Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Review

If you never played the original game of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games then you missed out. This was an absolute gem of a game on the DS and just showed you what you can do with the portable console for controls and fun in gaming. So now we have our hands on the latest release, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. So will this game be a stellar knock out like the last game or will it not score as highly with the judges?  Let’s find out.

 

As with any normal review, I jumped straight into the single match mode which is available on the start up screen to get my bearings with the game before setting out to break some records. From the get go, you get nine sports and sixteen event modes which you can try your hand at, all of which are key events, later in the game you will be competing against other characters for the top spot.

 

Similar to other previous Mario and Sonic Olympic Games, characters are split up into different categories ranging from an all around player which will be good on all events to power, speed and skill type characters. This, again, is up to you as to who you pick but all are better at one event than others, trying each character out will determine which is best for you . Obviously, when having a downhill skiing race a speed character is advisable but probably isn’t the best for figure skating, though it is funny seeing Doctor Eggman, or Bowser trying to compete in these events.  

 

Like in the previous Mario and Sonic Olympic Games, you are given dream events which are a twist on the normal events for the Olympic Games - these include skiing down a hill going through check points collecting rings and boxes, which have weapons that can be used against your foes.  Most of the weapons are lifted straight out of the Mario Kart, but it’s a nice change and it’s good to see some classic levels from Mario and Sonic taking on a winter feel.

 

The final note on types of game play is the party play modes which use both Dream and Olympic events to compete against friends. The first type of party play modes is the Bingo Bash where you have to get five events lines up in a row either across, down or diagonally. Balls are drawn from the bingo machine which allows you to mark that down on your card, there are four types of balls character balls events balls star balls and mystery balls. If that character appears on your card when that ball is drawn out you can mark it on your card. If the star ball is drawn you can punch out your centre square which are on all of the players bingo cards. Event balls use events which you have to compete in, the winner of the event gets to mark that event on their card and finally surprise balls wreck havoc on your bingo sheet and could make you lose your position from first to last almost instantly.

 

The next party event is the Wild Card, the aim of the game is to match four of a kind cards in your pile. Once the game has begun you get drawn four random cards and the event is picked for all players to take part in. The first and second place players are then able to select players on who they want to trade with, 1st place trades twice and 2nd place trades once. The person who came in last has to reveal one card this will stay revealed so everyone can see what card that is.

 

 The final party game is Lucky Spin, this game again is all about picking an event and finishing in the top groupto get a chance at earning points by spinning a wheel, there are certain items you can use to help you do this. Like all the mini games the person with the best knowledge of the events will win. 

 

In all of these party modes you are really playing more events with your friends with add ons which in a sense doesn’t seem to add anything to the game play. While this mixes up the game play, most just seem to make the events drag on a bit and the person who has spent the most time playing the game will end up winning due to their skill and knowledge of the  events. 

 

After feeling a little bit braver I ventured into the single match before hitting the adventure mode. While this offers a quick gaming play style, allowing you to choose the event that you want to compete in, it is good fun and probably the best mode for anyone who just wants a quick and casual run of a certain event. Again you will be rated on your performance and given Star points which you can use to buy even more items from the shops as you progress in the game.

 

Whilst most of the sports use the stylus or d-pad controls, the controls on a whole work well and most events will see you using the controls in different ways - in the Skiing for example, you will be using the stylus to turn into corners and to do tricks. The controls are a lot better than the Wii controls and I feel this is fair more accurate.

 

A nice touch is the Ice Hockey event, which has you in a team of four facing off against another four CPU controlled opponents. Passing is done via tapping the stylus in the direction you want the pass, once you have passed the puck around long enough the power will build up for you to take a power shot. Movement is controlled via the stylus. 

 

After each of the events you will be given a medal on how well you have done on that particular event there are three different levels of difficulty so you can always try your hand at a harder difficultly if you feel the game is too easy.

 

Playing through a few single events I decided to go the full hog and enter the adventure mode which is a slightly different way to play the game. 

 

The story starts that Eggman and Bowser have kidnapped the Snow Sprites, these Sprites control the snow and where snow is due,  this   means that there will be no snow for the Winter Olympic games. You control Mario and Sonic as you travel through a Pokémon like adventure you re-take the Snow Sprites and save the day. Instead of some turn based battles like Final Fantasy or  Pokémon you are treated to sporting events that are used not only to defeat most of the bad guys but also add more characters to your team allowing you to get a good all-round team to compete in events and only some characters can get past certain obstacles within the game. The feel of this adventure mode is good and makes a good diverse split from what you see in most sport games today.

 

Nice little touches to the game - which I’m sure most people won’t notice - is the weather settings allowing you, to choose the weather on the events you play, this can also be put to random to mix it up a little bit.

 

Mario and Sonic get top points for adding some new variety with game modes and becoming rare to see a portable version of a game to receive  better or equal marks to the console version, but the new adventure mode gets top marks in being unique and creative as the controls are great if not better than the Wii version.

 

This is a definite buy if you played the first, although it hasn’t made any major changes to the series, it’s  added a lot more fun.