If the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were anything like and at the Winter Olympic Games they'd be more fun. And snowier. And also happen in October 2009 as opposed to February 2010. But it's not exactly like blatant accuracy is what are striving for when you're performing a loop-de-loop as the iconic anthropomorphic hedgehog in a level that's a recognisable mash-up of the Green Hill Zone and the original level in Super Mario Bros.

Don't let the inclusion of Mario and his posse fool you - it's clearly a game from Sega's stables rather than that of former-rival Nintendo. Turn it on and you're met with traditional to-be-this-good-takes-ages jubilation. And deep, wholesome blue skies. If you're still not having flashbacks to the Megadrive heyday there's also an abundance of sparkly snowflakes, a hyperactive announcer and a booming orchestral arrangement: basically, like a cute puppy celebrating your return, the game is delighted you've shown up.

Larger video: 1mb   HD

Although if you're one of the fifty billion people who purchased a copy of the original you know exactly what to expect: Mario! Sonic! Mini-games! Olympics! Only they've all gone a bit snowy, so instead of a track you're taking Tails off some sweet jumps in the Snowboarding mini-game, gliding Mario around a figure skating track and teaching Donkey Kong how to curl like a professional. There are sixteen individual mini-games in total, with variants on each.

It's more of a refinement than a whole new iteration. The subtle things have the most impact: all the events are now unlocked from the beginning, removing the need for you to roam about in the tedious single-player mode for a few hours like you did in the original. Which is a very good thing. Still, devoted Sega and fans will stick with the single-player regardless: the kaleidoscopic 'Dream Events' make their return, and are once again rammed with loads of niche iconography.

In terms of the on offer, curling is actually my favourite - for reasons I find hard to evoke in words. It's part therapeutic, part meticulous, and the combination tends to create a delightful competitive edge between my opponents and me: in one instance I even bit my nail too much and it stung for a couple of days. But I won, so all is okay. In a title all about tactical Wiimote shaking, I found curling struck the best balance between frenzied batting and meticulous sweeping.

On the other hand, my least favourite is the Short Track 1000m. The logic is understandable: wildly shake the Wiimote on the straights to pick up speed and then neatly cruise around corners by smoothly learning the Wiimote. Only I could never make it work, which was quite embarrassing. I'd chalk the animosity up to my personal ineptitude, but everyone I played with agreed it wasn't much fun, anyway, and they seemed to win all the time.

The rest - including skeleton, ice hockey, moguls and slalom - occupy the quality gap in-between. Skiing and are obviously similar, although I'd argue the former is more fun: snowboarding obsesses too much over some rudimentary trick-pulling mechanic that ultimately seems a bit pointless. Bobsleigh also happens to be brilliant in 4-player co-op, with everyone having to lean in the right direction at the right time to do it properly - the game tells you who is the weak link so you can tease them until they either have a breakdown or learn to do it properly.

There are also a few that make use of the balance board, if you've got one. Bobsleigh is, again, the best example of this - you plonk your bum on the board and hold the sides with your hands and shuffle about looking rather mad. But silly is what this series is about, and if you can convince your Gran to give it a go after a couple of Sherries on day you're guaranteed a good chuckle. Unless she ends up beating your high score.

There's no on the balance board, of course, because of some sort of oversight on Nintendo's part. Admittedly it's unlikely that any household would have more than one anyway, but it means 4-player Bobsleigh on balance boards is a no-go. Which is a shame - that would probably be an even better mini-game than the one in VII where you had to make Cloud dress up as a girl.

There's a few noticeable niggles that could have been fixed. Loading times feel much longer than I would have liked, and certain moments in each event can be totally over-worked: after each mini-game they shoehorn in a mostly-unskippable 'Award Ceremony' sequence like at the end of a GP in Mario Kart. But it only serves to prolong the period in-between gameplay, and I already know my younger brother beat me at Figure Skating - the game can't possibly hope to compare to him bellowing around the room about his superiority.

That leads into another problem: the frequently stalls. Finishing a mini-game and picking another will usually require at least one person having to read the rules to the new game, and frequent repetition of this becomes jarring for those who are already familiar with what's going on. On one hand Sega could argue they've kept the controls standardised amongst the events - flicking the Wiimote down at the moment the countdown reaches zero generally results in a speed boost, for instance - and there's only so many ways to waggle a Wiimote in the first place. But if a mini-game is complex enough to facilitate a rules page, people will want to read it.

Of course, the pertinent question is thus: what does this do to the party atmosphere? Well, it gave most of us a regular chance to nip off to the loo, get a drink or whip out the mobile phone for a status check (still not popular), but in environments where you've only got, say, half an hour, all the rule-reading and loading will prove irksome.

But it strikes a good chord with most of the average demographic. My younger brothers loved it. My mother, on the other hand, wasn't very impressed: she clearly identified Mario and Sonic as videogame characters and this caused her to label it as childish and a bit stupid. At one point she asked if we could all stop playing and go away so she could try out "the new Fit".

I found it quite enjoyable, for the most part. It won't change your life, of course, and anyone looking for an enjoyable single-player experience won't find it here. Rated like a traditional videogame it clearly doesn't stack up very well, but I don't think that was ever the intention - it's a game you can play with your cousins and your mother at the same time. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is an example of what the Wii represents: bright colours, nonsensical arm waving and a whole heap of mini-games. In its league it's one of the best on the market.

It's clearly been strategically geared towards a Christmas release, and that's definitely what it's best at. There's bound to be plenty of cynics, but it's a lot better sitting around with your family and playing this than other Christmas staples, especially some dodgy DVD 'game' of Deal or no Deal your Mum picked up two years ago. Or, as my sulky teenage brother eloquently puts it: "it's better than that piece of crap Carnival." Quite. Plus you can race your Mii against Sonic, and that's the closest to the hedgehog with attitude most of us will ever get.

78%

By Martin Gaston

Comments

You can use BBCode

No comments here yet. Be the first and use the form on the left!