Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

While the Mario franchise has successfully milked the jumping Italian plumbers name for everything it's worth, Sonic hasn't been as lucky. Plagued by horrific plotlines that resemble a combination of Dragon Ball Z mixed with concentrated stupid and gameplay that spits in the face of what made the original games successful, Sonic has rapidly declined into a bit of a joke over the years. However, when looking directly at the differences between the Sonic and Mario games, one could definitely draw the wrong conclusion about Sonic's deterioration. After all, both successful platformers moved to 3D and increased the amount of background story at relatively similar times. However as Sonic mostly kept faux platforming, Mario lent his likeness to dozens and dozens of spin-off titles.

Someone at either Sega or Nintendo has seen this and decided Sonic could do with a bit of help, so Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games was born. Essentially this is Track and Field on the Wii starring your favourite blue hedgehog and Italian plumber.

There hasn't always been a lot to the Track and Field games -most of them were blister causing button mashers - but when carrying the format across to the Wii the games seem to be further reduced to a series of mad arm waggling interspersed with the occasional skeet shooting event. If you want to sprint, you waggle the Wiimote and Nunchuck furiously. If you want to do Hurdles, you waggle furiously and press the B button sometimes. Long jump? Waggle and B. High Jump, Pole Vault, the list goes on. It's not an especially bad thing, as there's no denying that the repetition was evident in previous Olympics and Track and Field games, but waggling takes a lot more effort compared to mashing your thumb, so it accentuates it more.

Of course, to allay the repetitive feeling the game features quite a few other games. There's Archery, Trampoline jumping, Fencing and Table Tennis amongst others. Most of these are good, but some of them are quite underwhelming. There are also "Dream" games, which are a little less Olympics themed. There's a race one that's basically Mario Kart on foot, table tennis - self-explanatory, fencing which is the same and Dream Platform, which is BASE jumping. They mix things up a little nicely. Both version of Table Tennis are by far the worst mini-games available. With time I'm sure there is someone out there who could master the game, but party games are designed to be quick and simple. Table Tennis instead averages about 7 minutes per match and is amazingly imprecise, not a pick up and play game at all.

It doesn't pose much of a problem however, as it's only mandatory to play when you are unlocking all the events. Like most Party Games, S & M inexplicably requires you to play through a single player mode to unlock all the cool events. It's an effort to make the game into something more than just a Sega and Nintendo mascot themed Olympic title, but all it does is annoy you. How many times have you played a party game at a friend's house and had bundles of fun, been prompted to buy it for some sort of get together only to promptly return it after you and your friends find you have to sit there unlocking all the games?

Presentation wise Mario and Sonic is a slick game. It is colourful and bright and it's obvious they've given a lot of attention to the character design - except for Dr Robotnik (or Eggman as the game insists). Robotnik looks ridiculous. Granted, I haven't touched a Sonic game since five minutes into Sonic Adventure, but Dr R is like a beach ball on stilts. Ignoring Robotnik though everyone else looks good, and the addition of Miis is well done - they even have arms and legs. The sound is cool too, it seems very... competitive.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games seems like a shameless cash-in on the imminent Beijing Olympic Games. Beneath shiny character models and inconsequential character stats the game is just the latest International Track and Field. Fans of the series will have mixed feelings for its translation to the Wii though. Some will find the new waggle controls to be too far removed from the (literally) blistering controls of the previous games. Others will enjoy them and relish the new challenge. Because of the love/hate nature of Track and Field, newcomers will take it or leave it. Fans of Mario will buy this just like they have every other Mario spin-off, and I can't see any other reason people would have purchased Sonic 2007 except for the fact that it has Sonic in it, so they'll get this as well.

I'd probably buy this game though. It's been a while since WarioWare came out, and there's no question that the Wii is an excellent platform for these short sharp mini-games. If you've only got a Wii pick this up for 4 player fun. If you've got a Wii and a 360 or PS3, perhaps pick this one up next february when there aren't a million amazing games coming out. It's a cash-in, but it's still fun.

I just hope that next time Mario and Sonic go head to head it will be in an environment they're both familiar with. Maybe they could team up in a platforming game... Do either of them still do that?