Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games

Genre: Compilation / Sports (Various) / Minigame Collection

Players: 1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive / Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (from here on simply referred to as Sochi 2014) is a Winter Olympics game released for the Wii U in 2013. As one might expect, this game contains cartoony, family-friendly versions of various Olympics-style Winter sports, and features characters and aesthetic touches from throughout both the Mario and Sonic franchises.

I should note before getting started that this game often requires the use of the Wii U gamepad, the Wii Remote Plus controller, and the nunchuck attachment. You’ll want one of each of these for each player who wants to join in (well, except the Wii U gamepad of course – there’s only one of those)

The game includes 18 minigames split into Olympic Events (which are somewhat realistic) and Dream Events (which are more cartoony and unrealistic). If we were to treat each of these included minigames as its own separate game, here’s how I would rate each:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Alpine Skiing Downhill	Sports (Skiing)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr Decent core gameplay, but the motion controls take some getting used to. Also, there’s only one course.
Ski Jumping Large Hill	Sports (Ski Jumping)	1-4 Competitive (Local Alternating)	C
tl;dr They did a good job incorporating multiple elements into what could have been an extremely simple event. Still, the lack of course variety makes this regrettably repetitive.
Freestyle Skiing	Sports (Skiing)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr This contains two different modes, both which play very differently. Freestyle Skiing Moguls has multiple different types of commands and Freestyle Ski Cross plays like the Alpine Skiing Downhill game mode. Again, the core gameplay here is decent, but the lack of course variety really hurts the longevity.
Biathlon	Sports (Skiing) / Shooting Gallery	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr An interesting game that has you spapping between a simplified version of skiing using the Wii remote, and target shooting using the Wii U gamepad’s gyroscopic controls. Fun, but because only one player can use the Wii U gamepad, it feels uneven in multiplayer. Also, only one course.
Snowboard	Sports (Snowboarding)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr Includes three different modes that play somewhat differently. Once you get used to the motion controls, controlling the snowboard is fun, but once again the multiplayer is hurt by only one player being able to use the Wii U gamepad… and again, there’s only one course.
Speed Skating	Sports (Skating)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	D-
tl;dr Painfully simple, with motion controls that don’t work properly.
Figure Skating	Sports (Figure Skating)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local, Local Alternating)	D
tl;dr This has none of the joy of creating your own skate routine, you’re just following instructions that appear on-screen. Add in unreliable motion controls, and this is a minigame you’ll want to skip.
Bobsleigh	Sports (Bobsledding)	1-4 Competitive (Local Alternating), 2-4 Team Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)	D+
tl;dr This is enjoyable and gives you a great sense of speed, but far too simple to be very engaging.
Ice Hockey	Sports (Hockey)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	B-
tl;dr This is a fairly simple but well-crafted version of the sport. I really wish this had been built on – it could have easily formed the basis for its own game.
Curling	Sports (Curling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local Alternating)	B-
tl;dr This is a great motion-controlled take on the sport, although it’s limited by the fact that it’s, you know, Curling.
Winter Sports Champion Race	Sports (Various)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr This minigame has you swapping between Skiing, Snowboarding, Sledding, and Speed Skating. It’s a fun concept, but it feels like it would have been better without the motion controls. Also, of course, only one track.
Groove Pipe Snowboard	Sports (Snowboarding)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C+
tl;dr This is a Mario Kart-like take on Snowboard racing. The core gameplay here is fun… but there’s only one track.
Figure Skating Spectacular	Sports (Figure Skating)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	D
tl;dr Like the normal Figure Skating minigame, but now with a silly Mario theme or Sonic theme. The gameplay still has the same issues though.
Roller Coaster Bobsleigh	Racing (Misc.)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C+
tl;dr This controls much better than the traditional Bobsleigh event, combining that with an experience more akin to a 3D Sonic game. It’s a lot of fun… but there’s only one course.
Snow Day Street Hockey	Sports (Hockey)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	B-
tl;dr Like the normal version of Hockey, but with three oddly-shaped rinks set in different parts of Super Mario Sunshine’s Delfino Plaza, with occasional bonuses and stuff. Great for those who want a more silly take on the already-solid Hockey minigame.
Holie-In-One Curling	Sports (Curling / Golf)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C
tl;dr This is closer to Golf than Curling… but with the slow movement of Curling. It’s not a horrible concept, but there are only two holes to “golf” on.
Snowball Scrimmage	Third-Person Shooter	1-4 Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C+
tl;dr This is an unusual take on Capture the Flag where players shoot snowball guns at each other and try to ride a giant ball of ice back to their goal. It’s fun, but extremely simple.
Bullet Bill Sledge Race	Racing (Misc.)	1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	C-
tl;dr Another racing minigame that’s vaguely like Mario Kart, but it really feels like this one would have been better without the motion controls. And yet again, only one map.

So out of all of that, the highlights are definitely the two takes on Hockey and, surprisingly, traditional Curling. For everything else, they range from bad to decent, but the best of them all share some of the same problems – they’re content-poor, and they seem like they’d be a lot more fun to play without the forced motion controls. In particular, the racing minigames suffer from both of these – I would have absolutely loved a full racing game that played like Roller Coaster Bobsleigh (perhaps without motion controls), but to only get one track to race on… it feels like a waste.

This compulsion the game’s designers seemed to have to try to shove a unique control scheme into everything backfires in other ways too – before each minigame, you’ll have to sit through a lengthy tutorial before you can play the game itself. For some of these, the tutorial is longer than the actual game! Also, while the game tries to have fast-paced game modes that jump between the different minigames, the pacing is absolutely destroyed by multiple loading screens and the need for uninitiated players to go through a tutorial before each minigame. This is not how you design a Party Game.

Another problem is that multiplayer gives one player access to their own unique control scheme and gameplay elements via the Wii U gamepad, which creates unfair situations that run counter to the spirit of the Olympics. It’s as if only the Olympics allowed one nation to use performance-enhancing drugs. Oh, wait… this game takes place in Russia… so maybe that is appropriate? Well, in any case, it’s sure to make for arguments over which player gets to use the Wii U gamepad, and this will create a lot of frustration.

At the very least this game gets one thing right – the presentation. Sochi 2014 looks great, with beautiful environments, nicely-detailed and well-animated 3D characters, great lighting and atmospheric effects, and this is backed by a pretty good soundtrack too. And of course, the various Mario and Sonic characters all make brief vocalizations when winning or losing. As far as the way it looks and sounds, this game is a winner.

In the end, despite its many, many problems, Sochi 2014 is still worth playing for its better elements, namely the Hockey minigames… and Curling. However, one can’t help but feel like this game would have been better off simply expanding one of those better elements into its own full game, rather than make players deal with a simplified and feature-poor version in exchange for a slew of other half-baked and feature-poor minigames with their own confusing motion-sensing control schemes. Because of this, you see brief flashes of greatness, only to be disappointed that none of them are ever built upon.

tl;dr – Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games includes 18 different Sports-themed minigames that range from mostly-realistic to absurdly cartoony. Some of these minigames are genuinely good, particularly Hockey and Curling. However, everything here is extremely content-poor, and the game’s pacing suffers terribly due to each minigame having its own gimmicky motion-sensing control scheme. Plus, the uneven gameplay caused by giving one player access to different controls via the Wii U gamepad makes multiplayer inherently unfair. The presentation here is fantastic, and the gameplay does show occasional moments of brilliance, but those moments are never built on, and you’ll spend just as much time dealing with this game’s frustrations as you will enjoying it.

Grade: C-

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