2016, the year of the Olympic Games in Brazil, which means that Mario and Sonic appear in another sports game together. The two mascots visited the Olympic Games in London but travel all the way to Brazil for this one. The game released for the Nintendo 3DS but is it worth a golden medal?
Your adventure starts in Rio
The moment you start the game, you’ll get a lot of options, one of those is the story mode. It’s very impressive to see that a story mode is included in a game like this but don’t expect it to be really good. The idea is simple; you start your adventure, using your own Mii, in Rio and compete at the Olympic Games. When we say competing, we truly mean competing. Your Mii character will try his/her best in every discipline. That’s right, that cute little Mii character is a sports god!
So why would you play this story mode? Well, it unlocks additional characters of both the Super Mario and Sonic universe and it gives you new costumes for your Mii. Doesn’t sound like much but these costumes truly boost the stats of your characters, which could be rather important in the Rio mode or the versus mode where you compete against your friends.
The Rio mode
So more about the Rio Mode. For me personally, this is the best mode, especially since this is the portable 3DS version of the game. As said before, Rio mode enables you to pick one of the fourteen events and you can start playing them instantly. The fourteen events aren’t all as good as we hoped for but one thing must be said, they truly use the 3DS system to its full potential. You’ll have to use a lot of different control schemes depending on what you’re playing. Some events can be completed with just two buttons while others will demand touch or movement control. It’s great to see that the developers really went all out to include these different types of controls. Before you start playing an event, you’ll see how you need to control your character. It works most of the time but there still are some events, like BMX riding, which suffers from inaccurate controls. It’s a shame those events are still included but it doesn’t take away the fact that some other events are truly enjoyable.
Not the best Mario and Sonic
For me, personally, there are three events that truly show how good it can be. First of all, the Football event made me miss those good old days where Mario Strikers was still a thing. Of course, it isn’t as big as the real Super Mario Football spin-off, but it does offer a fun and quick game that I enjoy playing from time to time. The same goes for the Golf event, which of course, is inspired by the Mario Golf games. In here, you’ll need to hit the ball using the touchscreen. It works incredibly well and it’s very motivating to swing your club in the sunny Rio. My third favorite discipline turned out to be rhythmic gymnastics. In here I had to push certain buttons at the rhythm of the music, which reminded me of the great Elite Beat Agents. These three disciplines are my personal top but there are eleven others to play.
The biggest problem with the other disciplines is that they feel shallow, especially compared to the other three mentioned before. Sure, they all look great and offer some fun the first time you try them out, but the fun doesn’t stay that long. Some of the events are even unplayable like the BMX or swimming events. These suffer from inaccurate or unnecessary complex controls. All in all, there are a bit too many events lacking in fun, which of course is a shame since the game is based upon these events.
The plus disciplines
A lot of these mistakes are made up for in the plus disciplines section. In here, you’ll pick one of the fourteen events but they come with a classic ‘Super Mario Sports title’ twist. This means you’ll play with extra challenges like holes in your table tennis table or increased speed in the rhythmic gymnastics. The plus disciplines are extremely fun to play, even if they throw away the rules of the sports. This isn’t meant to mimic the Olympic Games but rather throws some classic Super Mario twists into the disciplines. As everything else in the game, it’s best enjoyed during short sessions.
Great presentation and even more content
The game doesn’t end just yet; it also supports amiibo for example. Once a day, you can scan the Mario of Sonic amiibo during the story mode. These will boost up your stats for that day. Of course, this feels like cheating but it’s fun to play with an enhanced Mii character from time to time. Besides this, the game also uses Streetpass in the local marathon mode. In here your system will keep tracks of your steps during the day and will translate those to miles you can walk/run during your virtual marathon. This mode can easily result in more gear and items to use in the main game. It’s great to see that this game truly uses everything the 3DS system has to offer.
The same goes for the presentation of the game. Everything looks incredibly fresh and sharp and everything really pops out of the screen when you switch on your 3D effect. The best part of the game is the cheerful soundtrack. You’ll hear some classic Mario or Sonic themes combined with sunny Rio carnival music. The soundtrack makes you happy and makes you want to play the game even more.
Conclusion:
The game has some fun mini-games like Football, Golf and Rhythmic Gymnastics, while the others aren’t really memorable. That being said, the presentation and soundtrack are really good, meaning you’ll have fun playing it from time to time. It’s the perfect game to take with you on a short trip but don’t expect to be sucked into the story mode or to actually play it for a long time. It’s that classic mediocre sports game that’s fun for a while but doesn’t succeed to hold your attention for that long.
