See part one from yesterday

Day four is done and the Olympic spirit still rages on, at least inside me anyway. Forget the reports of empty seats for the less popular events and take your own seat at the Olympics with the aid of some familiar faces.

The next game proves that an Olympics game doesn’t have to be realistic to be fun. In fact, it’s far more fun than the massive let down the ‘realistic’ official video game I talked about yesterday was.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Doesn’t that title just scream ‘buy me’? Well, plenty of people did and it’s hard to fault them when you combine two of the greatest video game characters of all time. Although Sonic’s games have been pretty lacklustre of late but Mario still puts out his best so maybe, just maybe, this would translate to a game involving the Olympics. Well, it does…kind of.

While the game doesn’t have as many Olympic events than the ‘authentic’ game mentioned yesterday there’s a large difference – these events are actually pretty fun! There are 24 events on the Wii version (the DS version has 16) that range from athletics and gymnastics to archery and fencing. I also find pleasure in saying that they’re nowhere near as difficult as the official game, and it doesn’t inflict pain on your fingers. You’ll obviously get a few aches from swinging the Wiimote around but, hey, it’s a work out isn’t it?

Like many Wii games that presentation of the game may look a little ‘kiddie’ orientated but that’s always a big mistake to make. Plenty of Wii games are marketed as fun for all the family and this game doesn’t disappoint. The first time I played the game was at a family party and, even though the kids started playing it, it wasn’t long before the adults were playing along too! It’s incredible fun in a party atmosphere - or even just with friends - but it loses a lot of its charm when you’re playing it on your own (play a Wii on it’s own? Are you mad??!??). As for the Olympic spirit…well, you’re not going to see Mario racing Princess Peach in Beijing anytime soon (no, the Japanese team doesn’t include fat plumbers and blue hedgehogs just yet), but you won’t really care when you’re whopping your friends - which is what the Olympics is about, right? Absolutely thrashing another countries athletes?

There could be better games made that combine two of the greatest video game characters ever conceived, but you can’t really dispute that the end product isn’t fun (and downright pretty). Some of the motion controls could have been better but as long as my fingers survive I’m not too fussed.