Review: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

What is it?
A sequel to the well-received Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Vancouver 2010 is the setting for this mountainside maelstrom.

What we like
The accurate depiction of actual Olympic sports, plus the more fun 'Dream Events' where you often find yourself in a slightly trippy Sega/Nintendo-inspired landscape. The beautiful settings, complete with craggy mountains, glistening snow and blue skies.

What we don't like
Most of the official events use the same basic command; a bit of variety in using the Wiimote would have been more interesting (although the Wii balance board adds some excitement to sports such as snowboarding and bobsleighing). Events aren't particularly challenging and you may grow bored of the tournament mode before reaching its conclusion.

Judgment
A cute follow-up to the last Games for the moustachioed plumber and his hedgehog mate. The other characters we know and love also return, implausibly competing to become champion of the games. Who knew Bowser would make such a convincing curler?

Review
Throughout Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, each event can be played and replayed as a standalone game should you want to hone your skills. But to fully immerse yourself in Olympic atmosphere you'll want to play The Winter Games Festival.

This starts with the opening ceremony that is mercifully several hours shorter than the Beijing version, but sweetly spectacular in its own way. Mario's mushroom friends form the band, the torch is lit and Peaches, Luigi, Wario et al soak up the atmosphere before the competition begins.

You can play as a single competitor (one of the included characters, or as a Mii), or in a team, using extra controllers. On Day 1 you are given a quick introduction to the Games as a whole - and are told your objective is to compete over a 16-day period; achieving high enough scores in each event to become overall champion.

You can also earn points from training and official events to go to the shopping village, where you can buy clothing and decorations for your equipment, as well as Olympic trivia and music. Pulling off difficult moves, or simply not crashing into walls as you skeleton at break-neck speeds, can also win you special objects.

Pull some moves
Events include downhill skiing, figure skating, curling, skeleton, snowboarding and ski jumping - all of which rely on timing or a steady hand following a racing line to increase power or speed, or in the case of figure skating to perfect elements in a routine. A waggle of the controller here or there while in a mid-air jump enables you to pull extra flash moves for points.

Your first day proper is a training day on the slopes. You are given the idea of how to speed downhill on skis, and then your newly acquired skills are tested by having to do it again, but this time by passing through at least 10 glowing gates to show your control. Encouragement is given along the way ('That was great!') and whoever you play as has their own distinct celebration technique. Or self-pitying shoulder droop if you were rubbish.

Dream teams
As the days pass, your schedule increases. Time is filled with training for each event, along with the proper competition itself. You are also able to unlock 'Dream Events' - which have more cartoon-like elements to them, and are set in non-Olympic venues. The official events are harder than those experienced in training - skis and snowboards go faster, are more difficult to control round corners and steep slopes, and you have to put in more effort to win. Anybody who wants a game to get their teeth into however, will soon be switching off; no event is particularly difficult, and most are over before they've really begun.

One surreal diversion from the competition comes every couple of days; with a warning siren announcing that 'a rival has appeared'. This is a slightly strange combination of Olympic events and computer game baddies; E-123 Omega from Sonic blazes on to the screen along to menacing music, and threatens you that his 'target will be crushed' - and then rather camply challenges you to a speed skating contest. Once you have defeated him (and annoyingly you can't move forward in the Games until you have done - even though it's nothing to do with your Olympic progress) then it's back to la-la-la music and a mushroom telling you to hurry along to your snowboarding practice. Odd.

By half-way through the tournament it begins to become a bit mechanical - 'training event, actual event, Dream Event, surreal competition with a baddie, on to the next day', and so on. A little more depth would have been interesting: some optional non-point scoring Olympic background areas to explore, perhaps? You can come out of the Festival to go shopping with your points, but other than that it is a bit of a grind until the closing day. Although if you were an Olympic athlete (albeit one whose skill base is so vast you can compete in every event) that is presumably what your life would be like for the duration.

Overall, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games may keep kids quiet for a while, but it won't be long before Mario will need to advertise for plumbing work in the Yellow Pages again. Maybe Sonic could be made to feel useful running to B&Q for extra boiler parts.

Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games is out now for Nintendo Wii and DS.