Mario&Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)

It is time to man your bobsleigh, wax and ride the skis, jump onto the snowboard and tie the skates really hard! Ouch, not so hard, please!

In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games from SEGA, the third crossover title encompassing both the Mario and Sonic worlds, snow fight gets an entirely new meaning. Or at least that’s what SEGA might have hoped for.

Unfortunately that is not the case at all. Sure, the intro is just amazing with classic helicopter flyovers, cool camera angles and intense action in blazing winter sport events with popular characters, but hey, what just happened, don’t stop now! Oh, the game started. Bummer.

Why is it that these amazing game intros just give me a bad taste in the mouth, it’s like buying a horse, and the horse has an image of a great horse in front of it, once removing that, there is an old bag of a horse, lying there breathing heavily, hoping you won’t look it in its mouth. I mean how can the world’s gamers not feel cheated by a scenario like that?

In the prequel of this series it took place in Beijing, 2008, and now in number three, it takes place in Canada, Vancouver, 2010. As usual most of the playable characters from both the Mario and Sonic worlds are gathered plus some you wouldn’t expect.

There are lots of events to try out and each demands a special attention from the player, trying to master that special twist. But it is not very hard, anybody can do it. You can challenge yourself and your friends and family at will in speed skating, bobsleigh, figure skating, halfpipe, snowboard, ice hockey, downhill skiing, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, curling and other peculiar events I never heard of.