Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Was a Pretty Fun Time
As the November 5th launch date nears for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, one has to wonder if this upcoming game is going to be a solid entry in the ongoing Mario & Sonic Olympics series. Luckily, I got just over an hour of hands-on time with the game last month and I can say that, so far, this game might be winning a gold medal when it releases in November.
During my time with the game, me and a PR representative mostly played against each other in competitive events such as Skateboarding, Fencing, Boxing, and Soccer. We also delved into the over-the-top “Dream” events like Dream Racing and Dream Karate.
There was also some time spent with some of the 2D 1964 Olympics events such as the diving event and a boat racing event. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend much time with these events and I didn’t like them nearly as much as the 3D ones. They were easier to play but the events that we played weren’t all that interesting and they seemed more like neat additions than fully-featured events.
Each event had a unique control scheme and they all seemed like they would be fun party games to play in a group of two to four people. It was impressive how each one felt good to play and how easy it was to immediately understand each event’s controls. My favorites were the Soccer event, Dream Karate, and Fencing. With over 30 events available in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, players should have plenty of events to choose from.
When it comes to the story mode, I unfortunately wasn’t shown much except for the mode’s Super Mario World-style overworld. As for the story itself, the representative I played with gave me a brief but bizarre rundown of the story premise: Bowser & Eggman team up to sabotage the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But then something goes wrong and several Mario & Sonic characters end up back in 1964 during that year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Hopefully, the story mode will impress as much as the competitive modes when the game launches next month for Nintendo Switch.
