I still feel like I’m watching fan fiction scribbled in the back of my old elementary school notebook come to life every time I see Mario and Sonic running amok together, but the unlikely duo’s biannual Olympic series never really plays out the way I'd pictured it. This year's Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games makes excellent use of Wii U’s online capabilities and is overflowing with unlockable fan service, but yet again, it fails to ditch the incessant, imprecise motion controls that have been an unfortunate series staple.
Sochi 2014 features 18 different events; 10 are inspired by real-life Olympic events, like figure skating, hockey, and snowboarding, and eight fantastical “Dream Events,” which include snowball fights, Bullet Bill sledge racing, and a curling-inspired golf game. 18 events sounds like a lot, but I found that the majority of them play near-identically because of the simple motion control required in all but two of them. Whether skiing, snowboarding, riding in a bobsled, or ice skating, the goal in each is usually to reach the bottom of the course the fastest, and you get there by tilting the GamePad or Wii Remote Plus. It grew monotonous quickly.Besides being generic and repetitious, the motion control is also imprecise. I often wound up flying wildly off-course when trying to slightly adjust myself left or right. The Wii Remote was especially bad, as it often seemed to lose its “center” position, requiring me to pause to recalibrate it. Even with Motion Plus capabilities, the Wii Remote is simply unable to handle precise, small movements, which Sochi 2014 often necessitates.
There are still a few standout games though. Hockey and curling are very good. Hockey plays like a light version of Mario Strikers on ice, and it thankfully uses regular analog sticks and buttons. Teams of four characters pass, shoot, body check, and use power shots to score as many goals as possible in two periods of play. There are a number of different rinks to play in, each with a different layout and environmental gimmick.
I was pleased to find that Curling uses pretty much every function of the GamePad and Wii Remote. Before tossing a rock down toward the target, you use the GamePad to observe the lane and positions of the other rocks in play. You can draw a plan of attack using the touch screen, which the throwing player can then try and follow. Throwing the the rock involves a little flick of the Wii Remote and sweeping the ice is done by quickly shaking the Wii Remote. If you’ve never seen or played curling before, this probably sounds confusing, but taking the time to learn the rules and different strategies I actually found this to be one of the more complete games in Sochi 2014, and a great choice for a group of four players.
The 18 events can each be played individually with up to four people or in predetermined and customizable circuits, akin to something like Mario Kart. There’s also the Action & Answer Tour, which injects trivia questions into the events, pleasingly mixing up the experience and making it less about pure mastery of the different games. Playing these three modes with friends is fun in short bursts, but I do wish there was a little more variety in things to do as a group.The single-player campaign, called Legends Showdown, is pretty mundane. If you're looking for the crossover absurdity of Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Subspace Emissary, you won’t find it here. Actually, you won’t find any story whatsoever. Instead, the cast of Mario and Sonic regulars faces off in each of the 18 events against shadow versions of themselves. In order to progress, you’ll have to simply play the same event over and over until you beat the A.I. opponent. And for some reason, the A.I. is completely hapless on the easy setting but nearly unstoppable on normal – I literally played curling for over an hour before finally besting it. So single-player mode is either a quick two-hour sample of each event or an excruciatingly exercise in futility. Though I have to wonder how much of that difficulty can be attributed to Sochi 2014’s unwavering and misguided dedication to motion control, as the A.I. seems to be playing in an alternate universe where developer SEGA Sports R&D made the right call and allowed people to play with sticks.
The obsession with motion control is a shame, because Sochi 2014 is built to be highly competitive thanks to an impeccable online experience. Announcements pop up on screen letting you know when someone on your friends list has bested one of your record times in an event, encouraging you to go back and reclaim your crown. There are online leaderboards for each event, and the ghost data for the top global performer can be downloaded so you can see just how he shaved so much time from his run. It feels like Nintendo’s answer to SSX.
Online multiplayer is an option for the first time in the series, and it actually functions quite well. I was able to smoothly play a number of games with two friends, one of whom lives in Europe. Sochi 2014 also ranks the performance of each country by combining the points you earn in multiplayer matches with other players from your country. So, apart from wanting to beat your opponents alone, there is an overarching goal to propel your country to the top of the global standings.Disappointingly, only four of Sochi 2014’s 18 events are available in online competition, which excludes the standouts hockey and curling. Lobbies and voice communication are also missing, so while it’s possible to play with friends, it is quite cumbersome to setup. Plus, after a game, everyone is dumped back to the main multiplayer menu, necessitating another slow setup process before playing some more.
A love for both Mario and Sonic emanates from all the unlockable goodies. A huge collection of music from classic games like Super Mario World and Sonic 3 can be unlocked and then played during any event. Clothing ranging from the Penguin Suit in New Super Mario Bros. Wii to full-on Sonic and Tails costumes can be worn by your Mii in-game (whom you can then use in local and online competition). As an old-school Sonic fan, I couldn’t stop smiling while skiing to the theme from Sonic & Knuckles’ Flying Battery Zone.But again, pretty much none of that matters when the controls are this bad. Each run I took on the same event fluctuated wildly as I would manage to stay on course during one attempt before suffering numerous penalties from missing checkpoints the next. I simply never felt comfortably in control of my character, and what's the point in competing in an event you can't control? A patch implementing analog stick control would make Sochi 2014 a much better, more competitive game.