athens game (alonh with rest of family!) so this should be good fun too.

  • jellyhead #23 5 years ago

    After years of wanting gaming to be recognized by the masses i've realised that i want them all to go away again. I was wrong, i admit it, make it stop.

  • peteb #24 5 years ago

    After years of wanting gaming to be recognized by the masses i've realised that i want them all to go away again. I was wrong, i admit it, make it stop.

    LOL

  • allen #25 5 years ago

    how much jiggling did you undergo ellie ?

  • Razz #26 5 years ago

    All I can say about this game is

    "Sega of Europe"

    :(


    I really wish anybody but SoE was developing this. :/
    Edited by 2 at 03/09/07 @ 16:43

  • jmctavish #27 5 years ago

    This should be good as long as the people who did Sonic and the Secret Rings aren't involved. Such a shit game.

  • Angrydarren #28 5 years ago

    "All I can say about hits game is

    "Sega of Europe"

    :(


    I really wish wish anybody but SoE was developing this"

    Yup, I hate the way they churn out rubbish like Football Manager, SEGA Rally and Medieval II: Total War. Rubbish the lot of it.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/07 @ 16:46

  • sneetch #29 5 years ago

    @Caimbeul

    "I think it all looks like a bit of a laugh. Providing it doesnt get disaterously bad scores then i may well pick it up.

    Never thought of track and field with a dance mat!

    a 360 version of track and field would be great."

    Congrats! :)

    [link url=http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/trackandfieldxbo xlivearcade/
    ]http://ww w.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/tracka...[/link]

    Still the best! (I know, I know, it's not a *true* 360 version, but still...)

  • Arcadiian #30 5 years ago

    SEGA Europe aren't developing the game, they're publishing it ( in Europe ). I think it's being published by Nintendo in Japan.

    Anyway, like Angrydarren said, SEGA's European development teams have released some good games.

  • Lukus #31 5 years ago

    Gotta say, this game looks and sounds bloody awful.

  • atarianer #32 5 years ago

    has this thing an online mode ? rankings ?

  • Daikon #33 5 years ago

    Ooh! I'm so not getting this game!

  • Razorus #34 5 years ago

    Sure Sonic is meant to be faster than Mario, but try and think of it realistically; (Yes, I said TRY). Sonic in most of his games has much slower acceleration than Mario, he takes an absolute age to get his ass moving. When he does, he's bloody quick.
    People seem to think Mario wouldn't stand a chance against Sonic. But you forget that Sonic jumps like a retard. In Sonic games, he can never stop properly, he always runs into spikes that ruin your fun, and his jumping is atrocious. That's why I always preferred Mario platform games.
    SUPER MARIO FOR THE WIN!!!!

  • PlugMonkey #35 5 years ago

    Peteb - I think people have incredibly selective memories on these things. It's a bit like people saying music was much better in the 70s than today. They're generally remembering a lot more Pink Floyd than Bay City Rollers.

    When I dig out an old mag from the late 80s or early 90s it's chock full of crap licenses and cheap cash-ins. Anyone remember Revolution X feat. Aerosmith? Jordan vs Bird? Iirc, that was a grand total of five minigames for £40. How about spending £40 on a MegaDrive version of Jeopardy?

    The 'casual games' problem has now got so out of hand their projecting them backwards through time into the Golden Era! Noooooooooooooooooooo!

  • L0cky #36 5 years ago

    The novelty of games back in the day was enough to sell them

    And it's enough to sell them now too, people just forgot and then Nintendo remembered!

  • kentmonkey #37 5 years ago

    I can see the potential with this, if the right amount of development time goes into it.

    I can't see why people are bashing it, doesn't Super Smash Bros Melee sound like an utter shambles on paper? Didn't Mario Tennis on the N64 sound like it was going to be an utterly shit game on paper, cashing in on the characters.

    Wouldn't Mario Kart sound like an utterly gash idea if it was released today without the previous incarnations?

    I'm happy to give this the benefit of the doubt, it could turn out to be another SSBM or Mario Tennis (non GC version) yet.

  • Hamflank #38 5 years ago

    All I want is an online mode for Wii tennis.

  • mcmonkeyplc #39 5 years ago

    Oh look a flying pig...

  • peteb #40 5 years ago

    Peteb - I think people have incredibly selective memories on these things. It's a bit like people saying music was much better in the 70s than today. They're generally remembering a lot more Pink Floyd than Bay City Rollers.

    christ, your right, im getting old. im like an old guy who says, "don't make them like they used to"

    All i'm saying is though that i hope Nintendo keeps making the epic games and not just concentrate on this party stuff. when all the "casual" gamers and mums and dads and granmas who bought the wii get bored of it, they're just left with the people who want decent games.

    Im still an old git though.

  • varsas #41 5 years ago

    Are you just talking about internal development teams? Virtua Fighter 5 would be a recent one that wasn't messed up.

  • Fozzie_bear #42 5 years ago

    Just one go makes your arms ache and women may want to consider investing in a sports bra.

    This review is useless without slow motion, high definition videos.

  • ShiroBen #43 5 years ago

    The biggest disappointment about this, for me, is that it's set in the 'real' world. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and naive, even childish, but I love the bright, colourful, impossible worlds of older games ... I want ridiculously blue skies, fluffy white clouds you can walk on, hills with cute eyes, platforms suspended in mid-air, enemies that make no sense and strange and wonderful power-ups ... I want that sense of fantastic style that older games gave us. These days I don't often feel delighted with the worlds games are set in, and that makes me a little sad.

  • harrisimo #44 5 years ago

    that is a very good point.

    that pic of bowser throwing the hammer in the actual olympic stadium looks just weird. two worlds colliding that should never meet...

    one of the reasons i love the mario games is their hyper-real colours and imaginative cartoony landscapes. toadstool tour on cube was ace for this.

    it'd be like mario in grand theft auto or something.

    still, as long as it's fun for a couple of hours with some mates, i'll get it....