My OperaN+ Review: Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games - Part 1
By seaempty. Monday, November 19, 2007 4:50:51 PM
In celebration of the release of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii, N+ are carrying out a special review. Three mods will be battling it out in 15 events over 5 days, to see who will be crowned N+ Olympic Champion. Through the magic of IRC, we'll be playing a selection of events, and awarding medals according to how we fair against each other. The contender with the most gold medals on Friday wins the glory!
During the week we'll be giving our thoughts on the game, and also giving you the chance to win a copy, courtesy of the very nice chaps at SEGA Europe. Details of this will be posted at the end of each day's events.
The Contenders...
G-Off
seaempty
LutherJW
Representing USA
Representing Great Britain
Representing USA
Day 1
Well here we are, Day 1 of the N+ Olympics. In the game there are 20 events to choose from, but we're only playing 15. That works out at 3 per day, and gets rid of some of the games which you can't really play over a long distance (fencing, table tennis, and the unlockable dream events, for example). Disappointingly, you can't compete over Wi-Fi, which would have been excellent. M&S does use the WFC, but only to post your records on a worldwide leader board. It's a good feature, but the game would have been much better with the ability to play with people around the world. We are also limited on event choices, as some of the contenders hadn't unlocked them all...
The rules for our Olympics are simple; we'll each take turns performing the event, and the person with the best score, or time wins the gold medal. Second take the silver, and the
We've chosen our characters, and we're ready to go. There are 16 characters from Mario and Sonic games to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are fast, some are powerful, etc. You can also use your Miis, which is a great touch (I mean, who doesn't get a kick out of seeing Mr T in a leotard?) For the week's games, we've all decided to use our Miis. It means that it will be a better measure of skill, and as G-Off and LutherJW state, at least their characters are guaranteed to be sexy.
So without further ado, on with the games!
Event 1 - 100m Sprint
The 100m sprint is a frantic short distance race. With all the races in M&S, you hold down the B button when you're on the blocks to build up energy, and swipe the Wii Remote down when hear the starting pistol go off. If done correctly, you get a boost, and then you have to frantically wave the Wii Remote and Nunchuk up and down until you get to the finish line. Cue hurting arms, and racing hearts.
G-Off goes first, and clocks up a time of 9.803 seconds. It's a good time, and going to be hard to beat. His arms are going to be aching after that effort!
seaempty's up next, and hopes that his hours of practice will pay dividends. It doesn't, and he registers a pitiful time of 10.246 seconds.
LutherJW's under pressure. Can he beat G-Off's time and claim victory? He posts the time of 9.917, beating seaempty (it was never going to be hard to do that), but it's not enough to beat G-Off.
The first gold goes to G-Off
100m Results
Gold: G-Off
Silver: LutherJW
Bronze: seaempty
Event 2 - Long Jump
The long jump starts with you clapping the Wii Remote and Nunchuk together to drum up crowd support. Once they are suitably frenzied, you can commence your run up. This is frantic Remote/Nunchuk waving to gain momentum, and your speed locks when you get close to the jump board. This leaves you free to perform your jump, which is done by flicking the Wii Remote up wards when you are close to the white line. Be careful: flick it too hard, and you'll get a bad jump. Timing is important, and if you overstep the line, you'll get a foul jump.
G-Off steps up for his first attempt, and get's a decent 6.914 metres. It's tough to get a good jump without over-flicking, but he seems to crack it with his second jump, which measures 7.619 metres. He's confident that's secured him victory, and takes it easy on his last jump, getting 6.947 metres.
seaempty tries to shrug of his pitiful performance in the 100m by doing well in the long jump. He fails miserably, and his first attempt is only 6.046 metres. His second attempt is slightly better, at 6.750 metres, but it's not even close to G-Off's worst attempt. He puts all his strength into his last jump, but it's rubbish - only 6.646 metres. It looks like another bronze is calling.
LutherJW steps up confidently for his first jump. Although the long jump is no-one's favourite event, G-Off's distance is beatable. He strides confidently in the run up, and jumps. The crowd go silent in anticipation. The judges reveal the distance... 3.934 metres. To quote G-Off: "bahahahahahahahahaha". His second try is slightly better at 5.513 metres, but this is clearly not his discipline. The improvement continues in his final jump, and it's obvious he doesn't want to be (further) embarrassed . It measures 5.615 metres.
G-Off takes another gold medal.
Long Jump Results
Gold: G-Off
Silver: seaempty
Bronze: LutherJW
Event 3 - Hammer Throw
You just need the Wii Remote for the Hammer Throw. You rotate it in a circular motion above your head to build up speed, and then press the B Button to release the hammer at the right moment. Powerful characters are good for this event!
G-Off picks up the hammer first, buoyed by his success in the previous two events. He pings the hammer 77.528 metres on his first attempt, another decent distance. He's looking in unbeatable form. His second throw isn't as good, at only 77.108 metres. Due to the nature of the swinging action, distances do usually decrease on each attempt, but G-Off pulls it out of the bag for his final throw: 78.099 metres.
seaempty steps inside the circle, sporting a lovely tracksuit. It seems that maybe he should have spent more time training, than caring about his appearance, and his first throw is only 68.383 metres. Is this going to be a whitewash for G-Off? Apparently not. seaempty's second throw is mammoth, and as if Thor himself is wielding the hammer. The crowd erupts, as the hammer lands 84.034 metres away. No gold for G-Off this time. Just to rub it in, seaempty's last hammer goes 85.638 metres - a new personal best.
LutherJW is the only one who can stop seaempty winning his first gold medal. It's a warm up throw first, measuring 58.687 metres. Well, when we say warm-up, it turns out to be his best attempt, as his next two throws are foul-throws, registering nothing.
seaempty takes the gold.
Hammer Throw Results
Gold: seaempty
Silver: G-Off
Bronze: LutherJW
So that's the end of the first day. Come back tomorrow for part 2 of this prestigious event.
Medal Table
G-Off: 2G-1S-0B (8 points)
seaempty: 1G-1S-1B (6 points)
LutherJW: 0G-1S-2B (4 points)
Win a copy of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games!
SEGA Europe have given us a PAL copy of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games to give to one lucky N+ member. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is answer this question:
We all know how much Sonic loves rings. The Olympic logo features 5 rings, and we want to know who originally designed the logo back in 1913?.
If you think you know the answer, send your answer to seaempty by PM. You can use this link or visit his info page, where the "send message" button can be found. Please note: make sure the subject of the message is "N+ Mario and Sonic competition", and do not give any address details. The winner will be contacted for these when the competition has ended. The winner will be drawn at random from those people who answered the question correctly.
Competition Specifics
- You must be a member of the MyOpera Community to enter the competition.
- You must also be a member of N+.
- The competition deadline is Thursday 22nd November 2008. Any entries submitted after 23:59 on the 22/11/08 GMT will be discounted.
- The winner will be announced on Friday 23rd November in the final post.
- The game is for the PAL region, so will not play on Wii Consoles that do not support this format.
- The decision of the N+ mods is final.
Good luck!
(42%)
yeeliberto # Monday, November 19, 2007 5:41:14 PM
Ace Jon # Monday, November 19, 2007 6:08:15 PM
seaempty # Monday, November 19, 2007 6:13:01 PM
Ace Jon # Monday, November 19, 2007 6:19:10 PM
"Stop!
Hammertime."
yeeliberto # Monday, November 19, 2007 6:21:17 PM
seaempty # Monday, November 19, 2007 6:30:39 PM
Joel Lutherlutherjw # Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:10:16 AM
Geoff GirardinG-off # Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:33:37 AM
.edDotEd # Tuesday, November 20, 2007 6:26:48 AM
seaempty # Tuesday, November 20, 2007 7:05:10 AM
.edDotEd # Wednesday, November 21, 2007 1:46:26 AM
Joel Lutherlutherjw # Wednesday, November 21, 2007 2:00:12 AM
AntonCaptainSeagull # Wednesday, November 21, 2007 4:46:47 AM