Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

[Your Vest Friend]

This guy got a review copy, and he's doing a play through of it. 

 

[SpongicX]

I've been playing the game from 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM, and I can say that I'm liking it. Some of the events are fun. The graphics and sound quality are really nice for a 3ds game. It's definitely better than the London Olympics on 3ds. I do find it sad that they limited the character selection per events again, and the fact that each newcomer only gets one event. It would have been nice to at least unlock the ability to play as more characters in other events. Even with it's character limitations, the events and character selections still pack a variety, and unlike past entries, each event in this game has a dream counter part. The dream events may not be big overhauls of the current events, like in past games, but they are still fun additions to the game. I had fun with the dream table tennis mode.

The story mode is honestly bland, but it's kind of fun. I don't like how we're forced to play as Miis, instead of the actual characters, but I like how you can train your Miis to earn currency to buy stat changing gear, similar to how it worked in Mario Golf: World Tour. The story itself is bad and not very exciting, especially since it's all about the Mii character. I swear, it's like Chris from Sonic X, except you take him out and insert a Mii instead, to shoehorn the actual stars. Mii nitpicking aside, the story mode gameplay isn't terrible, and it's required to get gear for your Mii, and to unlock additional characters. So far, I've unlocked Nabbit, Zazz, Sticks, and Larry Koopa so far. 

Although I've only played a small part of the game so far, I can say what I've played in just 4 hours, was a much better experience than the London Olympics for 3ds. Even with limitation, it still offers more than the London Olympics, by having more events, customization, more characters, new dream events, great graphics, and a fun soundtrack. I think anyone who has enjoyed at least one entry from the Mario & Sonic Olympic series might find some enjoyment out of this. I still look forward to playing more of it. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

Did anyone notice how deep and chilling Silver's voice has gotten in this game?

43:54-46:28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dK8QOiSkbE

Simply astounding. So much better than Pete Capella's take.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

That sounds so dull and unfitting. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

8 hours ago, Detective Reptiles said:

That sounds so dull and unfitting. 

Silver sounds more mature and elegant here opposed to his whiny and nasally voice in 2006. This is indeed fitting for Silver. 

[Your Vest Friend]

Mature and elegant are not what I'd use to describe Silver. The whole point of his character is that he's still not experienced with the whole world-saving business, so him being immature and clumsy are both more par for the course and more endearing. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

45 minutes ago, Detective Reptiles said:

Mature and elegant are not what I'd use to describe Silver. The whole point of his character is that he's still not experienced with the whole world-saving business, so him being immature and clumsy are both more par for the course and more endearing. 

I'm referring to the way Quinton Flynn voices Silver. He makes Silver sound more calm, relaxed, and serious which is what everyone wanted Silver to sound like in 2006. You can tell from this voice that Silver has grown up a lot. I'm sure a lot of people on this forum didn't exactly approve of how Pete Capella voiced him back in the past.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

I know, and I'm saying that I don't think it fits Silver as well considering that Silver, nor any of the other characters, have really grown that much (plus what everyone wants isn't necessarily what would actually fit him). Personally, I did like Capella, his version had a cute drawl to it that went with his adorkable traits. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

Just now, Detective Reptiles said:

I know, and I'm saying that I don't think it fits Silver as well considering that Silver, nor any of the character have really grown that much. Personally, I did like Capella, it had a cute drawl to it that went with his adorkable traits. 

Pete Capella made him extremely whiny and annoying. Why would anyone like that about Silver's character? Whenever Quinton Flynn voices him, no one really complains at all.

Also, Silver's design alone makes him pretty elegant and effeminate. His gloves and boots are by far the most detailed in the sense that promotes the flow of their design(As opposed to Shadow's or Knuckles', which hinges solely on three part color coordination). Add in his eyeliner, color scheme, great hair, and act clear pose, and you've got a perfectly plausible recipe for an elegant hedgehog.

[Marcello]

Silver didn't sound great here, but I do like Flynn's version of him otherwise.

[Your Vest Friend]

Because I don't think it's annoying? He's supposed to be more a bit more immature in mindset, it's natural. It's just that crowds seem not to favour the immature (hence why kid characters tend to be on the more hated side of things). 

And his design is supposed to be futuristic, I don't think elegance comes into it when you have scenes like him desperately struggling to get Amy off him or his general plucky demeanor. Plus lots and lots of characters have eyeliner, some that clearly not effeminate in design. 

 

That said, I do also agree with Marcello; Quinn's voice was fine in Colours DS and Generations, so I don't know why it's weird here. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

4 minutes ago, Marcello said:

Silver didn't sound great here, but I do like Flynn's version of him otherwise.

This game doesn't have that much dialogue with voice acting for him, but I'm glad you appreciate his new voice overall.

[AngelSlayerN64]

49 minutes ago, Detective Reptiles said:

Because I don't think it's annoying? He's supposed to be more a bit more immature in mindset, it's natural. It's just that crowds seem not to favour the immature (hence why kid characters tend to be on the more hated side of things). 

And his design is supposed to be futuristic, I don't think elegance comes into it when you have scenes like him desperately struggling to get Amy off him or his general plucky demeanor. Plus lots and lots of characters have eyeliner, some that clearly not effeminate in design. 

 

That said, I do also agree with Marcello; Quinn's voice was fine in Colours DS and Generations, so I don't know why it's weird here. 

To children and fangirls, probably. Although, Silver should be directed towards both young and old audiences so that people can take him more seriously.

Yeah, you're definitely right about the "futuristic" part.

Well, to be fair, the video I chose didn't have that much dialogue from Silver. It was mainly just grunts and one victory quote at the end of the event before the Award Ceremony. From what I saw and heard, there wasn't any re-used voice clips from the previous installments. Everything I heard from him was new and different, almost like Quinton Flynn is getting more used to Silver overall. He's the best and perfect voice for Silver. Hopefully, the Wii-U version will have more dialogue from Silver/Quinton Flynn to prove my point.

[Milo]

18 hours ago, SpongicX said:

Why are people getting worked up over how the game turned out? It's been out in Japan for over a month now, and it reviewed well from Famitsu. In other words, it's early reviews gave it good scores.

Famitsu isn't really considered a important pedigree anymore in terms of reviewers nowadays. They tend to give high marks to most games in contemporary times.

It may be a decent game but from the looks of things, critics who want the series to be something more than what the past installments have been aren't likely gonna be impressed.

[Your Vest Friend]

So the underlying plot of Day 4 is finding Vector, while you're competing against Espio, and where you need the latter's help to find the former because he's the only one Vector's interacted with since day 3 of Sonic's side, which results in Vector sussing out two previous identity mistakes and concluding that there are no ghosts. 

...Alright Mario and Sonic Rio 3DS, you've pulled yourself into my good books. 

 

 

Also Waluigi is a pessimistic dick. 

 

Holy shit, Mario and Sonic have been playing detective too!

[Your Vest Friend]

Post of doubles.

When I saw this in the Youtube queue I thought it was yet another cruddy "playthrough" video that used the title just to get views. Turns out it's an official Nintendo Youtube channel putting out videos on the basics of the game, complete with the signature suits.

 

[Dr. Detective]

Is there anything in there that might make me happy? I wonder.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Uh, Omega appears in the Sonic story. I'm waiting on a particular guy to upload to see whether he's story relevant or not. 

 

And by story I don't mean the whole getting through prelims, finals, rinse and repeat thing (that's not really a story), but the more optional actual story where things have gone missing and Mario and Sonic are gone to figure things out etc. Omega definitely appears in the former as a guide for one of the days.. 

[Your Vest Friend]

 

Double post, but what a double post I'm going to make.

So now I've fully seen both storylines proper (so both times got to the secret ending) and...even though they're just two sides of the same coin, I have different opinions on them. Note that I'm not counting the basic go to prelim/go to final/optionally train/rinse and repeat thing because that would be unfair. 

Mario's story - It's nowhere near as deep or involved as the stories in the previous Mario and Sonic instalments, but it's still an enjoyable story in of itself.

Sonic's story - Feels tacked to the Mario story, and is infuriating for how characters go to waste. 

Right, now for the in-depth coverage; there's two reasons why I have these summaries for the stories. All of it will be in spoilers because it goes into a lot of plot details and spoils the ending(s)

Spoiler

Reason #1; Utilisation of characters. 

Because I'm an analyst, I made a note of every character that appears and gives dialogue or cutscene presence relevant to the plotline going on. For Mario's story, the list looks like this;

-Mario
-Luigi
-Toad
-Peach
-Daisy
-Diddy Kong
-Roy
-Vector
-Espio
-Yoshi
-Bowser Jr
-Amy Rose
-Bowser
-Eggman
-Birdo
-Sonic

Out of all them, Birdo is the most superfluous, but she appears right at the end to cheer you on as you're chasing down Bowser, so it's not as if there's a whole lot left for you to do anyway, and Sonic is only in the ending cutscene. Otherwise, no matter how small the role is, everyone feels like they have justification for being involved in the story and why they can't contribute more in certain cases (which I'll go into later), so it effectively feels like you have 14 characters involved in the plot.

For Sonic's story, this is the list of characters;

-Sonic
-Tails 
-Amy Rose
-Vector
-Blaze
-Cream
-Eggman
-Omega
-Silver
-Shadow
-Knuckles
-Donkey Kong
-Jet
-Bowser

Right away, you can probably see that there's less characters that have dialogue or cutscene presence that are related to the plot, standing at 14 total (but with more playable veterans there at least). If it was just a case that the sides were uneven, I'd be fine with that as long as everyone felt like they were pulling their weight in the story. Unfortunately, that's where my problem lies here. Below are the characters who feel like they're actually trying to contribute to sussing the plot; 

-Sonic
-Tails
-Vector
-Eggman
-Omega 
-Donkey Kong
-Jet

Yep, seven, one of them being a Mario character. Blaze mentions seeing Sonic at a site, but it's Vector who chases that lead, and she does nothing else other than remark that the signal is funny, she doesn't make an attempt to help out when she could. Cream also mentions the electronics going weird but then deflects contributing by passing you onto Tails, never to be seen again. Knuckles argues with Donkey Kong because of the rumours, but it's Donkey Kong alone who susses out that it's the suited boys spreading the rumours because he was told by the guy in the Mario suit and suspect Knuckles was told by the guy in the Sonic suit, Knuckles does not have any bearing in this working out. Shadow and Silver are just there as padding, any lines are repeating exposition. And Amy...I don't know if you've seen my status, but I consider Amy the worst in Sonic's story. She's always whining about how Sonic's gone (even after one occassion where we do find him), sends other people to try and find him for her (even though she would usually be in there finding him herself), doing nothing to contribute to the signal plot or the "rescue" mission, and then she has the gall to shout at him for not trusting his friends! I wouldn't trust them either if this many were this useless! 

Espio in Mario's story is basically the perfect counter-example to show why these executions are so mishandled; He has one line of dialogue contributing to the optional plot. This doesn't feel egregious for his character for three reasons;

a.) The finding Vector subplot is executed on day 4, the day that Espio is competing. Naturally, being a training nut, Espio is going to be busy training for his event while he's in the area. Ergo, he's too occupied to find Vector himself. The same can't be said for the likes of Cream or Amy, who are hanging around town casually when you encounter them most of the time. 

b.) He's not trying to deter helping you in directing to Vector. Princess Peach had Vector on the case of the "ghost" sightings, and she wants a report on his finding but can't find him. You are specifically asking around to find Vector. Espio tells you where Vector told him he would be while he was competing, and that's where you find him. Helps us better than Blaze's cold lead. 

c.) He's in town for that event and that event alone. He doesn't hang around on days where he's not competing for either story, and he doesn't run a gym in Sonic's story. Going by what dialogue he does give, and by Blaze not having seen Vector that day, it can be deduced that the teams aren't gathered in one building for the duration, but are spread across across different part of the place, possibly even out of the Olympic area. You can theorise multiple reasons as to why he's too occupied to be in the Olympic area from that (doing other cases that Vector can't do because of the storyline, looking after Charmy etc), but the point is that he's simply not available to help most of the time. All the characters above have gyms and hang around town sometimes. 

On a note that I noticed but am not factoring into this reason; I'm shocked Metal Sonic isn't involved in the evil plot when Bowser Jr has a role to play. He only shows up as a competitor. 

Reason #2; Cohesiveness of the plot

Mario's story can be summarised as this; A bunch of ghost sightings occur, and the Medals in the Hall are stolen. You and the members of Mario's Gym (with a little help from some reptiles) have to get to the bottom of things, discover how they're linked together, and also work out where Mario's gotten to. This story feels very complete and properly structured. First three days are dedicated to the ghost sightings (which Vector deduces as not being ghost sightings, but simply characters being mistaken for ghosts), then the medal disappearance are brought in, which leads to you finding that Bowser Jr is commanding the mascot suit boys to steal your last day medals (thus also bring their previous rumour spreading into context), finding Mario where he (well, Toad) tells you that he learned that Bowser and Eggman had formed an alliance to take the medals and spread distrust across the two teams, and ending in a face-off against Bowser. After which, he steals all your medals after losing, you have to chase him down, and this leads to the ending where you, Mario and Sonic run into Eggman and Bowser with the stash of medals, stop them, and go partying Rio style.

It all fits together and feels like a complete package, without egregious gaps in the narrative and just there to tell a cute narrative. It even references back to the Sonic story (the rumours part) often, culminating in Amy Rose telling the heroes that she's got the situation under control and that Sonic's gym is working on dispelling the rumours (which...is actually more contribution than she had on Sonic's story for one piece of dialogue, ironically). It only omits the electronics stuff, and the only thing you won't get from the story alone is why the mascot suit boys are even with the evil team, but even then they're shown to apparently repent by the end. 

 

Sonic's story has a simple summary as well; Amy wants to find Sonic, which eventually leads onto finding that a signal is affecting electronics all over Rio, all while malicious rumours are spreading about the tension between Sonic's gym and Mario's gym. You and the members of Sonic's gym have to find him and work out the deal with the signal problem, and put the rumours to rest. Right off the bat, character contribution is an issue; while Amy (and Cream, although she's not involved after she mentions it at the end of day 1) wants to find Sonic, you're not nearly as involved for that part, and you actually find Sonic first time very quickly. It's only the second time she whines again and it becomes an overarching plot. It's only when Vector becomes involved that the plot really gets going, with Blaze's lead not helping in the Sonic investigation, but while at the location Vector notices that the signal is weird, which kicks off the electronics sub-plot. This middle bit's on par, with Tails directing you to help with the investigation and construction of the jammer, Omega locating the signal source, and Tails suggesting that Jet the Hawk be called into to break into Eggman's hideout (because Tails went with Sonic to the hideout, Sonic went in alone and got trapped in there). You even see Eggman skulking around town suspiciously. 

And then ending falters. The rumours sub-plot that has been mentioned sporadically around both stories doesn't really get much spotlight. It's nice that it's integrated into even the non-plot part, with Knuckles competing against you in the preliminaries over his argument with Donkey Kong, but that and Donkey Kong working it out is as much spotlight that gets with the extended cast. And what's even more incoherent is the ending. Once Jet breaks into Eggman's hideout, Sonic tells you that he's discovered that the mascot suits were actually hypno suits that Eggman was using to control the boys (which is the one thing not explained in Mario's story), after which you use Tails' signal jammer to destroy the signal device. Once outside, Sonic is chastised by Amy for investigating by himself (a moral the story keeps cramming in, mostly when she's on screen), and he apologises for not trusting them as much as he should (but not before he shouts at Amy in rebut for spouting her spiel constantly. And as I said earlier, I'd call it outright hypocritical). You then meet Sonic on day 7 and...that's when you get the same secret ending with Bowser and Eggman at the medals and you stop them before partying. 

No, I didn't skip anything, that's literally how suddenly it stops. The medals going missing was mentioned once by the Mario-suited guy (which he blames on Sonic, naturally) but there aren't any updates to that plot later on, which is odd as that ending is basically there to wrap up the medals plot. You don't get to confront Eggman about his evil scheme during the events of the competition like you do Bowser, he's just left until that ending cutscene as if that's in any way satisfying to deal with him when he's supposed to be a final boss figure (your last opponent in Sonic's story is Daisy. Daisy.). And arguably most baffling of all is the fact there's zero allusion to the fact he's teamed up with Bowser, he's just there in that one cutscene and if you played Sonic's story first you'd be like "Oh, you're here too? What part did you play in the electronics scheme?" In Mario's story, Eggman doesn't physically appear, but you do get a cutscene showing that they're working together and that they're working on different parts of this master plan. Sonic's story overall really feels more like a companion piece to Mario's story for a couple of things that it couldn't go into detail to as opposed to a story that holds up on its own. Certainly, I can tell that the writers are assuming that you'll play Mario's story first.

Maybe tomorrow morning I'll go into what character dynamics are represented. That wouldn't be nearly as negative as this, I promise!

[SpongicX]

On 3/9/2016 at 2:51 PM, Forte-Metallix said:

 

The 3DS version has a scene where Roy Koopa and Zazz get into a fight and swap various obscenities and innuendos.

This didn't happen at all. Roy and Zazz didn't even interact at all either. 

[Forte-Metallix]

7 minutes ago, SpongicX said:

This didn't happen at all. Roy and Zazz didn't even interact at all either. 

...I know that.

It was a joke.

[Your Vest Friend]

Right then, I'm coming back with that more positive thing I mentioned. Spoilers because, again, it goes into plot. 

-Sonic and Tails - They went to Eggman's hideout together (after discussing it), but Sonic went in alone so Tails had to go back for help. 

Sonic and Amy - Amy keeps whining about finding Sonic and how he always goes of on his own in Sonic's story. Sonic mentions that she always says this. 

Sonic and Jet - Jet's rivalry with Sonic is noted, especially when Jet declares that his services aren't going to be cheap. 

Cream and Amy - Kinda. They hang around together at the end of day 1 of Sonic's story, but only for a brief exchange. 

Cream and Tails - She competes with him in Mario's story, and she directs you to him so he can help in Sonic's story.

Cream and Blaze - Cream hangs about town supporting Blaze on the day she competes in Mario's story (but she didn't do that when Amy competed? Meanie).

Vector and Espio - You need to find Espio to find Vector as they're with each other outside of Olympic time even in a place and time like this. 

 Mario and Luigi - Mario entrusted Luigi to look after things while he went off to do his investigation. 

Mario and Peach - Peach eventually remarks that things would be a lot safer with Mario around, and that you finding him would mean a lot to her. 

Mario and Yoshi - Mario disclosed his location to Yoshi via a map. 

Mario and Toad - Toad ends up hanging with Mario and explains Mario's findings to us.

Peach and Daisy - They're hanging with each other at the end of day 1 in Mario's story. They're also clearly spearheading the ghost sighting solving operations. 

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong - Diddy is supporting Donkey Kong on day 2 of Mario's story, and wants you to bring out his best. 

And that's it, really. Any other famous dynamics aren't referenced, really. I mean, Blaze simply seeing Sonic from a distance and stating that doesn't really count as referencing, especially when the only character she really talks to and about in any personal depth is Knuckles, of all people. 

 

[Mauro Fonseca]

this game has made me more of a sticks fan I thought I'd ever be, and now you tell me she's irrelevant even to the irrelevant story

 

sad

[Your Vest Friend]

Sticks is excusable though, since most of the ones who need to be unlocked only show up for one day to challenge you and then disappear. The only exception who really gets involved to a big extent is Jet. 

 

And yeah, Sticks as written as if she were in the main universe is a nice character. She's energetic and frantic without having to veer off into unrelated nonsense about conspiracy theories. 

[Dr. Detective]

On 3/20/2016 at 3:55 AM, Detective Reptiles said:

Uh, Omega appears in the Sonic story. I'm waiting on a particular guy to upload to see whether he's story relevant or not. 

 

And by story I don't mean the whole getting through prelims, finals, rinse and repeat thing (that's not really a story), but the more optional actual story where things have gone missing and Mario and Sonic are gone to figure things out etc. Omega definitely appears in the former as a guide for one of the days.. 

Ah. 

Well, he was already playable so I guess I expected something like that anyway.

I feel like the Ice King from Adventure Time whenever I talk about this game.  Just can't be happy about nothin'.