NIDZUMI+

When you think of Mario and Sonic you think of old times, blocky graphics and incredibly good advertising slogans like “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”. In all honesty after all the nostalgia has died down, the one thing you don’t think of are the Olympic Games.

Yet that’s what we saw two years ago in preparation for the Beijing 2008 Olympics and it was released to sub-par reviews to say the least. Naturally two years on, steadily approaching the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, here’s the second underwhelming crossover between the two greatest mascots in video games.

After the nostalgia has died down, you don’t think of the Olympic Games

Taking cues from the original Mario & Sonic, Sega have naturally presented us with another mini-game collection. Luckily winter sports seem to make better mini-games especially if you have a Wii Balance Board to hop on. Not all games can be used in conjunction with the Board and it’s clear that this functionality was included as a ‘why not’ rather than an attempt to better what Wii Fit has done with it’s Ski Jump and Slalom style games. Nevertheless these games demand a bit more and you’ll be rewarded with a few better modes.

There are a handful of modes and games to play here; it will take you hours to go through them all. Unfortunately, a majority of them lack the required depth for repeat playthroughs. That is unless you’re playing with a few friends and a natural competitive streak will come out. Still the games never have enough to draw you back. Most of the games focus on one-on-one versus sports, which means you won’t have the take-it-in-turns-leaderboard-beating-marathons you’ve had before.

If multiplayer isn’t really your thing you can take the game’s Festival Mode for a spin. Here you’ll experience the full Vancouver 2010 experience from opening ceremony to the very last event. You’ll partake in every single event against the AI, which is embarrassingly poor, instantly eliminating the fun for experienced players.

Frankly the rest of the game is a little bit overcomplicated to be a simple pick up and play game, hundreds of unlockables, constantly totalling scores and a plethora of characters. The line-up does, however, read like a who’s who of the Mario and Sonic universe but it just goes to show how weak the Sonic universe is outside the main handful of characters.

The line-up reads like a who’s who of the Mario and Sonic universe

Considering the legacy and heritage behind the two names, you would expect more than this mixed bag of Winter Olympic themed mini-games. Nevertheless there is some brief enjoyment to be had while trolling through each individual mode. If the modes had depth, possibly something that could have come hand-in-hand with any use of the MotionPlus, then this would be recommendable. The game does actually have a good breadth of sports and modes, honestly though only a few of them will be worth your attention.