Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (マリオ&ソニック in 北京オリンピック, Mario & Sonikku in Pekin Orinpikku, lit. "Mario & Sonic in the Beijing Olympics" in Japan), is a sports game developed and published by Sega for North America and Europe and published by Nintendo for Japan. The game is officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia. It is the first official video game of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to be released, with a more realistic sports game released by Sega in 2008. The idea of an Olympic setting for Mario and Sonic has been around for a few years prior to 2007, while casual discussions of a game in general existed for some time beforehand. The two publishers were looking for a proper setting that would give the game "an exclamation mark". In combination with the atmosphere of competitive sportsmanship the Olympics had to offer and making the transition from hardware development to producing third-party software in 2001, Sega received approval by Nintendo to include Mario in the game. It was released on the Nintendo Wii in November of 2007 and the Nintendo DS handheld in early 2008.

The game is known for being the first official crossover title to feature both Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog, Nintendo and Sega's former rival mascots, along with other characters from their respective series. The player can assume the role as one of these characters while competing against the others in numerous Olympic events as well as fantasy events. The Wii version was awarded as the best game of 2007 on its platform at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Overall, critics had mixed perceptions of Mario & Sonic's gameplay with the variety of events singled out as a strong feature. The title has undergone scrutiny for having the mascots starring in a casual game based on the Beijing Olympics as their first official title together instead of a platform game. Both versions have sold a total of 5 million units combined as of March 31, 2008.

Gameplay
Mario & Sonic brings together the title characters and 14 more from both franchises to participate in environments based on the official venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. These environments are stylized to fit the art styles of the Mario and Sonic video games. Besides the characters from the Mario and Sonic games, Miis can also be used in the Wii version. There are also a few randomly selected non-playable characters acting as referees for certain events. Each playable character has their own statistics which can serve as an advantage or disadvantage depending on the event. They are divided into four categories: all-around, speed, power, and skill.

The gameplay involves utilizing either or a combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk on the Wii or stylus and button controls on the DS in various ways to complete each event. The events can require a combination of speed, timing, and some strategy. Each competition offers a slight degree of difference. In the running events, for example, getting a starting boost in the 100 m dash will either make or break the player's place, while in a relay race, which can last for well over a minute, this may not determine place as effectively. The game also has leaderboards that make use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to show the best times and scores.

Mario & Sonic features a gallery mode, where brief facts of the Olympics can be found. There are five categories of trivia with matching mini-games that, once completed, will unlock the answer to trivia questions. Classic music from both series is available for use in the gallery once all levels in a category are cleared.

Events
The Wii game has twenty Olympic events which are divided into eight different classifications; athletics, gymnastics, shooting, rowing, archery, aquatics, fencing, and table tennis. All of these events are organized in the tournament and circuit modes. Some events such as 4x100 m relay race, allow the player to have a team of four characters. Circuit mode is where players compete for the highest overall score in a pre-determined series of events or design their own circuit. In the single-player mission mode, each of the competitors has six character-specific missions to complete, however each of the characters statistics are not as balanced as in the main game. For example, one of Mario's missions, beating Sonic, is more challenging here. Mario & Sonic on the Nintendo DS has 16 Olympic sports, most of them from the Wii version. Cycling and 10m Platform Diving are exclusive Olympic events on this handheld.

There is an unlockable version of four of the Olympic events in the Wii game called "Dream Events". They differ from their original counterparts by applying more fictional video game attributes from the Mario and Sonic worlds. As a result, these events also have recognizable locations, abilities, objects, and support characters from both gaming worlds. The Nintendo DS version has five exclusive Dream Events: canoeing, boxing, basketball, long jump and skeet shooting.

Sonic Characters

 * Sonic
 * Tails
 * Knuckles
 * Amy
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Shadow
 * Blaze
 * Vector

In addition, Cream, Espio and Charmy act as referees in both the DS & Wii versions, Big on the Wii version.

Mario Characters

 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Yoshi
 * Princess Peach
 * Princess Daisy
 * Bowser
 * Wario
 * Waluigi

In addtion, Shy Guy, Lakitu, and Toad and act as referees in both Wii & DS versions, Koopa Troopa on the Wii version.

Referees
Guard viewing
 * Cream
 * Toad

Air viewing
 * Charmy
 * Lakitu

Ground viewing
 * Espio
 * Shy Guy

Development
When Sega changed its status as a hardware developer to a third-party developer in 2001, it opened up the opportunity for them and Nintendo to form a partnership. Yuji Naka and Shigeru Miyamoto, the creators of Sega's and Nintendo's mascots respectively, held private discussions about Mario and Sonic appearing in a game together. Approximately a year later, Sega obtained the Beijing 2008 Olympic license. The corporation used the International Olympic Committee's mission of promoting the spirit of sport and wanting to get younger people interested in the Olympics as an idea to where to take their newly acquired license. Sega decided to use their characters that "young people love and are very iconic" instead of just developing a simulation. The corporation then requested and received approval from Nintendo to include Mario in the game Sega was going to use to help introduce young people into the Olympics. As a result of this and to ensure quality, Nintendo partnered with the developer in-house. Another reason the Olympic Games was chosen as the backdrop for Mario and Sonic's first game together is due to the sportsmanship and competitiveness of the Games provided an ideal choice as a setting for the once-rival mascots.

The game was first announced by Sega and Nintendo on March 28, 2007. Sega showed the first screenshots and a movie of both versions of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games at E3 2007. The creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, supervised the project and the game or one of its two versions may have been co-developed by TOSE, a developer known to not be credited for the games it produces. Sega revealed in early October 2007 that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' schedule release date has been advanced by two weeks and the game has gone gold. Over 20 characters were originally planned including D.K, Birdo, Silver, Jet, Rouge, Bowser Jr, Diddy Kong, Omega and Cream,as well as some sports, such as judo; however, these were left out of the final product.

Face-Offs
Between each character, each have their own rival as based on either mission mode or by the starting prologue. Here are the following face-offs:


 * Sonic vs. Mario


 * Tails vs. Luigi


 * Blaze vs. Daisy


 * Amy vs. Peach


 * Vector vs. Yoshi


 * Dr. Eggman vs. Bowser


 * Shadow vs. Wario
 * Knuckles vs. Waluigi

Reception
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has received mixed reactions by critics, however it was commercially successful exceeding Sega's expections by selling over four million copies. The game resided at the top of the United Kingdom all-formats chart for two weeks shortly after its release, and top the charts numerous times afterward. The Wii game has sold half a million units during its first 7 weeks of sale in the UK. By June 2008, both versions reached 1.2 million copies combined in UK sales prompting Sega to create plans on re-marketing the game there. According to the NPD Group, the Wii game was one of the top-ten best-sellers for the month of December 2007 in the United States, selling 613,000 units. In just over three months of being released, Sega announced on March 5, 2008 that both versions have sold 5 million units worldwide combined. Simon Jeffrey, president of Sega of America, in July of 2008 showed interest in another game collaboration between the two mascots and has announced that the game has sold approximately 10 million units worldwide combined.

Critical response
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii is known for being an entertaining multiplayer experience, having colorful graphics and physically demanding gameplay, but criticized for shallow gameplay and having complex rules and instructions for numerous events. Its Nintendo DS counterpart is regarded as virtually the same game in design. However, reception of its control scheme varied greatly. 1UP.com said in nearly "every case, events are far more enjoyable on the DS", Eurogamer and IGN, meanwhile, said the lack of physical demand will make the player feel less immersed with the game. The title has undergone scrutiny for having Mario and Sonic appear in a 'minigame collection' based on the 2008 Olympic Games as their first game together which GamePro criticised as being "a marketing tool to promote the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing".

GameSpot praised the Wii game for its wide variety of events, but thought a number of them were too similar to each other. The reviewer called the motion controls utilized in the events as commonly "uninteresting and occasionally frustrating". X-Play agreed, calling the controls "non-intuitive" and some of the minigames require players to "wave their Wiimotes franticly while press several buttons at the same time, which can be a tad bit frustrating". An Electronic Gaming Monthly editor mentioned the controls are complicated for a game that should be a "pure pick-up-and-play party game". GamePro said the events are "short and fairly shallow" and that they mostly require movement of the "Wii Remote and Nunchuks in specific ways--rapidly up and down for running events, for example". IGN called the game a success in their minds in regard to the slight degree of differences each competition had to offer and generally most of the events were entertaining. However, the events within their own classifications felt similar, for example, the track events, the reviewer thought "five or six that feel nearly identical" and lacked diversity. Both IGN and GameSpot favored archery and the fantasy events Mario & Sonic had to offer which IGN states ends "up stealing the show".

Trivia

 * All Mario female contestants wear clothing from sports games they've been in as Peach and Daisy from Mario sports games, however Amy and Blaze wear new sporting gear similar to what they wore in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.
 * This game marks Vector's first appearence in a handheld title.
 * Due to the game`s success, Nintendo & Sega discussed working on a new Mario & Sonic game in the near future, and in February 2009 the sequel was confirmed as Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games.
 * The only Mario charaters with new artwork are Mario (cover & special posters), Luigi (poster), Peach, Daisy, & Bowser (Poster).
 * In the aquatic events, Sonic wears a lifejacket, since he cannot swim.
 * Silver the Hedgehog, Jet the Hawk, Cream the Rabbit, Big the Cat, Espio the Chameleon, and Donkey Kong were all supposed to be in this game, but got deleted. They are still in the beta and are only available by hacking the game.  These characters are major possibilities for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
 * The other Hack Characters may come in, as Donkey Kong and Silver, Hack Characters, have confirmed appearances.


 * In the track and field events, you can see Big the Cat in the entrance to the stadium

Artwork
Team Sonic