Wii Olympics

The Nintendo Wii is a fun console. Sure, Xbox 360 and Playstation3 have more power, better graphics and HD video capabilities, but they don't hold a candle to the Wii for pure fun. I've been a fan of the Wii Sports Tennis game that comes with the console since it came out and boxing is always a lot of fun. Golf, Baseball and Ten Pin Bowling, the other three games in the Wii Sports title never really grabbed me though. Wii Sports seemed to lack a bit of polish.

For the last two days however my arms are just about dropping off from playing a new game called "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". Now this game is very polished. I was surprised to see Nintendo characters sharing a game with Sega characters and even more surprised to find that Sega actually published the game under Nintendo's licence. It's also an official game of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

There are the track events - 100m, 400m 4x100m relay, 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles.

Field events - long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, hammer throw and javelin.

Swimming event with 100m freestyle and 4x100 freestyle.

Gymnastic events with the trampoline and vault.

There is also skeet shooting, archery, fencing, table tennis and rowing

And if that wasn't enough, is has a special category called "Dream Events" which have souped up versions of table tennis and fencing as well as a cross-country track event and a weird show sky-diving event.

This is a truly great game. If I was a game reviewer, this title would get a really good score from me. Not a perfect score though. Some things in the game are a little disappointing like the high-jump and the pole-vault which we managed to compete until the bars wouldn't go any higher, maxing out our opportunity to keep pushing each other.

One thing I'll give it though. Play this game for any length of time and you are going to get a decent work out.

If you have a Nintendo Wii then this game is one of the better titles I've seen for this console. Get it. If you don't have a console and you're considering buying one, consider the Wii. If you can get one. It's so good it sold out mere hours after it's release before Xmas last year and it's still nearly always sold out now, over a year after it's release! No, really! You should have seen the trouble we had to go through just to find a controller for it! Of course, if you already have an Xbox or Playstation, you probably don't want a Wii. And I feel sorry for you. You're missing out.

No joke.