Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games [Wii]

Posted October 25, 2009 by Benjamin Blank in Featured, Featured Home, Reviews, Wii.

Reviewed on the Wii

I’ve always steered clear of Olympic sports games due to one key factor; I absolutely suck at repeatedly and quickly hitting a button over and over again. It’s plagued my entire video game history, from Metal Gear Solid to the end of Resident Evil 5. Hell, even the most recent Prince Of Persia was difficult for me because of it.

Then there’s the otherside of the fence. I’m a keen admirer of Sonic The Hedgehog (while also enjoying Mario). Until a few years back, these two things wouldn’t have anything to do with each other, and in a way they still don’t. As the original Mario And Sonic title replaced button pressing with waggle, and for that I actually enjoyed the title, a lot.

But it had its shortcomings; the presentation was a little lacking, characters looked stiff, and the whole thing felt slightly thrown together with a distinct lack of polish. Plus the controls were usually overly complicated. However, I’ve had high hopes for the sequel, the original had potential and after selling ten million copies, I’d imagined Sega would have more than enough backing to work on the flaws.

In short, Olympic Winter Games is superior in every aspect possible. The obvious change and one of the game’s biggest improvements is the setting. While the original looked somewhat bland, ironically the representation of Vancouver’s snow covered landscapes are bursting with life and look absolutely stunning.

Even the menus and content outside of the events, such as the shopping district, retain this feeling. Maybe it’s just coincidence, or maybe it’s the lack of proper winters in England, but snow levels in games are always beautiful. And if nothing else Winter Olympic Games feel much like Ice Cap Zone did all those years ago, and to many still does.

But how do the events fare? There are over ten events, and most have dream variations of themselves. Unlike the original title, there aren’t games that are far superior to others, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great games here. In fact, quite the opposite, as the games here are all very enjoyable.

The events are spread throughout a 17 day festival, available in single and team mode, which changes the events available, as well as other small but noticeable differences. The festival will take a few hours to plug through, but overall it’s a bit too easy and I found myself coming first far more times than I should have. However, it’s highly enjoyable and a great way to experience all the events.

The presentation here is notable in that it gives off the impression of an actual festival instead of you just plowing through all the games one after another. You’ll be mentored by Cream and Toad, and even have the occasional boss fight with characters such as King Boo, Eggman Nega, Rouge, Dry Bones and E-102 Gamma, that sadly, aren’t unlockable.

The highlights of the events are definitely based upon personal choice; while I found Curling to be a little too slow and Half Pipe dogged by an overall simplistic nature, others may not. But with that each event will offer something to someone. Still, none really come off as weaker, keeping the entire package well rounded and offering a consistent high quality of gameplay.

The only downfall to the events are that some of them don’t feel distinguished enough from each other. The Alpine events feel and look almost identical to each other, while Ski Cross is practically the same game minus the gates to glide through. And the Speed Skating events, such as 500m and Short Track 1,000m, have the same problem; they look nearly identical, although they do have radically different control schemes.

Aside from the actual events, however, are the Dream variations, which have been ramped up since the original title. Before you got tacked on mini-events that used different areas as backgrounds. They were underwhelming, to say the least. In Olympic Winter Games, the Dream Events are far more developed,  offering not only an interesting alternative to the existing events, but a completely different event all their own.

All these events can be experienced with a huge number of control choices, resulting in at least one option any gamer will feel comfortable with. Sadly, the Wii Balance Board doesn’t work as well as it should. Maybe it’s my own balance issues, but I found the complete lack of control in nearly all the games left me no choice but to avoid it.

Aside from the events there is a wealth of content to unlock, from Mii clothes that change their stats to songs and items for your town hub center. Even multiplayer isn’t a straight forward case of events one after the other with the inclusion of party mode, which puts various spins on how you score points for the overall win.

With a massive amount of content, a big selection of events that all feature good to brilliant controls, and a stunning level of presentation, Olympic Winter Games is a an all round great package. It may be a bit too easy for some, and some events may not last as long as you’d like, but these do not take away anything from the overall high standard.

Tagged as 2010 Winter Olympics, DS, mario, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter games, Nintendo, Sega, Sonic, Vancouver, Wii