First uniting four years ago for the Beijing Olympics, the novel notion of seeing legendary mascots Mario and Sonic in the same videogame has long since passed, and their third Olympics-based videogame does little to differentiate itself from their first collaboration in 2008.
The same collection of Olympic events are available, with a few new additions such as badminton and football thrown into the mix. However, most games fail to utilise the Wii Remote in any effective manner, often resulting in manic, undignified flailing of extremities around the living room. The baffling exclusion of Wii MotionPlus only highlights how archaic this collection of mini-games play.
Dream Events support the main batch of games, taking simple Olympic sports and placing them inside either the Mario or Sonic universe. So Long Jump becomes a whimsical bounce across patchwork clouds in a Yoshi's Story-style stage, whereas Trampoline places you inside one of the more futuristic Sonic zones. More at home in a party title like Mario Party, there's little question that each of these events are more imaginative both in gameplay and design than the entire collection of Olympic activities.
As a party game it provides a huge amount of content, allowing players to compete either by selecting singular games or by taking part in the London Party mode. The latter places four players in a miniature London map where the player can explore the sights and enter events, with the aim to collect more stickers than their opponents.
It's a shame that the main crop of sporting activities aren't better implemented with the motion controls, as what could be one of the Wii's premier party titles just feels bloated and outdated. Nevertheless, if precision and accuracy aren't an issue then Dream Events and London Party provide enough content to get through an entertaining evening with few complaints.