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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
File:Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.jpg
Developer(s)Sega Japan[2] Sega Sports[3]
Publisher(s)JP Nintendo[4]
NA EU Sega[4]
Designer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto (supervisor)[5]
Platform(s)Nintendo DS, Wii
ReleaseWii:



DS:
[1]
[1]
[1]
[1]
Genre(s)Sports party game[6]
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (マリオ&ソニック AT 北京オリンピック, Mario ando Sonikku atto Pekin Orinpikku, lit. "Mario & Sonic at Beijing Olympics") is a sports game developed by Sega which was released on the Wii gaming console in November of 2007 and is set for release onto the Nintendo DS handheld in early 2008.[1] It is the first official crossover game featuring both Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog, Nintendo and Sega's former rival mascots, along with other characters from their respective series.

The game is officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia.[7] It is the first official game of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to be released, with a more realistic sports game to be later released by Sega in 2008.[2]

Gameplay

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.[8] 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.[9]

The gameplay for the Wii involves utilizing the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in various ways to complete each event. 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. The game also has leaderboards that make use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to show the best times and scores.[8]

There are twenty Olympic events which are divided into eight different classifications; athletics, gymnastics, shooting, rowing, archery, aquatics, fencing, and table tennis.[8] All of these events are organized in the tournament and circuit modes.[10] Some events such as 4x100 m relay race, allow the player to have a team of four characters. There is also a single-player mission mode. Circuit mode is where players compete for the highest overall score[6] in a pre-determined series of events or design their own circuit.[9] In the 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.[8]

There is an unlockable version of four of the Olympic events in the game. These events are 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][11]

Development

File:Mario&Soniccharacterscreen.jpg
Each character has their own stats.

Rumors of Mario and Sonic appearing in a game together started around 2001 when Sega changed its status as a hardware developer to a third-party developer. This resulted in Sega and Nintendo forming a partnership.[12] As far as 2005, Yuji Naka held discussions of a Mario and Sonic video game with Shigeru Miyamoto.[13] Approximately two years later, Sega had obtained the license for the Beijing 2008 and started off as a sole-Sonic game after being told by the International Olympic Committee to expand the game for wider audience. Afterwards, Sega had asked Nintendo for license to include Mario characters in the game and Nintendo agreed.[14] As a result of this and to ensure quality, Nintendo partnered with the developer in-house.[15] 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.[16][17] Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto supervised the project[5] and the game or one of its two versions may be co-developed by TOSE, a developer known to not be credited for the games it produces.[18] 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.[11] Over 20 characters were originally planned[19] as well as some sports, such as judo, however these were left out of the final product.[2]

Reception

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games received Best Wii Game of 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention.[20] However, reception of the Wii game has been mixed, earning an overall score of 68% on Metacritic[21] and an average rating of 69% on Game Rankings. [22]

GamePro gave it a 3.5/5.[23] IGN gave it a 7.9/10.[8] GameSpot gave the game 6/10 for good variety, but shallow gameplay and uninteresting controls.[24] Game Informer gave it a 4/10 and a second opinion of a 5/10. The British Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game a very respectable 90% and a 'gold award', claiming the game to be "one of the best athletics games ever". Nintendo Power Magazine gave the game a score of 7.5/10. EGM gave it a score of 6.0, 7.0 and 6.0 out of 10.

As of December 2007, the game has sold nearly 890,000 units. [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  2. ^ a b c Burman, Rob (2007-03-29). "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Interview". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  3. ^ Bianco, Karn (2007-03-29). "Mario & Sonic Olympics Details". GWN. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  4. ^ a b "Sega Unveils Details for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games" (Press release). GameSpot. 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  5. ^ a b Rob Burman and Matt Casamassina (2007-03-28). "Mario and Sonic Together at Last". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  6. ^ a b c "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" (DOC). Sega. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  7. ^ a b c "Sega and Nintendo join forces for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". Sega. 2007-03-28. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
  8. ^ a b c d e Bozon, Mark (2007-11-06). "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Review". IGN. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  9. ^ a b Hatfield, Daemon (2007-09-27). "Mario & Sonic Events Revealed". IGN. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  10. ^ "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games". CVG. 2007-08-15. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  11. ^ a b Bozon, Mark (2007-10-10). "Mario & Sonic Goes Gold". IGN. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  12. ^ Thorsen, Tor (2007-03-29). "Q&A: Sega, Nintendo on the first Sonic-Mario game". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  13. ^ Soto, Edwin (2005-03-17). "Sonic to visit Mario on GameCube?". NOM Magazine. Gear Live. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  14. ^ Jackson, Mike (2007-03-29). "Mario and Sonic interview Pt. 1". CVG. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  15. ^ "Corporate Management Policy Briefing / Financial Results Briefing Q & A". Nintendo. 2007-10-26. pp. pp. 1. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  16. ^ "Erste Pics zu Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games!" (in German). Nintendo Wii-Universe. 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  17. ^ Tom, Magrino (2007-07-09). "E3 07: Sega dishes on E3 lineup". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  18. ^ Casamassina, Matt (2007-03-29). "Rumor: Mario and Sonic's Secret Developer". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
  19. ^ DeWoody, Lucas (2007-07-13). "E3 2007 Hands-on: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic". Advance Media Network. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  20. ^ "Best of GC". Games Industry.biz. 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  21. ^ "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
  22. ^ "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  23. ^ Kim, Tae (2007-11-06). "Review: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games". GamePro. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  24. ^ Thomas, Aaron (2007-11-07). "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for Wii Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
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