Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Game: Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Games
Genre: Mini-Game
Platform: Wii, DS (Reviewed on Wii)

I came into work this morning already in a foul mood from the great Rock Band debacle, and found a copy of the recent Wii release Mario & Sonic: At the Olympic Games on my desk waiting to be reviewed. I hoped that maybe some quirky Olympic-style mini-games with Nintendo and Sega’s respective mascots might brighten my spirits a little bit. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite have that effect.

When this game was announced, I actually thought it had the potential to be kind of neat; after all, seeing Mario and Sonic together in the same game was something that had never occurred before. However, with a slew of party games already in my Wii library, I thought it might be better to hold off before plopping down $49.99 for this one. That turned out to be a wise choice, because although this game does deliver some degree of fun, it’s really too shallow and, at times, frustrating to warrant such a purchase.

First things first, it’s not all bad. Many of the games, especially the track and swimming events, actually offer a degree of challenge not usually seen in mini-game compilations. It feels kind of like Track & Field mixed with Super Monkey Ball, both of which are fairly entertaining titles. Some of the games are pretty fun; gymnastics, where you have to pull off a series of moves using Wii remote and button combinations, was probably my best category, but several others had me going again and again trying to improve my score.

Playing with a friend is really the optimal experience for this game. Unless you’re a star athlete, beating the computer opponents in any of the races proved to be very difficult. To run, you swing the remote and nunchuk up and down alternately, a method that has been used in games before and is usually pretty effective. However, in this case, you really have to work to place in the top three. I know I’m a little out of shape and all, but I shouldn’t have to warm up before playing a track and field simulation.

The gameplay can get pretty repetitive; aside from a few unique events, most of the track and swimming events use the same controls, and a lot of them I’ve seen before in other Wii games (most notably Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, which came out a year ago for the system). I played through most of the single events to get a feel for them, then tried a full-length circuit, only to not be able to make it past the first event. The control explanations are not always clear and sometimes far too lengthy; like in past party titles, instructions should be minimal and to-the-point so that the gamer does not lose interest. I shouldn’t have to spend more time reading about how to play than I do on the individual events themselves.

Had the game had more fluid controls and an entertaining single-player mode, it probably would have worked a whole lot better. As it is, I can’t see it being fun for more than a short amount of time. Though it has its moments, they’re not enough to make me deplete my bank account fifty bucks for a game that’s only sometimes fun.