Mario & Sonic series

The Mario & Sonic Series is a collection of cross-over video games starring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. franchises. These games are made by SEGA and are exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and the newly released Nintendo 3DS systems.

History
Sega received the rights to make video games based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The International Olympic Committee desired that SEGA make the Olympics appealing to a younger audiene, so naturally they knew to use their Sonic the Hedgehog characters. Due to the atmosphere of competitive sportsmanship the Olympics had to offer, combined with the continued desire to interest younger audiences, Sega received approval from Nintendo to include Mario in the game with Sonic.

This cross-over was big news to the international gaming community because of the long business rivalry between the two mascots throughout a majority of the 1990's. After the first game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was very successful and received much praise, SEGA made a sequel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. The third installment titled Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games was announced on April 21st 2011. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a Nintendo game that has both Mario and Sonic as playable characters, however it is not officially part of the Mario & Sonic Series.

Attributes
So far all the games in this series have been based on the Olympics and are officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia. The gameplay primarily revolves around the Wii's motion controls or the DS touch pad control system. Though the Wii and DS versions share the same titles, the graphics and gameplay are completely different in each version.

Trivia

 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl is not officially part of the Mario & Sonic Series even though both characters are playable in the game.
 * Sumo Digital considered making Mario a guest star in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing exclusively on the Wii version, but SEGA rejected the idea, not wanting to cross contaminate with the Mario & Sonic Series, despite Sonic's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * All of the female characters in each of the games have a different outfit, but the male characters (including Metal Sonic) keep the same outfit that they have in regular games.
 * These are the first games to feature more than 5 Mario characters in a game to be developed and published by Sega.