← Older Games of the Month

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

When Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced back in 2007, we all thought we'd gone mad. Nintendo, once SEGA's great rival in the console wars of the late 80s and early 90s, had now teamed their podgy plumber with the Blue Blur to face off in a game based around the Beijing Olympics. Two years later, they faced off again, with the Vancouver Winter Olympics the theme.

Now, with London 2012 just literally around the corner (the fun starts in around 3 weeks), Mario & Sonic have teamed up again in a bid to beat each other to the finish line and gain those all important Gold Medals.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, to quote it's "It couldn't possibly get any longer than this, could it?*" title, quite strangely came out on the Wii last November, possibly to try and capture some of the Christmas market. The 3DS version, which isn't the game we're featuring here, came out a little bit closer to the Games themselves, aka February. The game played out pretty much exactly the same as the previous Summer Olympics title did, however returning events such as Athletics and Table Tennis featured improved game mechanics.

In order to not feel like a re-hash of the previous Summer title, Mario & Sonic @ London 2012 (ahh, much quicker) also featured new events, such as every Englishman's favourite sport: Football! Oh, there was also Badminton and Equestrian as well, but those two are rather poor sports in and of themselves. M&S 2012 also featured Dream Events, which are variations on the featured sports, but held in the Mario & Sonic universes. These are generally the best in the game due to originality, though the featured venues do look fairly accurate to their real world counterparts.

In closing, if you've played a Mario & Sonic title before, specifically the previous Summer Games edition, there's not exactly a lot that's new here, aside from the new sports and Events. However, if you only own a Wii and want to scratch that London 2012 sized itch, this is the game for you.

--

* - Yes. Yes it could. IF there's a fourth, it'll be called Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Try saying that after a few pints...