Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games

imgresMy son Henry (6) is really smitten with this one and, while I don’t think it’s the best minigame collection available (it’s got nothing on Wii Sports Resort) it’s a solid party game for when you’re eyes are done bleeding from Olympic coverage.  The genius is that they kept it simple. Every minigame here, and there are a lot of them, is generally controlled by simple remote movements. Bowl to send the curling weight, if you’re playing curling, as your teammates frantically brush ahead of it as if their remotes were brooms – man that is a weird sport. Bobsledding means tilting the remote to hug the turns, hockey is simple and even skiing is quick and intuitive.

My favorite is my least favorite Olympic Event. Ice Dancing. Look, if they’re going to have Ice Dancing and even Ice Skating as it is today, then they should have Ballroom dancing in the summer time. These are performances with sports overtones.  But in the game you’re on a rail and as you pass parts of the track you have to do things with the remote like jump, spin, glide, etc.,  Is pretty fun and more fun to watch than it should be, especially when the dancer is the super-duper skinny Dr. Eggman.

Loads of fun characters, a host of simple events, make this a bad choice for older gamers looking for Olympic challenges – but for kids, hapless adults, families and parties – it’s a wonderful way to add spice to an Olympic party or to get into the mood for a medal.

Just be sure to let Team Mario win. What has the Hedgehog done for us lately?

No Responses to “Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games”

  1. Yeah, boo on Sonic! But Tails is cool.

    I didn’t like the Mario & Sonic Summer Olympics game, so I skipped out on this one.

    Sorry I don’t have any good reviews this week. I’m working on a goodie for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, though! –Cary

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