For those who were around to experience it, the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega during their heyday was truly like no other. The competition, mainly between the 16-bit Genesis and SNES, showed competitors willing to take swings at each other and truly defined the gaming concepts of "console war." Symbolic of the battle between Sega and Nintendo was that of the two mascot characters: Sonic and Mario. The speedy adventures of the hedgehog and the quirky escapades of the plumber helped define the two systems, and some would say a generation of gamers.

Years later, with Sega officially abandoning the console race, they did something that most in the early '90s would have considered unlikely, even blasphemous: they started working with Nintendo. Obviously with no hard feelings between the two companies, the Sonic Adventure series ended up becoming a big hit on GameCube and Sega even worked collaboratively with Nintendo on F-Zero GX. However, it wasn't until recently that the previously unthinkable would happen: Mario and Sonic in the same game. To the surprise of all, the two would share the spotlight, not in a platformer or adventure game... but instead would compete in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

We sat down with Ben Harrison, Marketing Manager at Sega, and talked about how the team up of Mario and Sonic equaled a win for his company.

How can Mario keep pace with Sonic?
According to the NPD, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was the twelfth best selling game overall during the November period and was the tenth best selling game during December. This made it the fourth and third best selling game during November and December, respectively. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games sold over 613,000 units during the December period alone.

"From the very beginning, we knew this would be a cultural event, the experience Mario and Sonic fans have been asking for since the early '90s," gushed Harrison. "Once the game started coming together, and we saw how much fun it actually was to play, we knew we had the ingredients for a hit. So yes, we had high expectations and they have been met."

No doubt some of the primary appeals of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games are outlined in the title; namely Mario, Sonic and the Olympic Games. Those three things have great mainstream penetration and are as likely to reach the Wii's non-standard gaming audience as anything. When asked if sales of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games demonstrated the power of cross-pollinating some of Sega's and Nintendo's most popular characters, Harrison responded, "It absolutely does, particularly when the two primary characters are as iconic and beloved as Mario and Sonic. I believe it also illustrates the highly collaborative relationship we have with Nintendo, and what great things can emerge from that."

Waggle your way to the Gold!
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games features much what you'd expect: various Mario and Sonic characters competing in many different Olympic events. There are 20 events in total, divided over eight different classifications. None of the individual games are too complex, but they give Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games a good amount of gameplay variety.

"Variety is definitely part of the game's appeal, not only in terms of the events themselves, but also the creative and fun uses of the Wii controller," ventured Harrison. "There's nothing quite like watching four people compete in the swimming event, all doing different movements for the different swimming motions of the characters they are playing."

Up next: Kratos races Master Chief!

"The game was developed to be easy to pick up and difficult to master, and particularly for gamers who want to hone their skills through a variety of challenges it significantly extends replayability," he continued. "Even without the mission mode, though, the game has enough depth to reward a lot of replayability. Our development team did a great job of adding nuances into the events that allow gamers to experiment and discover new ways to improve their score with different moves of the Wii controller."

The main advantage of creating Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii of course is the unique motion sensing controls. While Olympic and "combined event" games in the past typically relied heavily on button mashing, players can now use the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to physically simulate the various events. Many events still come down to a lot of competitive flailing, but Harrison believes it gets players involved in the action more than previous titles "in a variety of ways -- you have events like archery where the player is mimicking the action of stringing and aiming a bow, as well as events like the 100m dash where you really work up a sweat."

Sonic and Mario sitting in a tree...
As one might expect, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games had a promotional campaign worthy of the two franchises it featured prominently. Among the various ads were trailers featuring guys in Mario and Sonic costumes being interviewed by a TV newscaster. The spots highlighted the rivalry between Mario and Sonic in an amusing way and got fans ready to pick sides in this battle of company mascots.

"We knew that this title would have a strong appeal both to gamers and to a broader consumer audience, so we used a two-pronged strategy to get the word out -- PR primarily for the gaming audience and advertising to reach the broader consumer audience," said Harrison. "This seems to have been an effective formula for a title like this."

While gamers had to wait years and endure countless rumors to get to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the first official game featuring both titular characters, gamers won't have to wait long to get the second. Coming this March, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will see Mario and Sonic putting up their dukes in the long-awaited fighting game. With Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games already successful and Super Smash Bros. Brawl destined to be a hit, we'd have to venture that there'll be more team ups between Mario and Sonic in the future.