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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

• By Andy Robertson
• October 30, 2009 12:18 PM PST
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Mario and Sonic at the Olympics Winter Games on the Wii succeeds in repeating the success of the first game. However, where the original had a sense of novelty and charm, the sequel feels a little dated and tired.

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The original Mario and Sonic at the Olympics was a charming enough title that was obviously skewed towards a casual audience. The sequel is no different but Sega seems to think that because they're catering to a casual crowd, they can put forth less effort; it's a common mistake developers make but in many ways, casual players require more effort simply because they aren't as savvy or as willing to dig as deep as their more fanatic brethren. And in the case of a title like Olympic Winter Games, many of them also have to deal with clamoring children who are eager to play along.

So in my eyes, a title like Olympic Winter Games needs to be as accessible and as easy to set up as possible. The original game, great as it was for family and friends, was time consuming because not only did you need to invest many hours unlocking events but character selection was fiddly and repetitive. Winter Games fixes this by having all of the events unlocked from the start but they didn't go far enough becasue you still have to work your way through the Festival campaign to access the multiplayer friendly dream events.

Worse is the inability to switch multiplayer events without re-selecting each player's character. When you have four novice or younger players waiting, getting each of them to select a character just because you changed events is a real pain.

Get past these minor frustrations, though, and there is a solid set of events that largely mirror those of the first game. There is enough variety here for everyone but some events are obviously better than others. I particularly enjoyed the Bobsleigh and Ice Skating mini-games, although the latter may have more to do with the fact that I was able to dress my Mii in a pink leotard. Other events like Alpine Skiing, Ice Hockey, Speed Skating and Snowboarding are also supplemented by Dream Events, which are more action focused games complete with power-ups and special moves.

The events are especially fun when played in a group. There isn't anything here that reaches the frantic pace of the 4x100 Meter Relay found in the first game but players will break a sweat now and then. Several events also require teamwork and communication, which the game does a great job of fostering. The Bobsleigh event, for instance, combines Wiimote motion from each of the four players to steer the heavy craft down the track and my six year old took it upon herself to coach the rest of us down the course, complete with notes on the order of each corner. Progress is rewarded with money that can be spent on customizing your character and the genius here is that we finally get to dress up our Mii's in all sorts of sporting and novelty outfits. Playing dress-up with our virtual family and friends turned out to be one of our most played activities and was an unexpected bonus.

However, after playing through Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, I couldn't fully shake my initial thought that the game seemed to under-deliver compared to the fun and exuberance of the first game. Games like Shaun White's Snowboarding and We Ski recreate the feel and nuanced controls of winter sports far better without sacrificing accessibility; and because Sega chose not to support the MotionPlus accessory, the control scheme can't compete with titles like Wii-Sports Resort which delivers a greater fidelity of control. It's a decent follow-up to the original and the variety of events will make for some good times, especially in a party setting. But the lack of improvement or innovation since the first game means that it will never be anything more than a simple title that's more a marketing tool than anything else.

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