Mario and Sonic At the Olympic Games is a collection of 24 minigames and is licensed by the Olympic Committee as official merchandise for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. The videogame lets your family play as 16 different Sega and Nintendo videogame characters, while competing in Track, Field, Aquatics, Gymnastics and other Olympic disciplines. The game also supports the use of Mii’s.
The diversity of events will likely have everyone in your family find something they will enjoy. However, not all events are unlocked from the beginning and we observed unbalanced levels of difficulty throughout all disciplines. Choosing the appropriate character for a certain event can have huge advantages. But unfortunately, there are events like Skeet Shooting and Archery, that will have kids under the age of 10 and casual adult players struggling no matter who they play as. The game also includes a number of unlockable fantasy events, which add little to the overall experience.
Most events follow their real-life Olympic counterparts in regards of length and rules, but keep in mind - this is not a sports simulation game by any means. This is a typical “shake your Wii-mote as fast as you can” game. Mario and Sonic let’s players choose a country of origin when creating a profile, however no national anthems are played during the Medal Award Ceremony - which is not very “Olympic” at all…
Much of the Wii marketing effort is focused around playing with friends and family. And while it is definitely most fun to play in a group, we where surprised what little options are given to customize and set up a multiplayer game or tournament.
Mario and Sonic At the Olympic Games is well worth a look, but it is by far not the outstanding family-fun sports game we had hoped it would be.
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