Mario & Sonic

26.11.2007

To appease the bad conscience of gamers lolling lazily in front of the monitor, sports games were invented in the eighties. In the beginning, they were endurance tests for man and machine with breathless joggling of the joystick or lunatic pressing of keys. In later years, the sports games became more sophisticated and the mechanics of the games were more advanced. Simulation was the magic word. The resurrection of old-time virtues on a different level came with the Wii. The spirit of sports collections of the eighties such as Winter Games or California Games returned to the sitting rooms – senseless shaking of Wiimotes is the vogue. The principle of total fitness has now extended even to consoles. While playing sweats pours from every pore. You have to work hard for fame and honour.

In the name of the Olympic Games it cannot be wrong, though it came a few months too early. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games exudes a summery feeling in the drabness of winter. Like in all sports titles that carry the name of Mario, everything is brightly coloured and sweetly childish. Various characters from the worlds of Mario and Sonic stand ready for physical training. The usual suspect characters like Peach and Wario are there, as are Dr. Robotnik and Tails. The athletes are divided into four different categories, e.g. Yoshi is naturally fast, whereas Wario relies on strength – there are no surprises in this regard. Those who like it customised can fall back on their Mii. Unfortunately you cannot influence or pick out the properties allocated to the character avatar by the system.

The events consist of more or less well-known kinds of sport: rowing, fencing, running and throwing. The objective is to go higher, faster, further. Some exotic sports have sneaked into the collection: I did not know that shooting clay doves was part of the Olympics. Sega falls back on the familiar mechanics of other minigames collections for implementation. To run, the Nunchuk and Wiimote have to be joggled up and down at the highest possible speed. For hammer throwing, the Wiimote has to be rotated in a raised position, something we are already know from throwing cows in Ubisoft’s Raving Rabbids –watch out for low-hanging lamps!

Fortunately, not everything relies on tried and tested motion sequences, but attempts have been made to lend originality to most kind of sports by means of new movement patterns. Jumping is achieved by jerking the Wiimote upwards; rowing is done by circular movements. Unfortunately, some sports are unnecessarily complex: the triple jump, for example, with its exact timing poses a somewhat frustrating challenge. Archery is needlessly complicated as well and it quickly gets boring. Jumping on the trampoline is a little easier – while up in the air, the correct keys have to be pressed one after the other. If you are slow, you flounder. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games offers enough material for a sweaty and enjoyable evening with a circle of friends, if certain sport events are picked. Fortunately, you can create your own set. Thus the absolute killjoys can be avoided. But it is incomprehensible why Sega has packed the free play of new sports in a single-player mode.

To get new disciplines, a single player has to accomplish various missions. These can be quite challenging at times, particularly because the instructions do not always offer information on the goal of the mission. I still have not figured out, how to make Peach scream when throwing a hammer in order to reach the goal of the mission. But it pays to clench the teeth and keep going, because then you can reach the Dream events. Here again there are four already familiar kinds of sport, which break the entire realism. The track is provided with items and wicked little impediments; fencing is made more exciting with new moves. One would have wished that for the entire game because boredom rules in some of the sport departments. Anyway, who would expect realism from a Mario meets Sonic title?