The Otaku’s Gaming Study #7c – Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Welcome to the third and (finally) final installment in Part 7 of The Otaku’s Gaming Study, a series of reviews where I cover the games for whatever reason – I was not able to cover when they were originally released but still want to contribute my thoughts to. Previous installments in Part 7 have included reviews of Tekken Hybrid – published by Sony Computer Entertainment over here in Australia and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked released by ATLUS USA. This time around I will be reviewing a more family oriented game that me and my family recently sat down to play a few games of – Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for the Nintendo Wii. To get all the boring stuff out of the way, this game was developed and published by SEGA and is the third installment in their Mario & Sonic Olympic-themed sporting mini-game compilation. A copy of this game was purchased out of my own pocket.
While I haven’t had the chance to play their 2010 Winter Olympic release, I did pick up the original Mario & Sonic at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games release and thought it was perhaps one of the best family-oriented games the console had on offer, with a number of creative means to bring the Wii’s control systems into Olympic sports and allowing them to bring both Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog characters together to have the well overdue battle. However, past doesn’t bare any value to this review… so how did this release fare? Read on to find out in my review of Mario & Sonic and the London 2012 Olympic Games.
As you may have expected, unlike the Nintendo 3DS version which surprisingly does have one, this game is devoid of any form of storyline, which for once is a bonus as while similar games can make small storylines work, there is nothing much they could do without detracting from the multiplayer family-oriented fun than having to have someone play through a single player mode to unlock the games. That being said, the game is completely open from the start and provides you with the entire selection of sports and “Dream” sports for you to choose from. Before we go into the new addition to the franchise that really did shock me, it is best to talk about the selection of sports that really appealed to me.
The collection of sports itself is a mix of old, new and improved. Looking at the core basics, you have the athletics (Sprints, Relays and other athletic sports), Aquatics and Gymnastics (With a few nice additions) which all carry over with some of the other more popular sports (Canoeing and Shooting) and a nice collection of additional games (Equestrian and Track Cycling for example). The set of games is a lot more diverse than in previous installments and have all been improved to make some of them less tedious to the family gamer such as the shooting game which gave even me a headache in the original). As this is a Mario and Sonic game, they have also added a very nice selection of Dream Events, mixing the controls of the different sporting events and adding a fantasy twist to them – Long Jumping on clouds within Yoshi’s Storybook (Yoshi Story) and Dream Fencing in a very Mario Party-esque manner are two examples that come to mind.
It is a great compilation of games that make use of the Wii’s technology, however is let down by two small gripes – firstly that a couple of the games were almost the same just in a different arena control-wise (Rhythmic Gymnastics and Synchronized Swimming for example) and the difficulty level of the CPU. While I wouldn’t call myself a master at these sorts of games, I felt that even the normal difficulty CPU characters were at least several times more competent than me in some games, and even in the gameplay mode which I will be mentioning in a moment, they had a lot more luck at the happening spaces than me. However if you don’t mind playing on EASY mode at times and are after a lot of family fun – the sporting events should be a great inclusion to your family gaming nights.
Now for the games new inclusion which upon booting up the game which was a bit of a surprise when I first heard about it. Following on from Mario Party’s style of gameplay, SEGA have included a London Party mode which is a mini-game filled recreation of London where you and up to three friends of CPU players battle it out to collect stickers and fill your collection as you go. These can be unlocked through a number of ways through either taking part in events through talking to the NPC’s wandering around town (Either by taking part in a sporting event OR a London Party exclusive mini-game). The new mini-games are few in number and range from London themed events such as running a marathon in a street filled with potholes, a rather challenging Mario and Sonic quiz or even just running around town collecting coins as pictured above. The mode showed promise and did add more diversification from when I last played the Beijing version which was just random sports clumped into sets to play. There was a major gripe that really made the gameplay imba – especially on the side of the CPU by randomly allowing a player to completely wipe out someones stamp book through a happening space really wasn’t the smartest move for a family game.
The game was designed well, it had a great cast of characters from both Mario and Sonic franchises as well as Mii support – and lets be honest – having Dr. Eggman or Bowser try their hand at Rhythmic Gymnastics or having four crazily designed Mii’s do Synchronized Swimming are most certainly examples of the light hearted tone and design of the game. All the different events were planned out and designed creatively in order to give that feel you were at the Olympic Games, while the recreation of Mario and Sonic locales for the Dream Events were also enjoyable and well thought out. While the Mii’s do stand out a bid odd against their actual game character counterparts, the game allows you to unlock scratch cards which can be traded in or used to unlock special outfits, giving some degree of customisability – even if it is to dress up unsuspecting family members in Bowser costumes!
In terms of sound and music, there is nothing that really set it apart when it came to the core music tracklist, often feeling like you are listening to the same songs as previous games (Might have been, didn’t actually check). The game allows you to unlock a few tracks from games in the series but these too were mostly limited to the in-game music player. Other than that, the sound effects used give that feeling of realism to the sport and that the characters are being watched by a crowd. Voice acting is nothing extensive, with each character limited to their normal set of slogans and phrases.
In conclusion, this is a game that is all about family fun and once again SEGA did deliver in that regard. While there were a few areas which I would have liked more improvement in since 2007/2008 original release and a more friendly computer players, I still think this is a great game for families to spend a few good nights playing and even if you are not won over by the games London Party mode – you still have the full collection of sporting events at your disposal to choose from. But is it worthwhile purchasing this game if you have the original? Yes and No…. No because it primarily consists of the same games with a few inclusions and improvements and Yes because it offers a fresh new way to play the game. But either way should hopefully not disappoint.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: N/A
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: B-
Gameplay: B+
Replayability: B+
Personal Opinion: B
Overall Score: B
