Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Preview (WII)

Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, the two biggest mascots in video game history will square off on the Nintendo Wii, but not in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (at least not yet). Instead of beating each other up, the two will compete in Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Due out this November, just in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the game pits the archrivals against each other in a series of events, the goal to capture the elusive gold medal.

Sega announced three games thus far: the 100-meter dash, the long toss/hammer throw and the triple jump. Each controls differently, requiring you to perform various actions with the Wii remote and/or nunchuk. In the 100-meter dash, for instance, you quickly move the controllers up and down to power up your character to make them run the fastest. For the long toss, you raise the remote above your head and swing it, not unlike the cow tossing game in Rayman: Raving Rabbids, the goal to throw your object the farthest. Finally, the triple jump controls similar to the 100-meter dash, except you must also flick the controllers upwards to leap over things.

In addition to Mario and Sonic, Nintendo characters Luigi, Princess Peach and Bowser, as well as Sega's Knuckles, Tails and Dr. Eggman join the fun. It remains to be seen whether the game contains more competitors, especially since both Sega and Nintendo have plenty of characters to select from.

While novel, Mario & Sonic doesn't scream "OH MY GOD"! The fact that Mario (or the rotund Dr. Eggman, for that matter) runs as fast as Sonic makes no sense. We also need a final event count, and we certainly hope there's more than three (rumors point to 20 plus). Power lifting, gymnastics and wrestling would be sweet.

For now, all we can do is sit and wait for Sega to show us more, because at this point, the game looks a bit underwhelming. Part of that disappointment, however, comes from us wanting to see Mario and Sonic duke it out in a battle for mascot supremacy (we can't say Super Smash Bros. Brawl enough times), and the Olympics doesn't satisfy our lust for cartoon violence. Hopefully, Sega will deliver the ultimate mascot crossover.