Reviews of Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games - Nintendo Wii

Customer Ratings:

I have always been a big fan of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. We own all the previous games, so I was excited to pre-order this one. It's one of the few games I really enjoy playing and can still compete against my pre-teen kids (I even occasionally win!).

This version of the game is fun, but it's not as good as I expected. Here's why:

Pros:

-As with all the previous olympic games, I enjoy the dream events. They're made up olympic events that are usually very unrealistic, but fun to play. My kids and I spend quite a bit of time playing them.

-Again as with past versions, mulitplayer makes this fun for up to 4 people. Great family or party game.

-Many events where you can play with or against each other.

Cons:

-The Wii U gamepad is actually a negative thing. There are certain events where you need a Wii Remote, so you have to go back and forth between the gamepad and the Wii Remote. In the end, we just removed the gamepad as player 1.

-You must have a Wii Remote with MotionPlus enabled for certain activites. We only have two MotionPlus controllers since most of our Wii Remotes are ones we've had since the beginning of the Wii, so we ended up passing the remotes (where two people play, and then the other two people play). At least the game does give you the option when it detects only two MotionPlus controllers.

-Not enough new functionality and features.

Overall, I still have a lot of fun playing with my kids on this game, but I am disappointed. I expected more.

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Overall, this game does a lot of things right with the content it provides. There are numerous Olympic Events mixed with a few fun made up games that have the ability to keep your attention and wonder for many hours. Each event has its own individual method of perfection and it will take sometime to master them all in order to get the highest score. My only complaint about the events is that they seem to demand the Wii mote more than the gamepad. When one the main selling points of the Wii U is that gamepad, why have such a mainstream game focus so much on old technology. I wanted to use the gamepad because the potential is so high. Having the ability to use your Mii in the events is also a great function. Dressing your Mii with new customs and equipment to change not only his cosmetic look, but his attributes is a lot of fun. Online play was a big selling point for me with this game, but only having three events available online was very disappointing. Personally I would say if you are looking for a fun multiplayer game this is probably the way to go. However, I think your single player experience will fall short eventually since beating your high score only goes so far.

Best Deals for Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games - Nintendo Wii

As the seasons change from fall to winter some people start to think about outdoor sports. The culmination of this season is the Winter olympics as people from all around the world compete in various activities. Sega has created a few games based off of olympic events in which various characters competed in olympic events. Now the latest entry in this line of games is called Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. But is this a game that you will want to pick up for your Wii U or should you give it a pass?

The game takes place in Sochi Russia and there are a total of sixteen events that you can compete in. From the exciting ski jump to the ferocity of ice hockey those are some of the events you can partake in. Also there are eight dream events that you can participate in as well and these are different than the regular events. These dream events take place in the various themed worlds from Sega and Nintendo. Some of the examples are Bullet Bill Sledge Race or Hole in One Curling (which takes place in the Green Zone from Sonic).

You can participate in these events as one of twenty characters (ten from nintendo and ten from sega). The iconic characters can be played such as Sonic, Mario and Luigi but there are also some of the lesser known characters such as Waluigi, Vector and Silver. You can also play as your Mii as well if you want to see your character snowboarding down a mountain.

While it does sound like it could be a fun game especially with the Gamepad the gameplay is rather repetitive. You use the Wii Remote to control your character as you swish and wiggle your way either down a mountain or for the ski jump. This could have been done a lot better as they could have used the gamepad for some of these modes. Some of the games such as Ice Hockey use the analog sticks so the controls are better with this event. Also there is an event called Action and Answer that injects trivia into the game and do we really want to answer trivia about the olympics?

This could have been a great game but it is plagued by repetitive controls and just some boring gameplay. If you own a Wii U and you love the olympics you might want to rent this title first otherwise give some of the other Wii U titles a try.