Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

"Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, known in Japan as Mario & Sonic at the Beijing Olympics (マリオ&ソニック AT 北京オリンピック), is a sports game developed by Sega. It was published by Nintendo for Japan and by Sega for North America, Europe and all other regions. The game is officially licensed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through exclusive licensee International Sports Multimedia. The game is the first official crossover title to feature characters from both Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog's respective series. It was released on the Wii in November 2007 and the Nintendo DS handheld in early 2008, and is the first official video game of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Mario & Sonic on the Wii and DS is a collection of twenty-four events based on the Olympic Games. Players can assume the role of a Nintendo or Sega character while competing against the others in these events. Players use the Wii Remote to mimic actions performed in real life sports, such as swinging a paddle. The DS version utilize the stylus and button controls. Both games closely follow rules and regulations of the specific sports. Sega adopted the IOC's mission of promoting a sporting spirit and its desire to interest young people in the Olympics by using its characters. Due to the aforementioned and the atmosphere of competitive sportsmanship the Olympics had to offer, Sega received approval by Nintendo to include Mario in the game with Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog is the protagonist of the video game series released by Sega in order to provide the company with a mascot to rival Nintendo's flagship character Mario in the early 1990s.

Overall, critics praised the multiplayer interaction of the Wii game and variety of events of both versions. However, reviewers criticized the Wii version for its lack of simplicity and its DS counterpart for not offering the same interaction between players. The Wii title was awarded the "Best Wii game of 2007" at the Games Convention in Leipzig. A sequel titled Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games was released in October 2009 for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, following the commercial success of its predecessor which has sold over ten million units."

Source: Wikipedia, "Mario_&_Sonic_at_the_Olympic_Games," available under the CC-BY-SA License.