Released: 1 September 2019
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Arcade and Mobile

The Background:
Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog engaged in a fierce “Console War” during the nineties as Nintendo and SEGA battled to be the top dog of the videogame industry. In the end, thanks largely to wasting money on expensive peripherals and the pressures of an ever-changing marketplace, SEGA withdrew from the home console market. On the plus side, their supersonic mascot appeared on his rival’s consoles, prompting discussions of a long-awaited crossover began between their respective creators, Shigeru Miyamoto and Yuji Naka. Surprisingly, the two came together in the spirit of friendly competition once SEGA obtained the 2008 Beijing Olympic licence. Essentially a collection of Olympic-themed mini games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (SEGA Sports R&D, 2007) saw Mario and Sonic characters co-existing for the first time and its commercial success led to subsequent titles releasing annually to promote different Olympic events across the world. This year, to coincide with the Special Olympics World Winter Games, I’m looking at the 2020 iteration (and currently last) of the series. Released following a significant gap between entries and the first to appear on the Nintendo Switch, the game including story elements and events that incorporated sprites from both franchise’s classic 2D games. Retaining its branding despite the delay to the Olympic games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 attracted mixed reviews that praised the nostalgic feel of the 2D mini games but criticised the tedious story mode and limited options.

The Plot:
When Bowser, King of the Koopas, and Doctor Eggman are trapped inside an 8-bit videogame console alongside Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, Luigi, Miles “Tails” Prower, and all their extended supporting characters must compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games to free them.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
If you’re familiar with the Mario & Sonic series of Olympic game tie-ins, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a collection of Olympic-themed minigames starring the biggest names from both franchises. As ever, Mario and Sonic’s worlds are mashed together with our own, allowing these anthropomorphic and comical characters to wander around real-world locations (courtesy of not one but two overworld maps) and learn interesting facts about both franchises, the Olympic games, and Tokyo. You start the game by selecting your region, being bombarded by pop-up notifications that tell you basic stuff like what the sound settings do, and customising your player profile, assigning icons and such. From there, you have a few gameplay choices: you can jump into a quick game solo or against other players, picking from every event as they’re all unlocked from the start and setting the difficulty of each, or tackle the game’s story mode. Regardless of which option you pick, your gameplay experience will change depending on which character you play as. While the Story Mode forces you to play as certain characters, you can pick almost any character for any event in Quick Match, but you’ll need to consider their capabilities. These are pretty simple: some characters are faster, some are all-rounders, some do better with Super Moves. It doesn’t get more complicated than that and I’m not sure how much of a factor they are as basically every game comes down to how fast you can tap buttons or work the various controls. There are thirty-two characters to choose from, though twelve are only selectable in certain events (like Jet for Football and Ludwig for Fencing) and, when playing the 2D-styled “Dream Events”, your choices are limited to just eight characters.

There are twenty-one Olympic events to play, ten 2D Events set during the 1964 Olympic games, and three special challenge “Dream Events”. You’ll get a chance to review the controls and success criteria prior to each event, though it’s worth pressing X during one of the many introductory scenes or after pausing to review any additional controls. Players can choose from three different ways to play, including flailing around with the motion controls or using the buttons like a normal person, though some events (like the Discus Throw and Javelin Throw) force you to use motion controls to angle your shot, making them some of the more aggravating events. Generally, you can hold the Right trigger or A at the start of an event to build power and must tap A to run or move. B is usually reserved for jumping while R or A execute a Super Move (such as a burst of speed or dancing flourish). The simplest events, like the 100m Race and 110m Hurdles, have you tapping A to run to the finish line, with players hitting B at the right time to clear hurdles and gain a boost in the latter. Most events have a foul line that will disqualify you if you cross it, some of the trickier ones have an optional practice mode beforehand, and your objective is to win every event to set a best time (or break a World Record) and earn gold medals or the top spot on the podium. If you fail an event three times in the Story Mode, you can choose to skip the event, progressing the story with no consequences, something I eventually did quite often when the events became too laborious or finnicky. I was fine with the challenge offered by, say, the Long Jump where you tap A to run, hold B to adjust your jump angle, and complete a series of button presses akin to a quick-time event (QTE), even if it took some practice. Similarly, Sport Climbing was tricky but not too taxing. You press the Left trigger and R at the start to latch on, aim your jump with the left and right control sticks, and hop to hand-holds against a time limit, avoiding spiked balls and replenishing your stamina with hearts. I also had a fair bit of fun in Boxing and Fencing, where you must time button presses and build combos, guarding against incoming attacks and frantically tapping A (in the latter) to avoid being counted out.

Things took a turn whenever the events became a bit more complicated, however. It’s not too difficult timing your button presses in the Triple Jump event or pulling off gnarly tricks in the Surfing – Shortboard and Skateboarding – Park events, but you need to be on point to win those gold medals as a poor score will cost you and you often have to complete a few rounds to win, making it even more annoying. Archery was a similar issue; here, you have to think about the wind direction, the distance of the targets, and the angle of your shot. It’s a far cry from Shooting – Trap, where you just pick a square and hit a button to shoot clay discs. The Judo event also caused me a lot of headaches; you have to mess about trying to keep your balance to toss the opponent, which I just couldn’t figure out. I didn’t mind completing increasing difficult QTEs in the 10m Platform and Vault events, but tilting the left stick to match your partner’s strokes in Canoe Double (C-2) 1000m and frantically rotating the control stick to chase to the goal in Kayak (K-1) 1000m was a pain in the ass. You even play team games, like Volleyball, Football, and Rugby Sevens. I couldn’t figure out the Volleyball event; no matter how well I timed my presses of A and B and how often I hit the ball over the net, I couldn’t score a point. Rugby Sevens was a touch more enjoyable; here, you press A to pass and score a try, B to evade, and race around a pitch tackling other players and scoring a conversion by timing a press of X as a meter goes back and forth. And then there’s the aforementioned Discus Throw and Javelin, where I could just about figure out the motion controls in practice and then kept screwing up my throws when it came time to compete. If the option had been there to just use the left stick to direct my shot, it would’ve been far more enjoyable!

When playing Story Mode, you’ll alternate between moving Luigi around the 3D world of the 2020 Olympic games and Mario around the 2D world of the 1964 Olympic games, with Tails and Sonic following each. You’ll chat with other characters and non-playable characters (NPCs) like Toads and Omachao to obtain passes to other areas and compete in additional events and find glowing tickets to learn fun facts. For such small overworld maps, there’s a hell of a lot of backtracking and dialogue to skip through, and it quickly gets a bit tedious slogging through the twenty-chapter story to reunite the two groups. Occasionally, characters will ask you to complete one of ten minigames to advance the plot; these are then unlocked for free play in the Game Room. These minigames are some of the best parts of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and see you flying through the Tokyo skies in a sidescrolling shooter like in Sky Chase Zone, chasing down a bullet train, painstakingly searching Shibuya’s Hachiko Square for specific characters in a game of Where’s Wally?, and chasing down (and attacking) Dr. Eggman’s taxi in what’s somewhat similar to Rad Racer (Square, 1987). You’ll be bouncing on Cheep-Cheeps as you chase after Bowser’s river boat, sneaking through a museum, avoiding Koopas and other Mario enemies as you collect keys, and desperately trying not to fall as you scale Tokyo Tower. Other times, you’ll be beating up waves of Shy Guys or shooting Egg Pawns before they throw spiked balls at you, both options that are far more enjoyable than the game’s odd depiction of Badminton that’s essentially just a rhythm game, just press the button when prompted, using the left stick to aim your shot, and your character moves by themselves (though I found the doubles partner screwed up more than I did). You’ll also dash around an obstacle course in Equestrian – Jumping, building speed to jump fences and puddles, knock a ball back and forth in table tennis until you can hit your Super Shot, and throw hands and feet in Karate – Kumite, toppling your opponent to earn extra points. Most of the events are pretty fun but some of them are way too short and others outstay their welcome very quickly. It’s also pointless trying to master the difficult ones as you can just skip them in Story Mode, unless you’re aiming for 100% completion.

Presentation:
In keeping with the tradition of this spin-off series, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a bit of a mixed bag in this area. None of the familiar tunes from either franchise appear, leaving the game to plod along on the strength of a weak-ass, generic soundtrack that barely eases the pain of a failure. Things start off strong with a beautiful pre-rendered cutscene that showcases many of the new and returning events and shows these two franchises co-existing side y side, a visual that never gets old even if I’ll never forgive either company for not doing a more suitable crossover. It’s a bit downhill from there, though, as prerendered cutscenes are eschewed in favour of partially animated 2.5D models, endless dialogue boxes, and a parade of pop-ups. The 2D sprites and environments ease this pain a bit, but the developers limited themselves by using the sprites from Mario’s debut title, meaning he and his fellow characters have very few frames of animation. Sonic and his cohorts fare slightly better in this regard but the aesthetic is all over the place since Knuckles the Echidna’s sprites are obviously more detailed than Sonics, leading to some weird moments when the sprites are awkwardly depicted holding items. It even looks weird when they celebrate their victories or react to their failures since the developers didn’t create any new animations, so you’re left with Sonic looking annoyed and Mario flipping on his ass. Overall, I did enjoy the 2D environments and events, though; they reminded me of the many 8-bit sports games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I would’ve liked to see some 16-bit ones thrown in, even if just as additional “Dream Events”, but these retro-styled sections were the best parts of the game, despite my complaints.

The 3D sections hold up well, for the most part, but aren’t that dissimilar from what we’ve seen in the previous Mario & Sonic titles. You can hold B to run and characters are far more animated in 3D, spouting gibberish and sound bites and even wearing different outfits for every event. Strangely, every area felt very bland and empty, despite often being populated by at least a handful of NPCs. Eventually, larger crowds of Sonic’s Animal Friends, Chao, Shy Guys, and Toads fill certain areas and populate the stands, but they don’t help to make the areas feel very lively. Still, you’ll see NPCs like Charmy Bee and Lakitu serving as referees and other side characters operating cameras; these NPCs even get in on the action in the atrocious Marathon event. The 2D sections sported an announcer I either missed or ignored in the 3D parts and characters all gain a suitably dramatic glow and flourish when executing Super Moves. However, while event locations and interiors are far more interesting to look at, the game’s let down by its painfully bland overworlds. You can visit many real-world locations in 1964 and 2020, seeing planes fly overhead and learning their history, but it’s all stuck on a rather uninspired overworld map. This is especially disappointing considering how interactive and varied previous overworlds in the series have been, and the fact that you visit these areas time and again to find passes or charge this magical battery created by Doctor Eggman Nega. Many of the minigames again steal the show in terms of visuals, incorporating additional sprites to serve their needs and being visually akin to lost titles from Nintendo’s 8-bit heyday, which only adds to their replay factor. The game also performs really well; I noticed no slowdown or texture warping or anything like that. However, there are a lot of menus to navigate, lots of instructional text to read, and replaying events after a loss can be tedious as you have to skip a bunch of introductory scenes.

Enemies and Bosses:
As you might imagine, every character in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is your enemy at some point though, luckily for you, there’s very little to distinguish them. Computer-controlled opponents have the same abilities as you, charging power, getting a starting boost, and attacking and defending just as you would. Their individual classes do become a factor, however (you may struggle to win a race against Shadow the Hedgehog when playing as Wario, for example), though you can certainly overcome these if you mash buttons faster enough or don’t screw up when playing the event. I did notice some characters seemed to be unfairly good at some events; Vector the Crocodile never struggled to toss his discus, for example, and I could never hope to match Bowser Jr. in the Javelin Throw. Admittedly, the fact that I struggled with these events probably has a lot to do with that. however, I did notice my opponents would charge their Power Gauge much faster than me, or would sprint past me at the last minute even if I had a commanding lead. The general advice here is to simply do better the next time around, something that’s easier said than done when you have to restart a Table Tennis match after playing to deuce and match point for God-knows how many rounds! Unlike in some of the previous Mario & Sonic titles, there are few examples of what could loosely be called “boss battles” here. It’s generally seen as a big deal when you challenge Dr. Eggman or Bowser, but then a lot of those events aren’t that difficult to win…to start with… Bosses (and Badniks) do appear in the Tokyo Sky Flight minigame, however, including Mecha Sonic and a variation on the classic Egg Wrecker fight, which were fun inclusions.

There are some exceptions, however. The Metropolitan Goal Kick minigame, for example, has you tackling Egg Pawns to grab a rugby ball and then timing a button press to kick it up the length of the Metropolitan Government Building and deal damage to Metal Sonic. As far as I could see, Eggrobos only appear in the Volleyball event, while you must tackle Boom Booms in Rugby Sevens and score penalties against Egg Pawns in Football. The twelve guest characters can only be challenged or controlled in specific events, as well, and you must best them (or skip the event) in Story Mode to unlock them. This means you’ll only see Zavok and Zazz of the Deadly Six in Boxing and Table Tennis, respectively, Diddy Kong only appears in Rugby Sevens, while Eggman Nega and Rosalina must be challenged in games of Karate – Kumite and Surfing, respectively. Depending on your level of skill, these can be difficult events; it took me a couple of tries to clear the Sport Climbing event and unlock Rouge the Bat, for example. When playing Story Mode, other playable characters challenge you to events before helping you or joining your team, meaning you must best Knuckles and Shadow in a game of Badminton (Doubles) and win a canoe race against Wario and Waluigi to gain their help. You must also defeat Bowser’s Koopalings to charge up that stupid battery and deal with Bowser, Dr. Eggman, and their minions stealing your gold medals in 1964. Both baddies challenge you to various events, with Dr. Eggman easily being overtaking in a straight-up race or in the Vault event. Once you reach the final chapter, you must pick to play as either Mario or Sonic and race Bowser in the dread Marathon. In this event, you must tap A to run, which depletes your stamina. Hitting other runners, the walls, swarms of bees, or puddles also depletes your stamina and will eventually knock you over, costing you valuable time. You can grab water with B and ride slipstreams to regain stamina, charging up for a boost or using boost pads, but this is a hell of a final ask that I ended up skipping as I never had enough stamina to beat Bowser to the finish.

Additional Features:
There are 122 pieces of trivia to find in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, spread out across both 1964 and 2020. You’ll get trivia by inspecting glowing tickets and talking to other characters, who’ll either ask a question or offer titbits about the characters, the Olympic games, and Tokyo. These are all saved in the Trivia section so you can re-read them if you wish or see which ones you’re missing. There are also eighty hidden “Challenges” to complete, with the obscured list available from the main menu. These are mainly tied to setting new World Records, finishing events on the hardest difficulty, scoring a set number of points, and clearing Story Mode. Finishing the Story Mode, you’re returned to the overworld upon loading your file, now able to replay all previous events and take on additional challenges in the “Dream Events”. Though there are only three of these, they’re pretty enjoyable and interesting, featuring additional power-ups and gameplay mechanics that make them perfect for multiplayer games. Dream Racing sees you racing through a mainly half-pipe-like course, performing tricks and hopping rails not unlike in the Sonic Riders series (Sonic Team/Now Production, 2006 to 2010) and attacking with items similar to the Mario Kart series (Various, 1992 to present). Dream Shooting sees you running around, awkwardly aiming your weapon with motion controls, and blasting targets, grabbing multi-shots and shooting down gliders in an arena shooter that reminds me of the Splatoon games (Various, 2015 to 2022). Finally, in Dream Karate, you attack with combos, kicks, and throws to toss your foes around and colour the floor panels, grabbing springs and Super Stars for temporary buffs. Beyond that, you can challenge the computer on harder difficulties, aim to get gold medals and break World Records, and play alongside up to four players…if you can find anyone to play with.

The Summary:
As a lifelong Sonic fan (and a pretty big fan of the Super Mario games), I’m basically obligated to pick up the Mario & Sonic games whenever they release. I believe I’ve played all of them, but only on portable devices, which I think made the already aggravating gameplay all the more vexing. Free from the restrictions of the small size of Nintendo DS and 3DS screens, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is easily the most visually impressive of all the Mario & Sonic games I’ve played, offering relatively attractive 3D models and worlds that show a decent amount of personality. I can never shake the feeling like these games are just soulless cash grabs, however, and that’s reflected in how empty a lot of the arenas seem, despite the NPC crowds. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 impresses with its nostalgic 2D sections, which harken back to the NES days and capture a lot of the magic of Nintendo’s 8-bit glory days. While the sprites are fun to see, they’re extremely limited and a bit difficult on the eyes because of the mishmash of 8- and 16-bit sprites. I was glad to see the game allowed for traditional controls, though the forced motion controls for some events were more jarring as a result; however, it’s a bit disappointing that so many of the events play the same. Thankfully, the various minigames offered a great distraction from the main events, which were either too short or too annoying. I honestly could’ve done with a few more of these minigames, and the “Dream Events”, as there wasn’t enough of these to offset the more annoying Olympic events. With a half-assed approach to cutscenes and some of the dullest unlockables in all of videogaming, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 does little to shake the franchise’s stigma of being a collection of nonsense minigames, even with its few good points. It’s easily the best of the series I’ve played, but that’s not a very high bar and I remain bitter that we never got a more traditional crossover between the two nineties icons.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020? Did you also play without the motion controls? What did you think to the 2D sections and events? Were the minigames also the best part for you, or did you prefer a different Olympic event? Would you like to see more games in the series, or a proper crossover between Mario and Sonic? Which country are you rooting for in the Special Olympics World Winter Games this year? Whatever your thoughts, leave a comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and go check out my other content for both franchises!