Mario And Sonic at the Olympic Games review

Admit it; you, at some point or another, have speculated what a game involving both Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog would be like. In days gone by, we idly wondered how a game involving two of the biggest icons in video-gaming history could be pulled off. Now, at long last, just such a game has arrived... in the form of a mini-game collection for the Wii (making it what must be the consoles two-hundredth mini-game collection).Were not here to bemoan the waste of a potentially fabulous crossover though. Were here to judge the finished product, so lets get our running shoes on and see how this trip to a surprisingly smog-free Beijing holds up.The game gives you 16 characters and 24 events to keep you occupied, playable either separately or in a series of three to five events. Track, Field and Aquatics events play similarly to athletics benchmarks such as Athlete Kings and International Track and Field, only replacing the frantic button-mashing of those games with frantic stick-drumming. The Track and Swimming events are repetitive in the extreme and very hard on the arms, so theyre not likely to be touched again once they are beaten. Field events are more interesting in that they test timing, but the sensitivity of the controls seems inconsistent, especially in the jumping events; there doesnt seem to be a happy medium between too weak and too strong a jump.The Skeet event, however, is fantastic, working like a remake of the classic Duck Hunt while adding some inventive twists of its own. So too is the Fencing, which actually requires strategy to do well in and proves to be a great game in its own right. The Dream events are also interesting, each of which being different and requiring their own tactics.As in any game of this sort though, some events are not worth playing. The Table Tennis is one such event, with very poor controller feedback causing you to swing when you were only preparing for a backhand, while requiring you to practically throw your Wiimote across the room to register a backhand. The event goes on far too long as well, especially for an event thats just no fun.By far the worst event is the Archery, which is a dismal failure on every level. It suffers from one of the most convoluted control schemes weve ever seen in any game, unresponsive controller feedback and the CPUs are insanely good, to the point where your only chance of scoring above last place is to score constant bulls-eyes. This is a wretched event that needed serious work before the games release. Bizarrely, theres no practice mode, so you cant perfect your timing and precision for certain events before entering competition.The graphics look great (with the exception of some horrible bit-mapped spectators). Theres no sign of obvious polygons and theres some great animation on display. Stylistically, its amazing just how good the Mario and Sonic casts look together, looking like they belong in each-others company. Sadly, the music and sounds are much less memorable, and the voice samples irritate because theyre often repeated constantly.The presentation of this game also comes across as very poker-faced, in spite of the cartoony characters. Sure, there are plenty of cameos from both Mario and Sonic games of old, but both Nintendo and Sega missed a great opportunity to have fun and take the piss out of each others franchises. The only clever joke we came across was that Sonic has to wear a life-jacket to take part in the swimming events (he cant actually swim, you see). This lack of humour generally sums up what the game feels like; a missed opportunity.Multiplayer proves to be the games saving grace. As is always the case with these mini-game compendiums, it proves to be much more fun with other human players to compete against and the controls are simple enough for anyone to take part and master the events. Sadly, theres no online mode, except for the use of leaderboards. Theres also a mission mode, requiring you to complete events in specific ways, such as in a certain time or position, but this is only really for completionists.This game is certainly entertaining, but only for a few days, and several of the events just prove too aggravating to replay again once youve done them as often as you need to. As much as we loved the Skeet shooting, Fencing and Dream events, they alone are not enough to carry the game. The games main selling point is the chance to finally see Mario and Sonic go head-to-head, but even the potential excitement about that has faded with the inclusion of Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What were left with is another Wii mini-game collection, with too many niggles to make it as playable as Wii Sports. Ultimately, we cannot recommend it as a full-price purchase, but it still makes for a solid rental for a night in with friends.