Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games [Wii]
VyperAus, 26-Nov-09 » Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games - Review by VyperAus
With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, Sega have been first in releasing an Official Winter Olympic title with Mario and Sonic at the Winter Games on the Nintendo Wii.
Sonic and Mario have previously been to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and that was a real entertaining and fun game to play. So is the Winter Olympics title just a rehashed version or is there new stuff to play with?
As with the real Winter Olympics there are a wide variety of events that you can enter, including skiing, the ski jump, ice hockey, snowboarding and of course everybody’s favourite ‘cleaning’ event Curling. Each of these provide plenty of challenges for both the single player to a group of friends (up to four) playing as a team or against each other. Once more you can play as single events, participate in training or you can go the whole nine yards and play the Festival mode that simulates the entire 18 day Winter Olympics.
The official events are there but SEGA has also added some extra events in the form of ‘Dream Events’. These aren’t in the Winter Olympics officially but are included to add an extra element and extend the games longevity as in order to play them you must unlock them by good performances in the official events.
The Nintendo Wii is aimed more at the family than other consoles and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games doesn’t disappoint with the very enjoyable Party mode that lets the whole family compete against each other in three different game styles. These games are designed to encourage co-operation, team play and most importantly be fun!
The Wii-mote is fully utilised and all of the available events make good use of the controller but a number of events hark back to ‘old school’ gaming days where the controller is held and the buttons do the work, no motion control, real Old Skool gaming.
It’s obvious that a lot of effort has been put into the controls for the different events as whether you’re new to the game or a Wii-regular you’ll be able to adapt and participate in the events very quickly. All of this helps as a lot of sports games have complicated button, controller combinations to perform actions but not Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics. You can pick the controller up and within a minute or two be curling like a pro or gathering speed on a downhill run.
SEGA have learnt from the previous Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympic title by adding in a whole range of new features to make the game last longer. One of the major features is the introduction of Star tokens, these can be earned by a certain number of tricks in an event, breaking a Olympic or World Record or finishing on the Podium. You can visit the Olympic Village and use these Star Tokens in one of four shops. These shops give you the chance to customise your character and gear by adding decals, paint jobs and more.
On the subject of characters, all the favourites are lining up for their shot at Winter Olympic glory but you can also import your Mii character and have a crack at getting to the podium as yourself. The game characters all have various traits that affect their performance in the game but they are roughly grouped into Speed, Skill, Power and the All Rounder groups. The groups do affect how they perform in each event, some are better than others at different events but don’t take these statistics at face value, characters have hidden potential which can appear in different events and may surprise you.
Once more SEGA have produced a game that will give a family hours of fun, and probably more with all the little added bonuses hidden in the game, making sure that there will be a few frustrating but fun hours trying to get more stars and find all the hidden secrets. We thought it might be hard to beat the previous Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympics game but we’re pleased to say that this game is better, the new features are integrated perfectly and each event is good enough to keep you coming back for more time after time.
I rate it 8.5 out of 10
For more info visit http://www.olympicvideogames.com/mario-and-sonic-winter/
With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, Sega have been first in releasing an Official Winter Olympic title with Mario and Sonic at the Winter Games on the Nintendo Wii.
Sonic and Mario have previously been to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and that was a real entertaining and fun game to play. So is the Winter Olympics title just a rehashed version or is there new stuff to play with?
As with the real Winter Olympics there are a wide variety of events that you can enter, including skiing, the ski jump, ice hockey, snowboarding and of course everybody’s favourite ‘cleaning’ event Curling. Each of these provide plenty of challenges for both the single player to a group of friends (up to four) playing as a team or against each other. Once more you can play as single events, participate in training or you can go the whole nine yards and play the Festival mode that simulates the entire 18 day Winter Olympics.
The official events are there but SEGA has also added some extra events in the form of ‘Dream Events’. These aren’t in the Winter Olympics officially but are included to add an extra element and extend the games longevity as in order to play them you must unlock them by good performances in the official events.
The Nintendo Wii is aimed more at the family than other consoles and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games doesn’t disappoint with the very enjoyable Party mode that lets the whole family compete against each other in three different game styles. These games are designed to encourage co-operation, team play and most importantly be fun!
The Wii-mote is fully utilised and all of the available events make good use of the controller but a number of events hark back to ‘old school’ gaming days where the controller is held and the buttons do the work, no motion control, real Old Skool gaming.
It’s obvious that a lot of effort has been put into the controls for the different events as whether you’re new to the game or a Wii-regular you’ll be able to adapt and participate in the events very quickly. All of this helps as a lot of sports games have complicated button, controller combinations to perform actions but not Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics. You can pick the controller up and within a minute or two be curling like a pro or gathering speed on a downhill run.
SEGA have learnt from the previous Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympic title by adding in a whole range of new features to make the game last longer. One of the major features is the introduction of Star tokens, these can be earned by a certain number of tricks in an event, breaking a Olympic or World Record or finishing on the Podium. You can visit the Olympic Village and use these Star Tokens in one of four shops. These shops give you the chance to customise your character and gear by adding decals, paint jobs and more.
On the subject of characters, all the favourites are lining up for their shot at Winter Olympic glory but you can also import your Mii character and have a crack at getting to the podium as yourself. The game characters all have various traits that affect their performance in the game but they are roughly grouped into Speed, Skill, Power and the All Rounder groups. The groups do affect how they perform in each event, some are better than others at different events but don’t take these statistics at face value, characters have hidden potential which can appear in different events and may surprise you.
Once more SEGA have produced a game that will give a family hours of fun, and probably more with all the little added bonuses hidden in the game, making sure that there will be a few frustrating but fun hours trying to get more stars and find all the hidden secrets. We thought it might be hard to beat the previous Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympics game but we’re pleased to say that this game is better, the new features are integrated perfectly and each event is good enough to keep you coming back for more time after time.
For more info visit http://www.olympicvideogames.com/mario-and-sonic-winter/
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| Category: | Game Reviews |
| Posted: | 26-Nov-09 2:46:44 pm |
| Author: | VyperAus |