Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Review

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)

Version also available on 3DS

3.5/5
Released November 18th 2011

Another in the long list of Mario (and his new friend Sonic) themed party games, Olympics takes the practiced format and improves on it once more.

As usual you are offered a wide range of characters to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Sonics lot mostly rely on speed, Mario and Luigi are all-rounders while Donkey Kong and Bowser are heavy hitters. Wii players can also have their Miis take part in the Games.


There is also a wider selection of events to choose from this time round. New games including football and horse riding have been added to the mix as well as many of the old favourites.

As the strengths of characters would suggest, some are better suited

to certain events than others, though all of them have the ability to win. Though this provides for better gameplay, my own personal niggle is that it is frustrating to lose a running race while playing as the galaxys fastest hedgehog. I also felt odd seeing that same spiked blur twirling a baton to the tune of the Blue Danube.

While playing the game you will be bombarded with prizes and bonuses for winning medals and completing challenges. This is all part of the fun of these Mario (and Sonic now) party games and also gives you good reasons to keep playing and improving. Some of these include customised costumes for your Miis. Costume parts give you unique skill bonuses, which allows players the ability to make their Mii fit their strengths rather than remaining a balanced character.

As well as the usual Olympic events fit into the London setting, there are a number of minigames and Dream events which are a bit more wacky taking place in fictional settings from the Mario and Sonic universes. They follow on from the Olympic events for the most part but add extra madness to them.

One of the mini games involves flying through space and battling a giant piranha flower that spits fireballs. This should of course be promoted to an Olympic event.

There is also a special London Party mode, in which players run around the street of Englands capital city completing tasks, competing in events and collecting bonus items in a form of tournament. This can be much more fun and simpler for groups of players as it speeds up the process of getting to the next event. The game utilises the London theme much more in this mode, with tasks that involve dodging buses and Big Ben calling players to matches.

The different events provide different levels of challenge for players.

Some familiar ones like Badminton are a test of skill, while Beach Volleyball seems to have you relying a lot on luck. The new Football game is a lot of fun, but I couldn’t help feeling that the AI team was a lot more coordinated than mine. I would have liked to be able to give instructions to team mates. I also felt it was missing a punt kick command.

The control systems for the game are quite simple. They have to be in party games for ease of the pick up and play mechanic, and for the best chance of including the whole family and new players. It can be a little confusing as there are so many different events, each with their own controls, but the game tries to keep everything as simple and familiar as possible.

The game is a lot of fun and easy to pick up, but I believe this required limitation also makes it suffer. The need to keep everything simple means that sometimes the game has to leave out more complicated things that could improve the experience (such as my suggestions for football).

If you’re looking for a new party game then this is a great choice. You can even enjoy it as a solo player experience, though I think the most laughs would come from a shared game. That is what it is designed for.