Sega Nerds

Sega Wii Flat Event - Mario and Sonic Olympics

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, Nintendo Wii, Sonic, Video. Tagged with Exclusive, Exhibition/ Show.

{Foreword: I did take a fair amount of pictures… but due to people moving and my crap photography skills, most of them are unusable… fortunately I did get a lot of video footage, enjoy!}

So, on Friday (November 9th), I was invited to attend the Sega Wii Flat Event. The event was a chance, for Sega, to preview Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

I managed to drag myself out of my sick-bed. As I have been suffering from flu for the last week. I managed to stop vomiting enough to get up, and make my way to the flat. The flat itself, was in a very non-descript side alley, (the place looked like it was deserted), in London. I won’t say exactly where, I don’t think Nintendo (who own the flat) would be too happy if a load of crazed Nerds went there ;)

However, after being greeted by some (lovely) lady, named Stephanie, we (my friend and I) were shown, into a very lovely, modern flat. Lining the walls of the flat were some cool pieces of Wii-related art and photos of people waving Wiimotes around, plus some large posters displaying the Mario and Sonic logo.

We were guided into the main living room, where they had a table of food and drink, and then lining the far wall were three Wiis and flat screen TVs. We were then introduced to several people, some from Sega, some from random blogging sites.

After everyone was settled, a Sega rep, got the party started, by introducing the game and giving a run down of events, game history, and certain features for the game.

One that interested me most – was how the stadium in the game, is modelled from the Beijing stadium, and is not just a random one made for the game. At this point, she, the rep, answered a few questions, one of the most important ones answered, was ‘Why were they releasing the game now, when the Olympics aren’t for about another 6 months?’ -Well apparently, Sega, Nintendo and the Olympic committee all agreed, that now was a good time, as the game was finished, and they wanted to get interest in the Olympics started.

Also noted, is how all the world records in the game, are the current world record stats, in real life.

After the introduction, they asked for two volunteers.  I’m happy to say, that I (for the good of Sega Nerds) threw up my hand, and volunteered myself.

Now I do have a clip of this next part, but for some reason YouTube won’t accept it, so I shall just have to describe it for you guys.

The lady, started us of easy, with some 100 metre sprinting.  The general idea of sprinting, is to move the Wiimote and Nunchuck up and down as though you are running.  Simple eh?  Well I lost miserably on this event.  Turns out, by run, they really do mean RUN.  You have got to wave those Wii controls as though you are being chased by a rabid beaver.

Next up we did some triple jumping.  When you start events like this, you can clap (using the controls) and you see your character clap on screen, trying to drum up support  from the crowd.  Then, you start running, like you would with the 100m, then your character will ‘Speed Lock.’  This means they continue to run at the same speed, without you, so you can then time your jumps.  When you come up to the first board, you raise your Wiimote, then as you land, raise your Nunchuck, then for the final board, raise the Wiimote again, to jump into the sand pit.

My first attempt I managed to jump pretty damn far…. But my foot went over the damn line (by about a cm), so I was disqualified.   My other attempts, I just screwed up, and lost… again.

For the third event, we were jumping on the trampoline.  This was a lot of fun.  You simulate your bounce, by hitting the Wiimote down and up, as your character bounces on the trampoline.  Then when you get to a decent height, you have to press a series of buttons, to perform different tricks.  You only have to press either A or B and do a wrist spin with your Wiimote, so three simple moves.  But when you have a stream of about 8 button presses/wrist spins, it can get quite confusing, as you also have to be ready to ‘jump’ again as you hit the bottom.

This event I did pretty well on, I think I came top, with a 9, and my competition got an 8.  So I can do some things!

After this, the floor was open for everyone to play around.  Trying out different events with everybody else.  This is where I got footage of everyone else playing:

~Skeet (Shooting)~

The Skeet event, (clay pigeon shooting), was pretty damn challenging.  At the start you have an image of a heart, and a small dot, moves through it, like a heart beat.  Yeah random, I know.  When the red heart beat, hits the centre of the heart, you have to try and shoot it.  If you do well - your aiming reticule (gun sight) will grow, making it easier to shoot the speeding bits of clay.  If do bad, your reticule will stay small.  The heart beat thing is pretty tricky in itself, but the shooting part is even harder, I found.

You get some warning as to where the Skeet is coming from, by a flash on the side of the screen, but how high/low and how fast it is going, is something you find out in the split second it flies across the screen.

~Skeet and Trampoline~

~Table Tennis~

~Archery~

The Archery event, is one I wanted to play teh most, but didn’t get a chance to play, as only one Wii had it unlocked.  But I think I got the gist of how to play it.

You are shown an enlarged image of your target on screen, and as you pull back with your Wiimote (like you would a real bow), you have to line up your Nunchuck reticule, with the Wiimotes one.  The challenge is that, each round you play, the wind gets stronger.  So you may find you are moving your Nunchuck to the left while your Wiimote is having to go up… it’s hard to explain without playing… but that’s what it looked like they were doing, when I was watching others play.

~Hammer Toss and mini tour of flat~

For anyone who has played Rayman Raving Rabbids, the Hammer Toss, is similar to the Cow Toss, but slightly easier, I found.  You basically swing your Wiimote above your head, and press B to let the Hammer fly.  That said, I still had some trouble with this game, I managed to miss the scoring zone on several attempts.

The short tour (above), is just to show, that there was another room with more Wii action going on.  Though this room only had one Wii setup, but still full of fun.

The exciting part of the day was the tournament.

It was a 2 vs 2, knock-out situation.  There were 3 events overall.  I did record all of the players, but that would take up about 9 video clips, so instead I shall just show the ones I competed in.  But if anyone really wants to see the others playing, I can post the videos up in the forums for you.

Heat 1 - 100M

I screwed up my first attempt at the 100 M, how well do you think I could do the second time?

That’s right!  I kicked ass! Like a true Sega Nerd, I beat my opponent and all the CPU players.

After the first heat, we were treated to a lovely break, where we were promised a special guet appearance.  But the guest was taking his/her time to arrive, so we just sat around talking.  In the next clip, I recorded some of the guys talking about the Dreamcast, and giving it nothing but praise.  Unfortunately, there is a lot going on, so you may not hear too well.  Try turning up the volume for it.

~Dreamcast Chat~

Then, finally, we got out treat…

~Mario and Sonic join the party!~

After the exciting time, with Mario and Sonic, we then went straight on to Heat 2.

Heat 2 - Trampoline

So I won my first go at the Trampoline, I was pretty confident about this one.

The reason why everyone was shouting so much before my turn there was that the guy before me got a 9.8!!  I then went on to get a 9.1 … which beat the scores of everyone else who did this heat, but I was the loser.  I choked on the last string of button presses…

We then went onto the final heat:

Final Heat - Relay Race

Just watch as Waluigi runs… he is pretty damn funny.

Prize Giving

The winner, won a one-of-a-kind Mario and Sonic track suit top.  Apparently, the only one around…  He also won a copy of Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360) and Sega Rally (PSP).

After the tournament, the party started to cool down a bit, and we spent the last 30mins, just playing on more events and eating the last of the breakfast, that had been served earlier.

At this time, I was also able to get the Sega reps to show me a Dream Event.  The Dream Event was a running race, kind of a mix between Sonic R and Mario Kart.  As the players ran around the track, they had to avoid obstacles, enemies and also had power-ups to collect.  As you can see from the video, the race looked like fun, but also really tiring, as players still have to wave their arms, like they are running.

Overall, the day was a lot of fun.  A really nice, relaxed environment, great people, it was like chilling with your mates, playing games.

Enough of the day!  What about the game?!

You guys will be shocked to hear, that I think that this game is brilliant.  The game is not as shallow as people think it is, there is a quite a bit of depth to the gameplay and the different character classes.  There are a lot of subtle details, which you won’t realise, until you are playing the game, like how a player with long legs, is better at doing the long jump, than a character with shorter legs.  That may not be ground breaking, but it’s not something that gamers will realise/know about, until they play the game.

The events are really fun.  Each is really unique in the way you play, and actually pretty damn challenging.  I doubt you will be breaking many records when you first start playing.  There is a surprising amount of skill involved, as well as the ability to move quickly.

The graphics are pretty damn good too.  Graphics whores, who are used to 360 and PS3 graphics won’t be impressed, but anyone who likes to play their Wii regardless, will be pleasantly surprised by how good the game looks.  Even though Sega have only a few games on the Wii, they have managed to get their games looking among the best on the system.

Summary:

The game is just so much fun, especially in multiplayer.  It’s not just another mini-game collection, it’s more like a real sports game, with lots of events.

I’m really looking forward to picking the game up, when it finally reaches UK shores.  The score I am giving is a ‘preview score’ - meaning that it could be subject to change, when I get a chance to sit down/stand and play the game fully.

Preview Score: 8/10 - Great

 

~G~