Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games

Earlier in 2007, SEGA announced Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for both the Nintendo Wii as well as the Nintendo DS consoles. As we got closer to the end of the year, SEGA decided to send the Nintendo DS version into 2008 instead of pairing it up with its Wii brother for a simultaneous launch. Whatever the strategy behind this – whether the handheld game needed a bit more time in development, or whether the company was afraid the two versions would eat into each others’ sales numbers – the fact remains that, apart from a few control tweaks and changes, as well as an extra mode or two in the handheld rendition, the two versions are almost identical in design. That’s certainly not a bad thing as SEGA’s unique mash-up of two familiar brands is a pretty fun Track & Field-style design, and it’s impressive to see how well the handheld team kept up with the console developers when building the DS game.