Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games Review: No Second Wind

Mario & Sonic arrive at the Rio 2016 Olympic games on the Wii U this time, but their performance won’t win them any gold medals.

Developer: Sega Sports R&D

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Nintendo Wii U

Release Date: June 24, 2016

For the fifth time, Mario and Sonic have brought their respective teams to the Olympic Games, this time taking place in sunny Rio de Janeiro. Given that past installments have received almost universal lukewarm reception, the pair’s reappearance for Rio 2016 may surprise some. That said, this is the most well-known game series based on the Olympics, so maybe we shouldn’t be astonished.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games already released for Nintendo 3DS back in March, but make no mistake: the Wii U version is a very different game. You’d think that three more months of development and an upgrade to the console platform would only improve what was already a moderately enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, you would be completely wrong.

Let’s start with the events themselves. Most of the Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games gameplay consists of participating in various sporting competitions you’d encounter in the summer Olympics, each one presented as a short, standalone game. While the 3DS version offered a robust 44 events (admittedly 30 of those were reruns of the 2012 games), the Wii U version only includes fourteen, nixing Golf and rehashing updated versions of Triple Jump and the Relay.

And if you’re disappointed in the lack of surface variety, diving into the games doesn’t feel any better. Rugby, Football, and Rhythmic Gymnastics are easily the best three. Equestrian, the Relay, the 100m Dash, Triple Jump, and BMX all seem like slightly different versions of the same event, all implementing the same strategy of furiously tapping A and then B to get a speed boost. Table Tennis and Volleyball fare slightly better but still manage to play like simplified versions of Mario Tennis.

The goal overall is to become really good at those fourteen events in multiple game modes. There are Single Events, which work just like a practice version of each event where you can try out different Mario or Sonic characters or practice with your Mii. Tournament Mode amps up the difficulty slightly by pitting your Mii against other Miis in specified events. Heroes Showdown is where you select either Team Mario or Team Sonic and play against the other team in a series of events selected at random, gradually eliminated the other team for a shot at beating their captain.

Mario & Sonic at Rio is like if Mario Party only had fourteen button mashing minigames and no Party mode.

All of the above modes unlock both coins and rings, which can be eventually exchanged for new costumes for your Mii that will boost its stats in Strength, Speed, and Skill. Apart from a few achievement-based costumes, these are unlocked via a chance wheel at random, so it’s down to the luck of the draw as to whether or not you get the ones you want, resulting in a lot of currency wasted on useless hats.

A Mario or Sonic League mode is also available, but it requires either a Mario or Sonic amiibo. As I have neither, this review does not take this feature into account.

That’s the game. There’s no story mode like the “Road to Rio” that was included on the 3DS, which is a huge mistake as without it there’s absolutely nothing to do other than playing the same fourteen minigames again and again, with or without local or online friends. Mario & Sonic at Rio is like if Mario Party only had fourteen button mashing minigames and no Party mode.

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The best I can say for Mario & Sonic 2016 is that it is both pretty and functional. There’s nothing broken or awkward about the game or its controls, and the Rio beach looks lovely in the cartoonishly colorful Mario universe. Also, it was interesting to learn exciting facts about other countries by talking to the other Miis on the beach, but since there are only 79 flags to collect, that enjoyment ended fairly quickly.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.