Gameplay
Each character has his or her own stats.
Mario & Sonic brings together the title characters and 14 more from both franchises to participate in environments
based on the official venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[7] These environments are stylized to fit the art styles of the Mario and Sonic video games. Besides the
characters from the Mario and Sonic games, Miis can also be used in the Wii version.[14] There are also a few randomly selected non-playable characters acting as referees for certain events. Each playable character has their own statistics which can serve as an advantage or disadvantage depending
on the event. They are divided into four categories: all-around, speed, power, and skill.[15]
The gameplay involves utilizing either or a combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk on the Wii or stylus and button controls
on the DS in various ways to complete each event.[16] The events can require a combination of speed, timing, and some strategy. Each competition offers a slight degree of
difference. In the running events, for example, getting a starting boost in the 100 m dash will either make or break the player's
place, while in a relay race, which can last for well over a minute, this may not determine place as effectively.[14] The game also has leaderboards that make use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to show the best times and scores.[14]
Mario & Sonic features a gallery mode, where brief facts of the Olympics can be found. There are five categories
of trivia with matching mini-games that, once completed, will unlock the answer to trivia questions. Classic music from both
series is available for use in the gallery once all levels in a category are cleared.[17][18]
Events
The Wii game has twenty Olympic events which are divided into eight different classifications; athletics, gymnastics, shooting, rowing, archery, aquatics, fencing, and table tennis.[14] All of these events are organized in the tournament and circuit modes.[19] Some events such as 4x100 m relay race, allow the player to have a team of four characters. Circuit mode is where players
compete for the highest overall score[6] in a pre-determined series of events or design their own circuit.[15] In the single-player mission mode, each of the competitors has six character-specific missions to complete, however
each of the characters statistics are not as balanced as in the main game. For example, one of Mario's missions, beating Sonic,
is more challenging here.[14] Mario & Sonic on the Nintendo DS has 16 Olympic sports, most of them from the Wii version.[20] Cycling and 10m Platform Diving are exclusive Olympic events on this handheld.[16]
There is an unlockable version of four of the Olympic events in the Wii game called "Dream Events". They differ from their
original counterparts by applying more fictional video game attributes from the Mario and Sonic worlds. As a
result, these events also have recognizable locations, abilities, objects, and support characters from both gaming worlds.[6][21] The Nintendo DS version has five exclusive Dream Events: canoeing, boxing, basketball, long jump and skeet shooting.[16]
Development
| “ |
[The Olympics
is] about gathering everyone, from young to old, together. And in that spirit, we thought this the best time for Sonic and
Mario to be in a game together. |
” |
|
—The marketing director
of Nintendo Europe on why the Olympics were chosen as the first meeting ground for Mario and Sonic, [22] |
When Sega changed its status as a hardware developer to a third-party developer in 2001, it opened up the opportunity for
them and Nintendo to form a partnership.[8] Yuji Naka and Shigeru Miyamoto, the creators of Sega's and Nintendo's mascots respectively, held private discussions about Mario and Sonic appearing in
a game together.[23] Approximately a year later, Sega obtained the Beijing 2008 Olympic license. The corporation used the International Olympic Committee's mission of promoting
the spirit of sport and wanting to get younger people interested in the Olympics as an idea to where to take their newly acquired
license. Sega decided to use their characters that "young people love and are very iconic" instead of just developing a simulation.
The corporation then requested and received approval from Nintendo to include Mario in the game Sega was going to use to help
introduce young people into the Olympics.[22] As a result of this and to ensure quality, Nintendo partnered with the developer in-house.[24] Another reason the Olympic Games was chosen as the backdrop for Mario and Sonic's first game together is due to the
sportsmanship and competitiveness of the Games provided an ideal choice as a setting for the once-rival mascots.[8]
The game was first announced by Sega and Nintendo on March 28, 2007.[7] Sega showed the first screenshots and a movie of both versions of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games at
E3 2007.[25][26] The creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, supervised the project[4] and the game or one of its two versions may have been co-developed by TOSE, a developer known to not be credited for the games it produces.[27] Sega revealed in early October 2007 that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' schedule release date has been
advanced by two weeks and the game has gone gold.[21] Over 20 characters were originally planned[28] as well as some sports, such as judo; however, these were left out of the final product.[1]
Reception
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii is known for being an entertaining multiplayer experience, having
colorful graphics and physically demanding gameplay,[40][30] but criticized for shallow gameplay and having complex rules and instructions for numerous events.[10][37] Its Nintendo DS counterpart is regarded as virtually the same game in design. However, reception of its control scheme
varied greatly. 1UP.com said in nearly "every case, events are far more enjoyable on the DS", Eurogamer and IGN, meanwhile, said the lack of physical demand will make the player feel less immersed with the game.[16][36] The title has undergone scrutiny for having Mario and Sonic appear in a 'minigame collection' based on the 2008 Olympic
Games as their first game together[12][10] which GamePro critisized as being "a marketing tool to promote the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing".[33]
GameSpot praised the Wii game for its wide variety of events, but thought a number of them were too similar to each other. The reviewer
called the motion controls utilized in the events as commonly "uninteresting and occasionally frustrating".[12] X-Play agreed, calling the controls "non-intuitive" and some of the minigames require players to "wave their Wiimotes franticly
while press several buttons at the same time, which can be a tad bit frustrating".[37] An Electronic Gaming Monthly editor mentioned the controls are complicated for a game that should be a "pure pick-up-and-play party game".[10] GamePro said the events are "short and fairly shallow" and that they mostly require movement of the "Wii Remote and Nunchuks in specific
ways--rapidly up and down for running events, for example". IGN called the game a success in their minds in regard to the slight degree of differences each competition had to offer and
generally most of the events were entertaining. However, the events within their own classifications felt similar, for example,
the track events, the reviewer thought "five or six that feel nearly identical" and lacked diversity. Both IGN and GameSpot
favored archery and the fantasy events Mario & Sonic had to offer which IGN states ends "up stealing the show".[14]
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was expected by Sega to sell four million copies.[41] The game resided at the top of the United Kingdom all-formats chart for two weeks shortly after its release,[42][43] and top the charts numerous times afterward.[44] The Wii game has sold half a million units during its first 7 weeks of sale in the UK[45]. By June 2008, both versions reached 1.2 million copies combined in UK sales prompting Sega to create plans on re-marketing
the game there.[46] During the month of December in 2007, the Wii game was one of the top-ten best-sellers in the United States. By March
2008, in just over three months of being released, Sega announced that both versions have sold 5 million units worldwide combined.[13]
