Sonic and Mario were bound to star in a game together eventually. An appearance by the spiky one in either the next Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros Melee would have been a safe bet, but if you were a betting man then your money would have been lost – Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games will be the first title to see the long-time rivals together. Yoshi, Tails, Knuckles, Luigi and others will also feature.
Sega are publishing in Europe and North America, leaving Nintendo with Japan, aiming for a Christmas 2007 release on Wii and DS. Because Sega own the Beijing 2008 license, it’ll feature official venues and such. Three events have been named so far: table tennis, 100m track and swimming. Looks like we’re in for plenty of stylus wiggling and Wii remote waving.
Shigeru Miyamoto had this to say: “Mario and Sonic have been respectful rivals since the early days of video games. In fact, for a long time they have been discussing the possibility of one day competing against each other. Now that they have been given the perfect opportunity to meet at the Olympic Games, we may finally learn who is actually faster, Mario or Sonic?â€
The answer is pretty obvious, but Mario does have the upper hand here having starred in various sports spin-offs before, like Mario Tennis, Mario Golf and Mario Caber Toss.