Introduction: For any readers who like myself recall with fond nostalgia the glory days of Summer Games and Olympic Gold on the Sega Master System, Sega's latest offering of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games will not fail to excite. Whilst for some gamers the tactical nouse of Zelda or the depth and creativity of Mario Galaxy present the height of gaming excellence, for other nothing beats just the adrenaline-fuelled hammering of a controller with frenzied aggression to win gold in a 100m sprint. Add two of gaming history's most cherished characters into the mix and you'll find that Mario and Sonic is a sure-fire guarantee to entertainment.

GamePlay: The game setup is instant and simple, offering you the chance to compete in stylised Olympic venues with an array of sports and events to choose from, including athletics, swimming, long-jump, skeet shooting, trampolining and more. You can either try out each event individually with Single Match mode, compete for the highest overall score in a series of events in Circuit Mode, or take on challenges created specifically for each character in the Mission Mode. You can compete as one of 16 characters drawn from the Mario and Sonic sagas, all with varying abilities such as speed, strength or tactical, or even load up a wii-mii into the mix. My one real gripe with this setup is that so many of the events start off as locked content which can only be accessed by winning the various circuits in single player mode. Whilst it is fine to unlock select bonus content, to secrete away virtually half the game as bonus content, with many of the best events such as the high-jump and Mario Kart-style foot race missing from the start seems short-sighted and guaranteed to frustrate. My advice would be to invest in a good few hours of unlocking before hosting an evening of Olympic fun for friends otherwise the absence of many familiar and fun events will no-doubt lessen the thrill of the multi-player action.

Control: When it comes down to each individual event, the fun factor is pretty hit and miss, in terms of longevity, originality of control for single player and the excitement of multiplayer. Take the 100m sprint for example. Standing alone in your living room frantically pumping the wii-remote and nunchuck up and down quickly loses any appeal, but place four competitive guys in a room together and your evening can disappear in the blink of an eye. It's no exaggeration to say that some consistent racing in any of the running or swimming events can soon have even the fittest of gamers bathed in sweat with throbbing forearms. Trampolining is a less exhausting but still tricky affair requiring rapid combinations of A, B and twist each jump followed by a jerk upwards to give your character more air for the next jump. Long jump and triple jump combine the frantic pumping of remote and nunchuck to build up speed with the secondary nuance of a perfectly timed and weighted flick upwards to execute the jump. On the other hand, table tennis fails to improve in anyway on the half-baked wii-play version, and skeet shooting drags on for a painful 8 rounds with as much excitement as watching paint dry. So although the variety of events keeps things interesting for the first few games, it quickly becomes apparent that some events have far more life than others. Another failing worth noting is the lack of online playability which appears to be quite an obvious oversight. Although you can upload your incredible world records to compare to others round the world, the game sadly lacks the real-time online gaming that is proving so successful with games such as Fifa 08.

Graphics: Graphically there is nothing to hugely excite or massively disappoint, the look not being a million miles away from Mario Party 8. Its' bright and with an unrestrained colour palette that chucks in the whole rainbow spectrum. The characters are all recognisable and have an interesting enough range of idiosyncrasies to reflect their different approach to each event, replete with individualised celebrations. I was surprised not to see any thought given to designing different event-appropriate outfits for the characters- most notably seeing Wario swim in his overalls was a little strange!

Sound & Music: The audio and music was pretty dull and verging on irritating. Obviously this is not a realism sports game in the vein of Fifa 08 and as such any realistic sports commentary is lacking, but the generic and repetitive music had me reaching for the mute button fairly quickly. The nostalgic amongst you will no doubt enjoy unlocking the classic Mario and sonic tunes if you're prepared to complete the right trivia goals.

Final Comments: So how successful is the overall package? That depends on what you're looking for from the game. As a single-player sports package, the excitement can dull fairly quickly and the hit and miss nature of events can quickly lead to boredom. However, if you're looking for the natural successor to Wii-Sports for an unrivalled evening's entertainment with friends then you can't go wrong with this purchase, particularly if you've invested in four controllers and nunchucks. Although some might label the game gimmicky and shallow, those are criticisms which fail to understand the market and target for such a game. There never was going to be anything sophisticated about jerking the remote until you're red in the face but that doesn't stop Mario and Sonic giving one heck of a fun evening with friends. Just make sure you have the masseuse and ice bath ready for the aftermath- you'll need it.

Pro: Instant and adrenaline-pumping gameplay, unrivalled multi-player action
Con: Many wasted games that needed more fine-tuning, single player can tire quickly.
Final Score: 7.5

Reviewed by: Douglas Andrews