It’s got a lot of star power, but this collection of sports-themed minigames isn’t Mario and Sonic’s finest hour.

The Good:

* Adventure mode makes good use of characters
* Decent variety of events
* Can play with up to four people from a single cartridge.

The Bad:

* Most event minigames are shallow and easy
* Uninteresting mission objectives in Adventure mode.

Two years ago, Mario and Sonic joined forces for the first time to compete at the Beijing Summer Olympics. The result was a middling collection of sports-themed minigames that failed to deliver on the potential of that once-forbidden union. Never ones to give up, Mario and Sonic have reunited to hit the slopes and skating rinks of Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games. It offers a slightly more diverse and entertaining assortment of events than its predecessor, but it still falls well short of earning a medal.

Read the rest of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games review at gamespot.

The plumber, hedgehog, and friends are getting ready for Vancouver 2010, and we checked out a few new events at GamesCom.

After the enormous success of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games–(Mario & Sonic win 5M Olympic medals) 5 million copies and counting–creating a sequel based on the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Games seems like a no-brainer. So far, we’ve seen a number of fun events for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, including bobsleighing, speed skating, and downhill skiing, as well as numerous characters with which fans of Mario or Sonic games will be familiar. We recently got a chance to meet some more characters and events at GamesCom 2009 in Cologne, Germany.

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