Some of the events are a hit-or-miss, but overall this is a solid improvement over the former summer Olympics.
(-) slightly less appealing graphics than last year's game; some of the other events are frustrating and difficult to play; no option to customize your own circuit of events anymore
One of the biggest hypes of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in 2007 was that they were finally bringing the two beloved well-known mascots together in one game. The game was fun to play, mostly with friends, but after you've seen and done everything there's little to come back to unless you have some company to play around with. The multiplayer was a strong affair, and can be competitive fun, but there just wasn't much to do for the single player.
Two years later Sega developed another installment in this Nintendo exclusive franchise, this time coming from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. There were a modest amounts of improvements from their movement to this game, but there were also some unusual sacrifices they had to make along the way. But all and all, you're getting another of the many sports themed mini-game collections on the Wii, but Olympics handles it better than many other Wii titles out there.
Seeing that this is another cartoon mascot sports game, you have all the returning characters from the first game available, as well as four new additions. From Mario's side, you have Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Daisey, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser, and newcomers Donkey Kong and Bowser Jr. And with the Sonic side, you have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Vector, Blaze, Eggman, Shadow, and newcomers Metal Sonic and Silver.
Initially picking up the game, you'll probably want to head over to Festival Mode which playing that you'll gradually unlock most of the other events. This is a well fleshed out single player experience that takes at least three hours to beat, if you tend to every nook and cranny the game offers you. First you choose your favorite character, mine being the flirtsy and preppy Daisey, then you have an in game calendar of 16 days to compete against other athletes for the top score. It gives you opportunities to train for events, first learning the controls then having small side missions like collecting coins, getting rings, or racing a Chou (the obnoxious animal things in a Sonic game), competing against other athletes in regular or Dream Events, or facing a single rival of a character in the Mario or Sonic universe that isn't in the character roster (I was slightly creeped out going up against Eggman's father in Ski Cross).
As for the events themselves, the overall quality of them vary, but one thing is without a doubt true. They have more depth than last year's game. While the Summer Olympics had what you could call mini-games, simply pressing a button and twisting the remote for Trampoline jump, the events in the winter collection have more complexity. For example, an event like Giant Sladom you steer the remote and nun-chuck all the way down a turning track on a hill, shaking the remote at a ledge to jump and drawing an image on the screen to do a trick. And in Bobsleigh, you hold the remote with the buttons facing you, then tilt you body after shaking it for your character and his/her team to jump in the sleigh, and tilt it toward a beaten path in a half-pipe track to gain the most speed. However many of the events do play nearly the same way, which is a bummer, but keeping true the Olympic Winter games that this collection is based on, it doesn't really matter all that much.
Most of the events usually control properly, I've only had occasions where the game wouldn't recognize my movements, but some of them are brought down by some fundamental flaws. Speed Skating is a fun event to play, you waggle the remote left and right in a certain speed at the rhythm of your characters arms, but after playing your wrists will hurt. Then there's Ice Hockey, which you can already assume how that plays, but it can be needlessly difficult to tell which character on your team that you're currently controlling, and lead to a frustrating experience. Figure Skating seems to control and play fine most of the time (and how you can play that event as Mario or another male character scares the living hell out of me), which you flick the remote up or down or spin it around at the quo of icons on the ground which they land as their skating, but sometimes the camera can interfere and not show the icon in time for you to see it, and that will result in you being penalized for doing it too early or late.
And of course Winter Olympics also includes Dream Events, which are remastered existing events that have been changed by properties of Nintendo or Sega to make them more interesting. It was impressive not only how many there are, at least 12, but how much effort they put into giving an effective shout out to the two mascots that this game uses. One event has you snow-boarding through the familiar red bridge from Sonic Adventure Battle 2, and another has you gliding through air and collecting star-bits from Super Mario Galaxy. You can still disrupt other athletes with red and blue-shells, bomb-ombs and stars. Many of the Dream Events themselves this time around could warrant standing as their very own games.
The Summer Olympics featured some crisp and clear colorful graphics that looked good even on an HDTV, but that has been downscaled slightly in this newer version. The character models for each character still look good, in particular I'm happy that they scrapped Daisey's old ugly face and made her sexy again, but the environments are a little more jaggy when being viewed from a far distance. The game also seems to run just a little bit less smooth than the last game. However the music is really good this time. You have familiar tunes from Sonic Unleashed, Super Mario Sunshine, Sonic Adventure and Mario Kart, as well as new material designed for the game and tracks from other games that can be unlocked and purchased through in-game currency. Also with this in-game currency, you can buy some clothing for your Mii. Nothing major here, but there's a load of generic coats, gloves, and hats, as well as look-a-likes of other Sonic and Mario characters, and it can be fun to search through them and try them out.
Olympic Winter Games of course is best enjoyed playing competitive multiplayer with friends, and it remains a strong suit for that. However, now you're limited to choosing single events for multiplayer matches, rather than customizing your own circuit. This seems like a strange oversight, and listening to the cheery announcer repeat every option you click is enough to make my skin cringe, so I really would have wished that option was still available. Allow that would have made this package rounded a little better, but it's no game breaker that you can't.
It's clear that the Wii has a few too many gimmicky sports themed party games, but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Olympic Winter Games. It's a pretty sizable step forward from its predecessor, with some more depth to the events as well as a more compelling single player opportunity, but it still lacks that something that many of Mario and Sonic's best titles currently posses. But it's definitely better than the last garbage winter sports collection I reviewed (read: ESPN International Winter Sports 2002). If you want some simple multiplayer fun, don't hesitate to at least give this Mario & Sonic collection a rent.