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Originally posted by: Kairon
I got the game in the mail today! big surprise! ... Oh, and I spent about 3 hours playing it with friends. It's pretty awesome when you have people to share the experience with and you're all open to having fun and willing to be crazy and vocal about it. But god... we're gonna be feeling sore in our arms for the next couple days because of this game, just like Wii Sports.
... I made the mistake of playing Carnival Games afterwards to wind down since it's much less hectic, but then I got hardcore obsessed with one of the mini-games and ended up tossing balls at different colored plastic cups for an additional hour, just making my sore-arm situation worse.
Heh, I know how that is.
Anyways, time to update my impressions...
The more I play it the more I am loving it. The urge to try and outdo yourself and everyone else on the planet it way too strong to avoid and I love it. I decided to check the worldwide leader boards and try and top one of the rowing records. While I didn't rank high I moved up significantly and it was awesome. This game will be like a drug to those that LOVE to prove themselves in anything.
*FACT: Daisy is perhaps the best character for the rowing event. If you check the leader boards the top 5 players have used Daisy as their character.
Earlier, I talked about how crappy some of the Gallery mini games were. Well, I played them for more than an hour last night and while they are extremely simplistic and repetitive they are quite fun and great time wasters. Its just that some games are better than others (the "voice memory" game tends to get annoying with the characters having the same two lines but its good). I also think its a nice touch that they decided to add trivia about the Olympics themselves.
Dream matches are quite fun and the closer you'll ever get to a Mario Sports title on the Wii (for now). I still need to unlock more events but I like the arcade feel of it all.
I think "Archery" has the best and most creative control setup in the game, as well as any other Wii title. The Wiimote acts as the arrow while the nunchuck acts as the bow. You pull back on the Wiimote to simulate the "stretching" feel and you aim with it, while you control the nunchuck to fully align the how and make the best show. It almost feels like you are holding a bow and arrow!
There's definitely a hidden level of depth in many of the events. As the IGN reviews mentions you can't win every event by simply waggling the remote and nunchuck like crazy. You actually have to time the jump and measure the speed of how you move the controller. This is clearly evident on the jumping events in which timing is key. I love it!
In my earlier impressions I complained about the graphics. I wasn't being fair so I'll explain them one more time. I still stand that the characters are far too stiff for this type of game. They are almost like the characters models in the Mario Party games. However, they are very nice, clean, crisp and detailed and the animation is quite good, even if its limited. I also mentioned that the characters lacked attitude and personality. Turns out that they do have a little bit of life in them if you look closely. For example, on the jumping events you get to animate the crowd up by simulating the "clapping" motion. Most characters just clap their hands. However, some of them have their own unique animation. Shadow, for example, is too cool and emo to be all happy and such so in order to get the crowd going he just raises his hand up and down while still being angsty. I honestly thought that was a nice touch. Oh and Wario's gut bounces up and down in the fencing event.
The only events I am not a big fan of are swimming and fencing. In swimming each character has their own swimming styles (dog paddle, crawl, standard and such) and some are more annoying than others. Its the ultimate waggling experience and quite tiring.
As for fencing its good, I just think its too limited and could've been better. You get to do the "poking" motion, but it could've been deeper and maybe have implemented 1:1 controls.
Table Tennis is a personal favorite of mine, but the matches last too long and my arm gets tired quickly. It is quite good and even deep if you know how to play it right. Its definitely far better than Rockstar's Table Tennis :p .
So with more experience under my belt I recommend "Mario and Sonic" if you loved Wii Sports and enjoy the Mario Sports games. The games are quite addicting and the extra features are a BIG welcome. Its not extremely revolutionary, especially if you have played other party games, but if you can ignore that you will find a rock solid game.
Topic: Reuters: Sega has very high expectations for Mario an Sonic Olympics game (Read 21833 times)
