Video game number two hundred and thirty three: Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games

Video game review number two hundred and thirty three in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games".

Alright, so I just played (and hated) the DS version of this the other day, but I knew I was going to have to play this one...because it was already in the mail before I could cancel it. I must say, my bias towards hating this one was strong, and before I ever even opened it, I had planned to play for a few minutes and then throw it back in the mail.

Fortunately, I am a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong...and I was wrong. This Wii version is actually a lot more fun than the DS version, and I ended up spending a couple of hours with it.

Some of the highlights:

Medals earn you star points, which can be used to buy crap you don't want. Still, it's rewarding and cumulative, which is nice.

Skiing and snowboarding were much more fun on the Wii than the DS, and you can choose whether or not you want to use the nunchuck for a "two ski pole" vertical control scheme. I'm not going to say it felt like skiing, but it was very intuitive to pick up, and it was a lot more fun than using the stupid pencil on the Wii.

I actually had the most fun with the curling game (strange, I know). You bowl the rock up to the target, then furiously shake the Wiimote to sweep your way up there. I know it sounds ridiculous, but so is the sport of curling.

I was able to win a silver medal in the Skeleton (frontwards luge) event. Tilting the Wiimote to control it was very natural.

There are "party games" which are really weird. You play an Olympic event to earn balls, which you'll later throw at balloons in a standard balloon popping game. That game ultimately decides your final score against the CPU (or your friends). It's pretty fun.

There's a festival mode, where you do all sorts of training and events over 16 days. I got to day four in that.

Overall...I'm giving this one a 6/10. Out of the three different Vancouver Olympics based games I've played so far this year, this one actually turned out to be my favorite one.