Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Coming off of playing the summer version of this game, I was left with a bit of a sour taste. Don't get me wrong, this is fun and has some really cool events. The snowboarding, luge and bobsled are probably the best of the bunch. Ice skating was fun, but I found my hand getting in the way of my vision because of the touch screen controls. (which is more my fault then the games')

The main issue with this is I felt like it used less of the touch screen controls that made the first one lots of fun and when it used them, they seemed slightly flawed. The events that did not use the touch screen ended up being more fun, which is a shame since the touch screen controls are what make playing the DS unique.

Back to the events. The snowboarding and skiing were fun. To snowboard you used the dpad to control your character down the slope which reminded me a bit of other games like SSX. There are even occasions where you can jump to get a nice speed boost. It gets even more technical at times, when you can ride behind a rival, and use them to slingshot off of for yet another speed boost. Only complaint about that event is the track was fairly short. It at times reminded me of SSX ( but without the insane tricks ). Bobsled and luge were great since they had you rocketing down a track at high speeds and gave you a great sense of speed. You have you stay in the line of arrows to keep your speed up, and there is the potential to hit the walls and slow down which reduces your speed greatly.

I'd recommend it for a rental, but if you plan on purchasing one look to the summer olympics version, its more fun and intuitive to players that are not used to dpad controls. But if you are looking for a good mario and sonic snowboarding or bobsled event, this is the place to look. It's more fun and has more of the motion controls that make the DS unique.

Pro: Great snowboarding and bobsled events
Con: Less use of the DS' unique touch screen controls :(