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After exhausting the majority of sports in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the first game to feature the duo together, they turn their attention to conquering the Winter Olympics. Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games is the officially licensed sequel to the 2007 smash hit.

I love the Winter Olympics, and prefer them to the summer events, and Mario and Sonic are two of my favourite videogame characters. The first game was good, but not spectacular. That said, it was a huge commercial success, meaning that this sequel was always going to be an inevitability.

The premise of the game is simple, there are eight different mini-games, which have different specialities within them – think Wii Sports Resort – and these can be played either by yourself or with friends. The Wii is awash with a variety of different mini-game packages, several from Nintendo themselves, and so Sega needed to do something special to make this stand out from the crowd.

This they have done. First of all there is the setting, and the overall feel of the game. There are other winter sports games on the platform, but these are easily trumped by the use of characters from both the Mario and Sonic universe, as well as the official Vancouver 2010 license.

Sega have also been very intelligent with their control decisions. One of my huge frustrations with Wii Sports was that some of the mini-games required a nunchuck, and so you had to invest in a number of them for any multiplayer. Here there are several different control methods for each game, meaning you can play with or without a nunchuck, allowing for simple multiplayer.

Compatibility with the Wii Balance Board for several of the sporting events is a neat touch too. Similarly to the Family Ski titles, you stand on the board and move your weight left and right to steer. Once again the controls are fairly responsive and using the board does add something to the whole experience, but there’s a slight lack of precision and control. The balance board doesn’t detract from the game, but comes across as more of a gimmick than a worthwhile control interface.

Memorable moments of the mini-games include a range of snowboarding and skiing efforts, where you tilt the remote left or right to steer a character down the slopes and through slalom gates. The controls are responsive, with little lag and the level of sensitivity is just right, so making it easy to get back on track if a mistake is made. They’re suitable for kids, but not too easy for adults either.

But, there are occasions where is feels very simple, and the controls do lack a certain subtlety that a game like Mario Kart contains. One surprise for me, was that considering it’s a Sega title, featuring Nintendo characters, and is thus seen as a first-party title, there is no Wii MotionPlus compatibility.

SEGA say that this was deliberate, to make controls more accesible, it’s just a shame there isn’t an option to support them.

Now to focus on the mini-games:

I enjoyed the Bobsleigh section of the game, played by holding the remote vertically up to your chest and tilting your body left and right to steer down the run. Playing with friends, it’s certainly funny seeing people attempt the push off and the run, before jumping into the bobsleigh.

Curling is a slightly more civilised experiece. It’s almost like bowls on ice, with a bit of motion included to simulate broom movements. The game is played one at a time and there are several actions you perform on each curl – first you have to select the power of your throw, then the angle and then try to sweep your stone as close as possible to the centre of the target. The multiplayer fun here is trying to knock each others’ bowls out of the target area.

I really liked the Ice Hockey mini game, especially with a Wiimote/Nunchuck combination, using the Nunchuck to move, and titling the Wiimote in the direction you want to pass, and pressing buttons for shots and passes.

As with most mini-game collection there are a few weak moments. In Mario & Sonic these are the speed skating events, played simply by swishing your arm around with the correct timing; about as interesting as it sounds.

All of the above are immediately available at the beginning of the game, with training modes avialable for each event, so you don’t have to worry about being thrown in at the deep end with little idea of what to do.

There is a story mode too, entitled Festival. Its closest comparison is probably World Tour in Virtua Tennis. You take part in a 30-day tournament and are assigned up to three training sessions and competitive events per day. There are also a few boss battles – Bullet Bill might challenge you to a bobsleigh race, for example.

I again enjoyed playing through festival mode, as it offers a brilliant way to try all the various games, and get used to their unique control systems, even more enjoyable in co-op. For those completionists amongst you, playing through Festival mode wins you extras too.

These include in-game currency which you can use to buy things in the all-new Olympic Village shops. There’s a store which sells music tracks from the game as well as vintage tunes from old Mario and Sonic titles. The Sports Shop offers decals and paint-jobs for your equipment. The Library is full of books, like “the vocabulary of the Olympic Winter Games”. The highlight here is the Mii clothing shop, providing  your ski equipment clad Mii with lots of clothing to buy.

For retro gamers, playing through the Festival also unlocks Dream Events, which are even more numerous than in the first game.

These include Dream Alpine, where you ski round a Green Hill Zone-esque track complete with loop-the-loops, turbo boosts, rolling boulders and prize boxes. I could talk for a long time about these, but they would spoil the surprise of what is a very rewarding reason to play through the game’s main mode.

Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games is so much more than it appears. Instead of being a series of winter sport mini-games, with some licensed characters thrown in, it’s a deep, rewarding and downright  fun experience. Festival mode provides reasons to play the game more than just when friends are round, rewarding you for putting the hours in. Although not all the events are successful, enough of them are to make this game enjoyable. The expert touch of being able to use whatever controller is available and the expansive multiplayer options mean that this game is one that all the family can have a huge amount of fun with. Sega have created a versatile, deep, fun and family friendly game that comes highly recommended.

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