1000000000 X Better than the first.
While the first offered very little variety in the events and modes, The Winter Olympics offers a whole slew of variety including creative and mario kart like courses for the Dream Events. Dream Events is one of the sparks that make this game one million times better than the first. It's fun, colorful, competitive, and has great music. I feel like more Sonic related elements are present mainly because it is developed by SEGA and I love it. They are finally making an effort to get Sonic back on his fast feet again. Another note I would like to make in the design is the option of single and cooperative which adds more variety into gameplay styles. In speaking of gameplay, the gameplay involves more hand eye coordination skills than just shaking the wii remote which is also a huge plus. Yes at times you do have to shake the remote but it's very small. Other unique gameplay elements are added too like figure skating which all relies on good timing. Figure Skating by far in my opinion is the most enjoyable. You'll have a blast doing all the songs and the two dream events that pays such a nice homage to the original SMB classic and Sonic Adventure. Though I do really love most of the gameplay there are still some elements that are a bit dirty like the controls for snowboarding and short track speed skating. Other than that the controls are simple and clean. The presentation for the CGI cutscenes are amazing as ever but the rest is a bit distorted. The music is amazing and involves original or remixed versions of classic music from the two games.
Bottom line I totally recommend it. Scrap and forget about the first of the series and buy the second one. You will not be disappointed.