Posted in: E3, Games, Nintendo, SEGA, Video Games | Tagged: e3, E3 2019, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, nintendo, sega

We Played "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020" at E3 2019

Published Fri, 14 Jun 2019 09:10:01 -0500

by Gavin Sheehan

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While I was at E3 this year, one of the big games I got to try out on the first day was Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 from SEGA. While it wasn't confirmed for the longest time, we kinda knew this game was coming. Because how could Nintendo and SEGA both ignore doing this again with the summer games happening in their own backyard? I'll admit, this series has been hit-and-miss for me, with Rio being one of the worst in 2016, while London's version was probably one of the better crossovers in the past decade. So how was this one going to match up exactly?

We got to try out only six games in the demo: judo, surfing, skateboarding, hurdles, archery, and the 100-meter dash. Judo was decent although we have to sit down and figure out the point system first because we couldn't understand how anything was scored. Archery was quite good and presented a challenge we didn't expect. Skateboarding was basically every Tony Hawk experience you've ever had with a Mario twist that made it fun. Surfing was interesting but it didn't really resonate with us as we tried to do tricks on the waves. The races are as you'd expect, but I found it easier to do those one-handed rather than trying to use joy-con controls. I think Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 looks to be the best entry in the series based on the demo alone, but six games aren't enough to base a fine judgment on. I want to see more from this game before I can make a better decision before being released this November. For now, it's pretty good, but we shall see…