Growing up in the 90’s, kids around the world dreamed of a day where Mario and Sonic would square off for platformer supremacy. However, none of us would have expected this dream team to come together to compete for Olympic gold medals, especially for as many years as this odd franchise has gone on for. Nonetheless, the Mario and Sonic Olympic series has continuously met this strange balance of simulating Olympic sports while delivering the personality of the two casts in a fun collection of mini-games. The upcoming version introduces three new sports; skateboarding, surfing and karate. We got a chance to try out each one to find out who’s going for the gold.
In each sport, the characters will all have certain attributes that give them particular advantages. For example, Mario is typically an all-around athlete while Sonic is fast and Bowser is powerful. This changes up a little with a sport like skateboarding, shifting their attributes to stats like technique or jump height. Almost like a simplified version of the Tony Hawk series, the player has a certain amount of time to accumulate points by stringing together tricks. These include grinding and air tricks, which are accomplished by jumping on or at the right times. Like all the mini games, this can be played either with traditional controls or with motion sensing, hearkening back to the franchise’s Wii roots. Playing simultaneously against an opponent made the game even more tense as you see their score climbing, creating a fun mode that reminds us of the skating battles of yesterday… When the motion controls wanted to register our jumps at least.
Surfing was next on the list, where each character would ride horizontally along a large wave. Weaving in and out of the peak in order to achieve maximum air allows for more tricks, and as they are consecutively pulled off, a meter fills up that will allow the player to perform a high scoring special move. Eventually, the wave will close in around the character, giving them the chance to ride through the tunnel for even more points and style. Unlike skateboarding, these games are done in sets rather than one continuous run. This made keeping track of the time of each run vital for maximizing your last few seconds of each trial.
Lastly, karate makes its way into this version of the Olympic games. While not quite Smash Bros, watching these characters fight with hand-to-hand combat was one of the more bizarrely satisfying sights I saw at the show. Almost like a rock-paper-scissors combat style, each fighter could use punches, kicks, throws and counters, each of which are strong and weak against one of the other attack types. Following a score system, a point is awarded when one player can take the other player down. Throwing seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish that, but why would you when watching tall, lanky Eggman push kick Mario right in the face is so much more funny?
While what we played won’t exactly change anyone’s mind about the series, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 continues to feel more polished and varied as it goes on. Plus, if you ever wanted to see Bowser ride a tiny skateboard, now’s your chance! Fight for the gold this November!