Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a sports game and the sixth installment in the Mario & Sonic series. It is based on the real-world, which will take place in Tokyo, Japan. This marks the first instance where the series skips an Olympic Games, as Ubisoft bought the rights to make video games. It was released for the Nintendo Switch on November 1, 2019 in Asia, November 5, 2019 in North America, and November 8, 2019 in Europe and Oceania. An arcade version is also set to release in 2020. The game will also have a companion mobile game, but it will feature only Sonic the Hedgehog characters.

Unlike previous games, most characters wear appropriate sports clothing depending on the chosen event. Additionally, the game's title places the location and year after "Olympic Games" rather than before. 2D Events are introduced, which are events from the, only use button controls, and are based off older sports games , utilizing the 8-bit (Mario) and 16-bit (Sonic) styles. The game includes a story mode, which takes place in both 2D and 3D.

Advantages
Excluding the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, this is the first Mario & Sonic game not to report the character stats. Instead, the game reports for each character specific advantages that correlate to their character type (All-Around, Power, Speed, Skill) from the first four games. All-Around characters do not have a specific advantage but are listed as "All-Around" in all events. This is the first Mario & Sonic game with character types to have an uneven amount of characters per type, with only five All-Around types, seven Power types, eight Speed types, and twelve Technique types.

Although not reported in game, each character has advantages even within a specific type. Luigi for instance, is slower and less powerful than Mario, but has better technical ability.

In the Tokyo 1964 events, all characters have identical abilites.

Playable
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 features a total of 32 playable characters, making it the first in the series to feature fewer playable characters than the previous installment. Similar to the Wii U version of the previous game, the 20 playable characters that have been playable since the second installment are playable in all events, while new characters and characters that debuted in the previous game are only playable as a guest in a single event. Guests are unlocked by beating them in Story Mode, though unlike the previous game, not every event contains a guest character. This is also the first home console Mario & Sonic game not to feature Miis as playable characters.

Supporting characters
These characters are playable in certain events, but are not selectable and have limited functionalities than other playable characters.

Referees

 * Charmy Bee
 * Cubot
 * Lakitu
 * Orbot
 * Toad

Cameramen

 * Toads
 * Chao (2020 only)

Other

 * Bloopers
 * Buzz Bombers
 * Chao
 * Cheese
 * Cheep Cheeps
 * Cluckers
 * Cream
 * Cuckies
 * Flickies
 * Goombas
 * Hammer Bros.
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Mecha Sonic
 * Nebulas
 * Omochao
 * Peckies
 * Pickies
 * Pockies
 * Rexons
 * Rickies
 * Rockies
 * Shy Guys

Events
During Olympic Events, specific characters wear proper outfits for the event. During Dream Events, they wear their standard outfits, similar to previous games.

Tokyo 2020

 * 100m Dash
 * 110m Hurdles
 * 4x100m Relay
 * Javelin Throw
 * Triple Jump
 * Discus Throw
 * Badminton (Singles or Doubles)
 * Skateboarding - Park (new)
 * Sport Climbing (new)
 * Football
 * 100m Freestyle
 * Equestrian - Jumping (Individual or Team)
 * Fencing (Individual or Team)
 * Canoe Double (C-2) 1000m
 * Karate - Kumite (new)
 * Boxing
 * Surfing - Shortboard (new)
 * Gymnastics - Floor Exercise
 * Rugby Sevens
 * Table Tennis (Singles or Doubles)
 * Archery (Individual or Team)
 * Dream Events
 * Dream Racing (Metropolis, Sonic Forces)
 * Dream Shooting
 * Dream Karate (Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey)

Tokyo 1964

 * 2D Events
 * 100M
 * 400M Hurdles
 * Long Jump
 * Marathon
 * 10M Platform
 * Vault
 * Kayak (K-1) 1000m
 * Judo
 * Volleyball
 * Shooting - Trap

Minigames
There are 10 minigames that are playable in Story Mode. There are five 2020 minigames, where the player plays as Luigi and Tails, and five 2D minigames where the player plays as Mario and Sonic.

2020

 * Tokyo Tower Climbing: A minigame where Tails climbs Tokyo Tower.
 * A minigame where Luigi has to find four specific Toads in a large crowd.
 * A minigame where Tails has to fight a wave of Shy Guys.
 * A Boss Battle-style minigame against Metal Sonic where Luigi has to steal a Rugby ball from an Egg Pawn, perform a Try in the center of the stage, and kick the ball with enough power to damage Metal Sonic within the time limit.
 * An Archery style minigame where Tails has to shoot Egg Pawns and avoid the spiked balls they throw.

1964

 * A Boss Battle-style minigame where Mario drives the Tornado and shoots enemies and has to shoot Dr. Eggman.
 * A Boss Battle-style minigame where Sonic is running on a road and must catch up to Dr. Eggman's car and attack it enough times before the time limit runs out.
 * A minigame where Sonic runs along a bridge while avoiding obstacles to catch up to a train the Dr. Eggman is sitting in.
 * A minigame where Mario has to find Keys.
 * A minigame where Mario races Bowser on a boat.

Pre-release and unused content
In the E3 2019 demo:
 * Characters did not vocalize during their award ceremony animations. This was changed in the final game, making it more consistent with previous installments.
 * The music that played when setting a new record was the “London Party is Over” fanfare from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, before switching to a new fanfare in the final game.

Staff
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was developed by Sega in conjunction with Racjin, Mario & Luigi series developer AlphaDream, and several other companies.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros: The Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Goomba, Koopa Troopa, Hammer Bro, Lakitu, and Toad sprites in the 2D Events are from this game, with several differently colored Toad sprites being based off the red sprite.
 * Mario Kart series: During Sport Climbing, when a player falls off the wall, Lakitu picks them up with a fishing rod and places them back on the wall, referencing one of his roles in these games.
 * Super Mario 64: The music for Dream Karate is an arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls".
 * Donkey Kong 64: Donkey Kong's bio references a line from the DK Rap.
 * Fortune Street: Bowser Jr.'s artwork is recycled from this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: The character select screen animations are reused from this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Several of the head icons are reused from this game, as is Donkey Kong’s artwork.
 * Super Mario Maker: The Key in one of the 2D minigames uses its design from the Super Mario Bros. style in this game.
 * Super Mario Odyssey: The Mushroom Kingdom serves as the arena for Dream Karate, using its design from this game. The Odyssey can also be seen in the background.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario & Sonic game since Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games not to feature special animations for certain pairs of characters.
 * It is also the first installment since that game to feature Dream Events in the opening.
 * This is the first Mario & Sonic game since Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games to be published by Sega, and the first Mario & Sonic game ever published by Sega in Japan and other East Asian countries.