Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Review

Last year the unlikely duo of Mario and Sonic teamed up for the first time in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The game was a fairly decent attempt at creating an Olympics game set in the cutesy worlds of Mario and Sonic. Although most of the games were simple and straight forward they still made a solid collection of mini-games. Now Mario and Sonic are back in the Olympic Winter Games.

Olympic Winter Game,s like the Mario & Sonic title before it places about 20 characters from the Mario and Sonic world against each other in a variety of Olympic games. As the title suggested this time the characters will be participating in in games like Down Hill Skiing, Ice Hockey, Snowboarding and more. As far as being true to the Olympics this game is done fairly well, almost all the major games are here and some that you may not have expected. The whole game has an appropriate winter theme to it and it looks like attention was paid to the presentation.

Some of the presentation value does however fall a little once you get into the games themselves, on the graphics side the game is just about on par with the standard Wii title. Visually nothing stands out, the characters all look the same as they normally do in their respective games, the environments are some what bland and the crowds are noticeably choppy. Likewise the audio is decent and exactly what you would expect from this type of game, sound effects and voices are cutesy, and the tunes equally the same. Again like the visuals nothing about the audio really stands above any other typical game on the Wii.

Gameplay is mostly reduced to waggling the Wiimote, and pressing the A and B buttons at certain times. The games are very simplistic and no game here really has much depth to it, because of this many might find the game too easy for gamers in their teens and up. Taking this into consideration there are a few games that can get competitive especially when you bring on a few of your friends, since almost every game goes up to 4 players. Games like Curling and Hockey are two of the best games probably in this collection and could have easily fit in with a Wii Sports collection. Also interesting to note that in addition to the Olympic Games there are also Dream Games available to play. Dream Games are more along the lines of a Mario or Sonic game, with faster speeds, items, and power ups they actually become a lot more fun than the regular games. Unfortunately most of these Dream Games need to be unlocked by playing the more bland Olympic games.

Overall Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games is a good title for younger audiences, the cute characters and simple gameplay mechanics will be easy for kids to play through without feeling frustrated, however for older gamers who are Mario and Sonic fans might not be able to find enough depth in the collection to warrant a recommendation, there are a few games that could keep their interests but it’s only a handful. This is not to say Olympic Winter Games is a bad game by any means it’s just that it would be enjoyed most by younger gamers and their parents.

Overall  7