Mario & Sonic

Mario & Sonic
The logo of the series.
Genre(s)	Sports party game
Developer(s)	Sega Sports R&D
Publisher(s)	EU/NA: Sega
Creator(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Platform(s)	Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Arcade
First release	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games November 6, 2007 (November 6, 2007)
Latest release	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 November 1, 2019 (November 1, 2019)

The Mario & Sonic series is a collection of crossover video games starring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. franchises. These games are developed by Sega in co-operation with Nintendo and are exclusive to the Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Switch systems. All of the games in this series are centered around the Olympics, being approved by the International Olympic Committee.

History

File:Mario-sonic-still.png

Mario and Sonic competing, from the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Sega received the rights to make video games based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The International Olympic Committee desired that Sega make the Olympics appealing to a younger audience, leading them to use Sonic the Hedgehog characters. Due to the atmosphere of competitive sportsmanship the Olympics had to offer, combined with the continued desire to interest younger audiences, Sega received approval from Nintendo to include Mario in the game with Sonic.

File:MASATLOG 4.PNG

Mario and Sonic making a grand opening appearance, from the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Because of the long business rivalry between the two mascots throughout a majority of the 1990's, this crossover came as a big surprise to the international gaming community. After the first game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, was very successful and received much praise, Sega made a sequel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. The third installment, titled Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, was announced on 21 April 2011. The fourth title, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on 17 May 2013. The fifth game, titled Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, was announced during a Japanese Nintendo Direct on 31 May 2015. The sixth entry, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, was announced on 29 March 2019 and released in November of the same year.

Gameplay

File:Mario & Sonic at London.jpg

Mario and Sonic shaking hands, from the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Mario & Sonic games are based on the Olympics, and are officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia. Most installments also contain "Dream Events", which are loosely based on real Olympic events, but take aspects and environments from past Mario and Sonic games. The gameplay primarily revolves around the Wii's motion controls or the DS touch pad control system, as many minigame compilations do. Though the Wii series and DS series of console's versions share the same titles, the graphics and gameplay are completely different in each version. Some installments take advantage of other Nintendo accessories such as the Wii Balance Board and Wii Motion Plus to further enhance the gameplay.

List of games

Year	Title	Platform	Box artwork (US)
2007	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games	Wii	File:Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games - Wii North American boxart.png
2008		Nintendo DS	File:DSMarioand Sonicattheolympicgames US front.jpg
2009	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games	Wii	File:Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games official cover.jpg
		Nintendo DS	File:Mario and sonic ds.jpg
2011	Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games	Wii	File:Mario-sonic-london-2012-olympic-games-box-art 0.jpg
2012	Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games	Nintendo 3DS	File:MarioSonic3DS.jpg
2013	Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games	Wii U	File:M&S2014 Wii U Boxart.jpg
2016	Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games	Nintendo 3DS	File:Mario&Sonic20163DS-NTSCbox.png
		Wii U	File:Oie transparent-16.png
	Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition	Arcade
2019	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020	Nintendo Switch	File:Mario&Sonic2020US.jpg
2020	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Arcade Edition	Arcade	File:M&S2020Arcade MainArt.png

Trivia

• Sumo Digital considered making Mario a guest star in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, exclusively on the Wii version, but Sega rejected the idea as they did not want to "cross contaminate with the Mario & Sonic series."
• Up until Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, all of the female characters in each of the games had a unique outfit whereas the male characters kept their regular attire. Now, all characters feature unique outfits.
• Up until Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, none of the home console versions in the series had a story mode.
• In the Aquatics events, Sonic wears a life jacket, referencing his inability to swim.
  • In the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sonic's life jacket was orange, while from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games onwards, it is blue.
• If one counts the Plus and Duel events in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is currently the only game in the series not to have any Dream Events.
• There are three games based on the Olympics for mobile devices that feature only Sonic characters: Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and Sonic at the Olympic Games (2020).
• Since the start of the series, neither the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea nor the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China have had Mario & Sonic games to coincide with their events. In the former's case, Ubisoft acquired the rights to make the official video games for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games before Sega could.

References

This article uses content from the Sonic wiki.