Pole Vault (Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games)

Pole Vault is an Athletics Event that appears in the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The event focuses on being able to jump the bar at the highest height without knocing it down, with a large focus being placed on charging the force on the pole the correct amount. The starting world record for this event is 6.14m, and the starting Olympic record is 5.96m.

Pole Vault appears in the game's story mode as the second challenge of Mario Episode 1, Stadium Blues, in which Luigi must beat a Fog Imposter of Tails. It also appears as challenge 4 of Heroes Episode 1 Mario and Sonic, in which Tails must beat Fog Imposters of Mario, Luigi and Sonic, and as the first part of challenge 6 alongside Marathon and 100m, in which Sonic must beat Fog Imposters of Mario, Luigi and Tails.

Gameplay
The event starts with the player choosing the height of the bar which they would like to attempt to jump, which can be anywhere between 5.00m and 6.30m. They can use the control pad to move the height up and down, but are not shown their opponents' chosen heights until they have selected theirs. Their character will then run up to jump and plant their pole, at which point the player must move the Circle Pad diagonally down to the left, and hold it there until they think that they have charged enough. The pole changes color the more it is charged, remaining white for a low level of charge, yellow for a moderate level and red for a high level. When the player releases the control pad, their character performs the jump. If the player charged enough, their character will successfully make it over, however if they have not their character will knock the bar off. If they knock the bar off, the attempt will be considered a foul and the player will record no height, although if they hit the bar and do not knock it off their height will be recorded. After they have completed the jump, the player will be shown a meter of how much they charged their pole, with marks at 0%, 50%, 100% and the amount required for their chosen distance. The player only gets one attempt at this event.

Controls
1) Charge power: Hold the Circle Pad diagonally down to the left. 2) Vault: Release the Circle Pad.