Mario & Sonic Impressions

[shams]

My wife rented out M&S yesterday, and I have now had enough time with the game to get a good feel for it. Not sure how many people on this site have played it, so thought some impressions were in order.

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Firstly - those sites giving this game a 6/10 (or around that) are full of s___. Its so obviously NOT a 6 game - even for people that don't like these sort of games.

This game is to Mario Party, what WiiFit is to WiiSports - its sort of like a sequel, but a different sort of game.

Most obviously, the game is incredibly polished. All of the crap that was present in Sonic & Secret Rings (for instance) is gone. No long load times, no stupid menu sequences. Its clean, intuitive, easy to manage, etc. The intro movie also looks awesome, and gives a great "feel" for the start of the game.

Its also an obvious Olympics title. It pays homage to the Olympics, and all the events try and get as close to the real sports (without getting overly technical). 

GRAPHICS: Graphically (and in terms of overall presentation), I would say the title is perfect. The only noticable flaw are the crowds - they are a little "stiff", and could really have done with the same crowd system that Mario Chargers uses (for instance). The characters all look great, the stadium/events are rendered really well, and in general it just looks great. Probably the only possible improvement would have been HD - as there are some jaggies present (on my TV anyway - but thats what you get at 50'').

SOUND: The sound is a little cookie-cutter, and doesn't really compare to say Galaxy (although nothing really does). That said - its still excellent, and very polished - just not that innovative. There are voices in places, the music tracks (including the main one) are excellent - and it doesn't grate at all, if you just leave it on in the background. All the characters have their character sounds/speeches, and it adds really well to the overall presentation.

CONTROL: The core of the game is all Wiimote driven (pointer type on on-screen buttons), and the interface is really clean and easy to use. Each of the events (tried track & field, fenching, table tennis, swimming, trampoline) has their own control system - they are all easy to learn, and there is a excellent in-game (in-event) tutorial that explains how the controls for each of the events work. Most of them also work with either just the Wiimote - or Wiimote + Nunchuck. Possible the only annoyance, was some Wiimote only events require you to unplug the Nunchuck to play - sort of annoying, but not major.

GAMEPLAY: Each of the events plays differently, and they are all a different level of fun. In general the longer ones, or ones that give you more chance for error are more fun. In my short playtime, Table Tennis, Trampoline & Triple Jump were my favourites. There are also plenty of characters to choose from, and although they are all pretty similar - they do play slightly differently. Its also cool that in some events (i.e. Swimming for one), the control system changes to suit different characters.

Just like Mario Party, there is limited fun to be had single player. Once you get a second player (and its great for "non-gamers"), you really start having fun - what I found amusing, was that our reactions after each event did a good job of matching what the on screen character was doing. So as I was screaming after fouling my last triple jump attempt - Waluigi was doing the same! Very amusing.

There are also a heap of things to earn, unlock (etc). And I haven't even looked at the dream events / challenges.

The Olympic Trivia section of the game actually incorporates full little mini-games into each section. These in themselves were a lot of fun. Lots of facts to unlock and learn about (and covers every section of the Olympics trivia - from ancient to modern records).

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All in all, I came away quite impressed with my rental - and I will definitely be buying the game (and soon!). In many (every?) ways it is better than Mario Party - as it has a lot more polish than that. It also has a similar level of content - but just lacks the board nature of the game. Comparing the mini-games to the events in M&S - M&S has less, but they are more intuitive, and generally a lot more fun. 

Single player (hardcore gamer), this is probably a 7.5-8.0 (/10) title. But for casual gamers, or a house where you want to get your parents/siblings playing along with you - I can't recommend ANY title more. Definitely better than MP8, this is a 9.0-9.5 (/10) for a party/multiplayer game.

Not only am I not surprised by the current sales success of the game - make no mistake, this is an absolute system seller - and will keep selling for years to come. The fact that it has the Olympics license, AND is the first game to have both Mario & Sonic in it - is just a bonus really.

The main thing this game is missing is true online play - with that, this would be close to a perfect 10 - and one of the greatest sports/party games ever made.