The day began very early when I had to catch a train at 6am (yes, that time does exist!). After a pleasant journey down to that London, I finally arrived at SEGA HQ at around 9:50am, where I was greeted by a couple of guys from SEGA, and quite a few Sonic fanboys, who scarily enough all seemed to know each other!

After the initial introduction from Kevin, the Sonic Community Manager for Sega Europe, we headed into a conference room where 3 Wii consoles were all set up and running copies of the game I had travelled so far to play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

After grabbing a quick drink from the great continental breakfast style buffet which was laid on for us, we were then treated to a short walkthrough of the game itself, including watching the full FMV introduction (which I have to say looks very nice!), we were then introduced to the game itself and it’s many modes of play.

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The main focus was put on either the Single or Circuit modes; Single meaning a single event from those available (and unlocked) and Circuit meaning a predefined collection of events in a row, in a similar way a cup in Mario Kart.

We were then treated to our first glimpse of the game running, with an example of the 100 meter sprint, with the Sega Rep (a very charming lady who unfortunately I can’t remember the name of!) taking on one of the Sonic Community guys.
First up they had to choose their character from a list of 16, 8 from the Mario universe and 8 from the world of Sonic, each with their own stats which overall effect their performance at certain events. There was also an option to chose a Mii, which start off with similar stats to the “All-Rounder” characters, but then get better as the Mii users improves.

Secondly, a little onscreen explanation of the controls was shown that explains all of the motions involved for that particular event, which in the case of running means frantically moving the Wii remote and Nunchuck attachment up and down as if to simulate how your arms move when you run.

It was then time for the race, which was a very comical affair; watching two people flailing around simulating running. In the end, and rather unsurprisingly, the SEGA Rep won, leaving the Sonic Community volunteer in a cloud of dust.
We were then treated to a taste of the trampoline event, which turned out to be one of my favourite events (even though it was the one I was worst at!). The idea of this event was to flick the Wii Remote upwards to simulate bouncing off the trampoline, gaining height with each bounce if done correctly. Once enough height has been gained, a number of different actions in the form of button presses and movements appear on the screen, which need to be pressed/moved while the character in the air, before having to flick the Wii Remote again on hitting the trampoline to maintain height ready for the next move. This proved to be great fun and reminded me of rhythm based games such as Elite Beat Agents and Dance Dance Revolution.

Once the demonstration was over, we were then allowed to play the game on our own, with just a little bit of help from the Sega Reps. Although some of the events were initially unlocked, I still got to sample many events from almost all of the available disciplines, including 100m sprint, skeet shooting, 100m freestyle swimming, fencing, long jump, triple jump, hammer throw and trampoline. Each event had its own unique play style and associated motion controls, and I found it difficult to find fault with any of them.

After playing a few rounds of various events against a couple of the Sonic Community boys, I also managed to have a quick look at the Mission mode which is also available from the main menu. In this mode it appeared that each character had their very own missions, which in the case of Mario were initially to come first in 100m freestyle swimming, complete a full routine of 5 difficult trampoline moves and shoot one skeet with the smallest possible crosshair size. Completing these missions then unlocked further missions, which I would imagine also unlocks some of the addition events including the Dream Events we later played, but due to lack of time I never got to find out.

Once we had all had a decent amount of playtime with the game, we were then shown one of the previously unlocked Dream Events which turned out to be Dream Race. This game definitely resembled Mario Kart, with the track changing to something like Moo Moo Farm, and power-ups (and traps) were provided from various parts of the Mario and Sonic games. The game controlled very similarly to the sprint event, however there were a number of distinct differences. The first of these differences was that once you had built up your sprint bar, your character would remain running at that speed until hindered by either a trap or an opponent’s weapon when your character would stop, needing you to wiggle your controller again to build up speed.

For the Dream Race event it was Nintendo vs. Sega (or Mario vs. Sonic), and as there were only 2 Nintendo fanboys there (one of which being me!) it turned into a real battle! Team Mario (sporting red t-shirts) were non-other than Mario and Luigi, whilst Team Sonic were the pairing of Sonic and Shadow. The race itself was very close, with Mario (myself) leading until very near the end, when I was overtaken by Shadow and Luigi before watching Shadow run into a well-placed hurdle and costing him the number 1 spot, leaving the results as Team Mario winning (1st Luigi, 2nd Mario) and Team Sonic coming in behind (3rd Shadow, 4th Sonic).

After the Dream Event session we were then introduced to the stars of the game themselves as Mario and Sonic entered the room and donned their box art stances. We then had a photo opportunity with the once-rivals before they got lead out of the room and left us to the main event of the morning: the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Circuit tournament.

After splitting the group in half (two sets of four players), the circuit mode was loaded up where 3 events were pre-selected and the players battle in out to see who the overall victor is. We first chose our characters (me choosing Mario again!), and then started the tournament to find the two top finishers from each set of 4.

The circuit mode itself is a battle for points, with 10 points being awarded to the player who finishes first in an event, 8 points for second, 6 for third and so on. There was also an addition of each playing getting to accept an event as their challenge (or what is more commonly known as playing your Joker), which meant that if you were to come in the top 3 for the event after playing your joker, you would receive double points (such as 20 points for first place).

The first event in the circuit was 100m sprint, which thanks to a fantastic Mario Kart style turbo-start lead me to finish 1st, win 20 points as I accidently played my challenge and break the World Record time! Second up was the Long Jump, where after a foul and a poor jump I somehow managed to turn the final jump into the best jump of the group and snapped up another 10 points and another World Record. The final event was the Hammer Throw which was won by Shadow as Mario didn’t seem to have enough strength to get the hammer to go anywhere, apart from my final try when I nearly killed the steward when the hammer flew off course.

After the first circuit was completed, the top two finishers from each group then went onto one Wii and battled it out in a different circuit, this time consisting of 100m Freestyle Swimming, Triple Jump and Trampoline. Luckily for me, I had already tried Mario out at the swimming event as it was one of the missions for him, which probably gave me a little bit of an advantage and gave me the perfect opportunity to play my challenge card. The race was close, but thanks to a bit of luck I managed to come in first and scoop a nice 20 points.

Next up was the Triple Jump, which is an extension to the Long Jump by adding the use of the Nunchuck to do the “Skip”. This event started as a fairly poor show for all, with Waluigi managing to get 3 fouls in a row due either stepping over the line or not getting the motions quite right. My first jump was a foul, and my second was nowhere near the current longest jump. Luckily again for me, the Mario magic paid off and I managed to pull a fantastic jump out of the bag at the last moment, securing another 10 points and the eventual victory. This just left the Sonic Community guys to battle amongst themselves for second, third and fourth place, which was again lucky for me as my score for the trampoline round proved to be one of the worst.

As a treat for coming first, I was presented with a Mario and Sonic goody bag by Mario himself and had my photo taken before watching Mario dance as “he” won and was excited. Shortly after the event drew to a close, and after exchanging details and saying goodbye I left for home with a very smug feeling, and some great memories of a great day.

As for the game itself, I have to admit I really enjoyed playing it! Before I got there was I in the mindset that this was just another mini-games collection, but after having some hands-on time with it I can safely say that this game should be considered by any Wii owners as it demonstrates of the best mini-game action I’ve seen in a Wii game so far, and really does do the first (and hopefully not last!) outing for Mario and Sonic together in a video game justice.

Buy it! You seriously will not regret it!