Of all the genres to pair the iconic mascots together for the first time, not many people would have put them in a 'button tapper' sports game in the style of Track & Field, and an officially franchised Olympic one at that. In fairness they'd be right, because this first outing finds its home on the Wii and as one would expect, exploits the Wii controllers' motion sensing and infra-red aiming in prefence to the button-pounding controls of past games. Although it can be played with just the Remote, to get the most out of the game, players really need a Nunchuk each too.

Players choose a character before each round of events, either from one of the stable of characters from the Sonic and Mario universes, or from their own Mii creations. It can lead to some odd-looking race combinations, but seeing Trevor McDonald powering past Yoshi at the finishing line is pure gold and something most people would never otherwise bear witness to. The controls for each event vary and are shown before the event itself gets underway, and range from 'waggle the remote and nunchuk up and down alternately to run' (track events and swimming)to 'pull the remote back and hold the nunchuk forward, as if drawing a bow' (archery). The developers had the good sense to really mix the controls up for different events, and given the wide variety of events available it means there's a chance for tired arms to take a break with something more relaxed between races. It's another great piece of propaganda for the 'Playing Wii can make you fit' campaigners. Each character has their own attributes so picking someone such as Bowser, while being blessed with power and great for flinging javelins, is not such a good choice for a straight-up 100m sprint. The Miis don't have their own attributes and come with off-the-shelf style equal abilities.

Spread over twenty different events which are presented in a clean, crisp, colourful style, there's good variety and a chance that everyone will be good at at least one of them. The single player mode hasn't been ignored and boasts various tournaments and missions to work through. Unfortunately though, those buying this game solely for its potential as a party game are going to find themselves investing time in the single player in order to make the full complement of events available. In what will be looked at by many as a big oversight on Sega's part, only the events unlocked in single player modes are there for the choosing when it comes to multiplayer. This might not sound like such a hardship, but there's a downside because some of the events are much weaker than others.

Multi-event games like this should either be fast or engaging, or ideally a combination of both, but Table Tennis soon becomes a time-wasting test of patience and Fencing feels sluggish and thrown-together and it's a shame, because these few events mar the game and detract from the intrinsic enjoyment of 'sprinting' like a madman or honing one's aim at the expense of some clay pigeons. High Jump is another potential problem, as it doesn't take much practise to be able to jump the maximum possible height every time. For every disappointing event though, there are at least three or four gems. The 'field' events from the athletics collection are great fun; there's plenty of amusement to be taken from watching people twirling the remote above their heads for the Hammer Throw as if their life depended on it. Events like Skeet Shooting offer a good alternative to the flailing of arms for others, instead relying on reflexes and a good aim.

There's a huge amount of collectibles on offer for the obsessive compulsives out there and the various missions add some solo longevity, but where Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games comes into its own is as a party game. The more hardcore fans of the genre may be disappointed in the mechanic which effectively replaces 'press and hold a button for angle' in throwing and jumping events, which now involves whipping the controller up or down at the appropriate time, but neither too fast nor too slow. It's quite easy with practise to get a bar-filling 'Great' on each attempt, and a quick glimpse at the scoreboards indicates that most events seem to have a maximum score. The reflex and aiming events such as skeet shooting, trampoline and archery are welcome departures from the bicep-burning swimming and running.

The more eagle-eyed of shoppers will have noticed the Nintendo WFC logo on the box, but in this instance it's sadly not for online play, just for online scoreboards. As a game to break out for when there's a gathering of friends or family it's great, but as a game for solo play it could do better. The computer controlled characters are simple to beat on all but the most difficult circuits (where they become very difficult to beat), and the weaker events often prompt a sigh when they crop up in a newly unlocked circuit.

A great game with a group of friends, and one which could help shift a pound or two, but the necessity to unlock events for multiplayer and the near-vertical difficulty curve for later circuits are hard to overlook. A fine addition to the Wii's growing catalogue of social inclusion titles, although perhaps not one for the hardcore.