Magic Mushrooms

An interesting feature is the unlockable stages that promise to offer familiar items from the Sonic and Mario games that, Sega promises, will enhance the challenge for each unique event. Considering the Olympic Committee frowns upon performance enhancing substances, it will be interesting to see how Mario will get away with using his famous magic mushrooms to enhance his performance. Here's hoping for items that allow the characters to use their unique abilities for one round in certain events. For instance, Tails, Yoshi, Knuckles and Peach can all fly/glide, which would give them the advantage in the long jump. If players could, for one of the three triple jump attempts use an extra button press to glide a little and augment their scores, it could add a tactical element to the proceedings.

Sega promises that there will be an online leader board to track times and scores, which should appeal to score-hounds, while tournament and mission modes will make the bulk of the game. For educational purposes, quizzes and mini games will be used to educate the player about the history of the games. A multi player mode is also included which will support up to four players and will no doubt be the area that sees the most use in the long run. Sadly, there will be no support for online multi player.

Cousin Jim

While Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is certainly shaping up to be a well thought out and entertaining game, it is doubtful that it will keep the traditional gamer's attention for long. Considering that it is a full priced game that is really little more than 18 mini games, it isn't going to feel like much value to the hardcore gamer. For the casual gamers who are still playing Wii Sports, however, this could well provide another 12 months of joy.

Perhaps the biggest concern surrounding this game isn’t its longevity, or the use of the license, but whether the television is safe when Cousin Jim takes hold of the Wiimote in hopes of breaking the javelin world record. After all, we all remember what happened when Wii Sports first hit the shelves.