Written By Wrecker & Schrekdog

The winter Olympics are over 3 months away and in Australia, with summer slowly approaching, the snow covered mountains of Vancouver are probably not a big talking point amongst Aussies at the moment. Well thats about to change as Mario, Sonic and their respective crews return to the Olympics. This time it's on the legendary slopes of Whistler. Yep, you guessed it; it’s Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games on the Nintendo Wii.

The first thing you will notice in this title is the just how excellent the lengthy introduction is. It features scenes with the key Sega and Nintendo characters competing in various winter sports, with the usual slapstick humour of course. The intro is colourful, smooth and crystal clear and does its job in getting you excited about what lies ahead. Here’s hoping it’s not all ’downhill’ from here. As the game is an IOC licensed product you’ll find all the official logos, graphics, mascots, as well as stadiums and venues are used throughout the game.

Mario and Sonic have each brought along their usual mob of friends and foes. There are a couple of new faces such as Bowser Jr. and Metal Sonic and in total ten characters from each stable. They have their own attributes divided into speed, power, all-around and skill types. However the difference between them in play is minimal and generally unnoticeable during competition. Characters all have their unique persona including cutesy catch-cries and moves. You can ignore these characters and play as your Mii, and rightly so, as this is exactly the type of game that can make good use of Miis.

Most games modes in Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games cater for one to four players, including the main mode “Festival”, the “Single Event” mode and obviously the “Party Games”, so having a few people around is ideal. There is a comprehensive training mode with detailed explanations of events, gameplay movies and control demonstrations. You should be more than ready to hit the slopes after completing training.

Fortunately there are multiple controls schemes available for play and you can get by with just a Wii Remote by itself. However to appreciate more realistic play it’s best include a Nunchuk and a Wii Balance Board. Obviously using the balance board for all events is impractical but is definitely worth using for the chosen events. The controls for the majority of the events are adequate but are a little underwhelming; not many events will really inspire you to pick up and try again; it is often more appealing to move on and try another event. The attention to detail seems to be lacking in favour of offering more events and options to choose from.

Speaking of events you’ve pretty much got your standard Winter Olympic fare. On the slopes you can ski (downhill, slalom, freestyle), snowboard (half-pipe, snowboard cross) or tackle ski jumping. The ice rink offers speed and figure skating, curling and ice hockey. You can also attempt some Bobsleigh and Skeleton. Admittedly the ice hockey is no NHL and the snowboarding is no Shaun White but provides adequate mini-game representations of the sports; obviously if you are fans of either Shaun White or NHL you will definitely feel underwhelmed by the Mario and Sonic versions. However the hockey is still not bad for replay value and provides a few laughs with more than one player.

Playing this game involves a combination of titling, flicking or leaning (Balance Board) to turn, jump and perform tricks. There is no button mashing; in fact there is very little use of the buttons at all. While the controls for most events are responsive, all in all there is no great complexity and are a bit simple at times. This contributes to a lack of challenge and at times some rather dull play, however it also makes this game more accessible to a wider audience.

Some events have distinct controls like Speed Skating where a steady side-to-side rhythm of the remote is required or Figure Skating that includes timing jumps in circles as you skate across the ice, waving the wand following on screen patterns. For the Skeleton and Bobsleigh you can actually sit on the balance board and sway side to side to steer or if you’re really keen you can lie on it in the 'skeleton' position. Who'd of ever thought you'd use your bum as a controller. It's a novel implementation of the board and although it is fairly rudimentary/simple it does its job quite nicely.

Festival mode allows players to take part in a seventeen day Olympic schedule, complete with opening and closing ceremonies. There are some nice cut scenes included too. Luckily this can be undertaken alone or better still co-operatively with up to three others. However, if you have already gone through the training mode, you’ll have to do training for each event again, as training for an event is considered an ‘event’ in itself, which is a bit painful. There are usually two or three ‘events’ per day and every now and then you’ll be challenged to a one-on-one duel in a given event from classic Nintendo and Sega characters, which are the equivalent of boss battles.

Of all the modes, cooperative play turns out to be one of the game's better features. Bobsleigh, for example, requires all players to control the turning of the sled at once, rewarding you as a team, which is a refreshing style of gameplay. Others events, such as Downhill events utilise the split-screen format with other players represented by ghosts so you can track their whereabouts. This mode provides a good mix of play modes and it works surprisingly well.

Along with ‘traditional’ Winter Games events, the developers have included special ‘Dream’ events, which incorporate themes from traditional Mario and Sonic games. For example, the Dream Alpine track looks rather like a 3D level of Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with loop-de-loops, gold rings and all too familiar sound effects, as well as Mario Kart boxes and weapons, like Koopa shells, to off your opponents. While this might sound awesome it is another underwhelming feature especially if you are used to playing the original games, like Mario Kart. Dream Bobsleigh, is a psychedelic Sonic-like tunnel ride that is so bad that it may seem its only real purpose is to hypnotise you (or induce seizures) so you don’t realise how awful the gameplay is. Although these modes do break up the “serious” game modes they do come across as disjointed and “messy” with too much going on on-screen and at times are sluggish and cumbersome.

Throughout the game, players are rewarded with star tokens, based on performance or for completing simple tasks such as going through a ‘gate’. These tokens allow you to go shopping at the village center. Here, players can customize their Mii’s at the Boutique (clothes – including Mario & Sonic costumes, shoes, beanie and gloves) and alter the appearance of their skis, board and even bobsleigh at the Sports Shop. This is a worthy addition to the game and its nice to have input into the appearance of your Mii and see it reflect in the game. The village also contains a Library (Olympics Games history) and a Music Shop (where you can buy level background tunes including remixes of past Mario and Sonic games so you can get your SEGA/Nintendo gaming nostalgia fix).

There are three Party Games present in Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games, which essentially contain the same events as the other game modes under a different guise. It was a bit of an ordeal trying to select the correct Mii or character in the correct player slot, due to a lengthy pause, possibly caused by loading custom decals for your characters. All the game modes involve earning points from events that can help or hinder your chances. In Balloon Attack points earned determine your quota of ammo for the point-and-shoot balloon popping game – where the most fun is had when you run out of ammo you can block other player's shots. Wheel Challenge a game show style presentation allows you to earn more points if you beat the pre-determined ‘leader’ in events. These mini games are OK but really come across as an afterthought and don’t really to add to the overall gaming experience.

Apart from the great intro, the in-game graphics in Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games are fairly dull. They are not poor by any standards but are far from mind-blowing. The in-game graphics at times appear to be somewhat blurry or muddy with a lot of jagged edges. Character movements are fairly smooth, but the character models themselves are not that great – especially after seeing the fantastically clean and colourful renditions present in the cut scenes.

It’s not all bad though. For a game set predominately in a white environment there is quite a bit of colour, from the menus to the background crowd, inflatable mascots and flags, not too mention the Dream Events levels. All locations and stadiums appear quite realistic, with the main stadium reminiscent of Docklands Stadium here in Melbourne. There are also some nice touches including the reflections on the ice and the large on-course spectator screens.

Mario & Sonic At The Winter Olympic Games, or “Lympic Games” as the game voice over states, contains a typically dramatic, if a little cheesy, title score. All of the in-game sound effects are quite effective, ranging from the sound of traversing the snow and ice to the shuddering of the bobsleigh as it hurtles down the track. You can expect the usual Nintendo voicing as well as some of the cutesy cringe-worthy catch-cries like "let's do it!". There is some diversity from the main soundtrack in the form of classical tracks for the figure skating routines, such as Swan Lake, The Four Seasons and The Nutcracker, while the Dream Events provide a contrast with suitably modern/upbeat tunes.

There are numerous awards and achievements to obtain throughout the game and records of these are saved, including personal bests, awards gallery, Olympic medals and emblems. Emblems are obtained after completing certain tasks such as executing a ‘start dash’ however like many of these features appears more of a gimmick, similar to earning cub scout merit badges. You can also save a ghost runs for certain events which is also good for replay value.

Records can be compared online via the Nintendo WFC world rankings, however this is the only online component, which is rather disappointing. Another feature overlooked is Motion Plus and the game could only have benefited from more accurate controls. All of the traditional events are available to play from the start, meaning the Dream Events are the only levels to unlock (once completed in Festival mode), and apart from that there is not a great deal to unlock in the game.

The Final Verdict

Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games is generally more of the same from the previous edition with a few new novelties thrown in. There actually seems to be twice as much to do in this game compared with the last, but is it twice as enjoyable? Not really. The gameplay is not all that enthralling and the controls are rudimentary most of the time. This title attempts to be a “jack of all trades” and ends up being a master of none; there are a lot of things to do but in isolation they all seem to be fairly plain; there is nothing that really stands out. The addition of Dream Events, character and equipment customization and the inclusion of Balance Board controls does liven things up, however like the mini-games included there is no hiding the fact that this game feels like it’s “been there, done that”. That’s not to say it isn’t worth trying out if you are a fan of the series and it is still a fun, family oriented entertainer.

Gameplay

7.0/10

A solid, albeit generic, sports party game with simple controls and some novel additions. Accessible to all age groups and best played with others.

Graphics

6.5/10

Intro was great; but made the rest of the game appear a bit muddy and lacking polish. Decent character models and animations.

Sound

6.0/10

A fairly standard score and adequate sound effects.

Value

7.0/10

A good variety of events. Balance board implementation. Unique cooperative multiplayer mode. Average mini games. No online play or Motion Plus optimization.

Overall

6.6/10