Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Preview

October 1, 2019 at 4:53pm
By Jason Stettner

Mario is once again teaming up with Sonic for a series of sporting events to celebrate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I was able to check out the game rather early, and its fantastic fun. It really is just a blast featuring a variety of sporting events that are essentially little mini games. It’s somewhat hard to create an Olympic games title as there are tons of smaller sports that you have to emulate.

What they’ve done here is create the essentials, and expand that even further which is impressive. There are more than thirty events and a very stacked cast of characters. I believe all of the essentials are in that roster, and it’s neat to see this mix. If that isn’t enough, you can go retro with bit based characters across classic old school Olympic type events which are a fun throwback 1964 flashback area.

This can be played locally with 1-4 players, or online with 2-8 players which is a nice option. The various sports do have player counts though, so keep that in mind. You can’t exactly have eight people in fencing, which would be silly. The sports seem to be done fairly well, and there are multiple input options. You can go the button way, or use motion controls which work surprisingly well. The running makes sense, as does javelin though I did find the equestrians to be slightly difficult motion wise.

That aside, there’s a great selection of content here and it feels expansive. I haven’t dipped into the story too far yet, as I just got started but I’ve really been enjoying the quick play options that are present. The campaign is a neat addition, and there just feels as though there’s a lot of content within this. For the narrative, the synopsis is that Dr. Eggman and Bowser have formed a powerful alliance to best Mario and Sonic, then it goes from there.

The list of 3D events are as follows; 100, 110m Hurdles, 4 x 100m Relay, Archery, Badminton, Boxing,Canoe Double (C-2) 1000m,Discus Throw, Equestrian - Jumping, Fencing, Football (Soccer),Gymnastics - Floor Exercise, Javelin Throw, Karate - Kumite, Rugby Sevens, Skateboarding - Park, Sport Climbing, Surfing - Shortboard, Swimming - 100m Freestyle, Table Tennis, Triple Jump. There should be something for everyone in this package, and it seems really expansive.

I’ve enjoyed it thus far, and honestly have had fun with it. I look into diving into the campaign more as I work towards a full review, but that’s it for now. Check out the video to see this preview in action, read our review of the mobile Mario Kart adventure or check out the Nintendo mascot’s hub for additional coverage of what the plumber is up to.

Read our Mario Kart Tour Review
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