Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Nintendo DS)

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is a sports game for the Nintendo DS with a Wii version of the game released as well. Both games are a follow-up to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The game is produced under license from the in relation to the Olympic Winter Games taking place at Vancouver in 2010. Like the previous installment, this game is a collaboration between Sega and Nintendo featuring characters from both the Super Mario franchise and the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Although Sega was handling most of the development for both versions of this game, as it did for the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, they were also handling publishing/marketing duties for all territories outside of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, while Nintendo has done publishing/marketing duties for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan themselves.

About
The DS version features Adventure Tours, a single player mode with a plot that involves Bowser and Dr. Eggman's scheme to melt all the snow by capturing the snow spirits. The Adventure Tour introduces one of the spirits called Frosty. Just as seen in the Wii version of the game, the DS rendition includes the introduction of boss characters appearing in the Adventure Tour mode. These bosses will be present in certain events where the player will have to compete against them to clear their missions.

Also, all authentic (real-life based events) are unlocked from the start. Dream Events are in this game and all of them need to be unlocked.

Olympic events

 * Skiing - Alpine Skiing GS
 * Skiing - Moguls
 * Skiing - Nordic Combined
 * Skiing - Ski Jumping LH
 * Skiing - Cross-Country
 * Skating - Speed Skating 500m
 * Skating - Short Track 500m
 * Skating - Figure Skating
 * Snowboard - Snowboard Cross
 * Bobsleigh - Bobsleigh
 * Bobsleigh - Skeleton
 * Ice Hockey - Ice Hockey
 * Curling - Curling
 * Biathlon - Biathlon
 * Luge - Luge

Dream events

 * Dream Skiing - Ski Cross Racing
 * Dream Skiing - Rocket Ski Jumping
 * Dream Skiing - Supersonic Downhill
 * Dream Skating - Intense Short Track
 * Dream Skating - Ultimate Figure Skating
 * Dream Snowboard - Extreme Snowboarding
 * Dream Snowboard - Deluxe Halfpipe
 * Dream Bobsleigh - Blazing Bobsleigh
 * Dream Ice Hockey - Fever Hockey
 * Dream Curling - Curling Bowling
 * Dream Biathlon - Ski Shooting
 * Dream Snow Machine - Snow Machine Fight

Characters
All of the characters from the Nintendo DS version of the previous game return. There are also four new playable characters to this installment who were not present in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, namely Donkey Kong, Metal Sonic, Bowser Jr., and Silver. Retaining the first game's style, all playable characters are unlocked from the start.

Other

 * Shy Guy (only as a goalie in Ice Hockey and Fever Hockey)
 * Two Chao (only as scrubbers in curling)

Other Characters

 * Toad
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Lakitu
 * Shy Guy
 * Charmy Bee
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Big the Cat

Adventure Tours story
The single player mode has a set of Adventure Tours which revolve around a plot involving Bowser and Dr. Eggman's scheme to melt all the snow by capturing the snow spirits in Christmas Village.



Mario and Sonic's story
Mario and Sonic travel to the Winter Games when they discover the snow is gone. Upon meeting the snow spirit Frosty, they find out Bowser and Eggman melted the snow and kidnapped the other snow spirits. Mario runs into Toad, who decides to travel with the two to confront Bowser and Eggman.

Mario and Sonic are the only playable characters in the hub worlds. Mario can go down pipes and can use power-ups, while Sonic can use his Spin Dash and Homing Attack to create pathways and knock down bridges. They are also the only playable characters in certain situations, such as Mario recruiting Peach and Sonic competing against Jet.

Luigi's story
Luigi is first found in Frostown, looking for Mario or Sonic to challenge him in Cross-Country. After his defeat, he joins the party. In Sparkleton, Luigi helps Mario and Sonic look for a key; a Boo scares him away, making him bump into a tree. As the tree drops the key, the Boo steals it. After Luigi gets the key back, the Boo runs away and reports to King Boo, whom Luigi then challenges in Alpine Skiing GS in Polastrait.

Tails' story
In Frostown, Tails is looking for Sonic or Mario to challenge him in Ski Jumping LH. After his defeat, he joins the team to support Sonic, then challenges Amy in Ski Shooting in Sparkleton. Tails also helps fixing a gate in Frostown, using the mechanism of a similar one present in Polastraits as a clue.

Peach's story
Peach is first mentioned in Frostown, where Toad suggests that Peach's kind words could help move a Thwomp blocking the road. She is then found at Sparkleton, having come to take a peek at the snow festival. Afted challenging Mario on Snow Machine Fight, she joins the team.

Peach will take part in Snow Machine Fight again, this time for a Goomba that wants to see her ability. He then gives Peach a Shooting Rifle he got from Bowser. Back in Frostown, she will help with the Thwomp, who eventually lets the player go ahead.

Amy's story
Amy is found in Sparkleton, looking for Tails' help to fix her rifle. She then challenges him in Ski Shooting and joins the team. Amy then helps with a mechanism in Frostown, using her Piko Piko Hammer to push its panels in the right order and open the gate.

In Polastraits, Amy takes part in Alpine Skiing GS for Big the Cat. After completing the mission, Big rewards Amy with a Spark Luge he found while fishing.

Yoshi's story
Yoshi is found at Polastraits, looking to be challenged on the Luge. As he joins the team, he helps them open a gate in Sparkleton, turning its five lights on with his tongue.

In Cubyrinth, Yoshi gets lost, losing his Drift Board as well. As Birdo finds his board, she challenges him in Ski Cross Racing before giving it back.

Knuckles' story
Knuckles the Echidna is seen on a mission sign in Frostown; he joins the team after they beat him in Biathlon. In Polastraits, he helps Cream the Rabbit open a chest that contains a Fighter's Stick, after being challenged by her in Luge.

Knuckles is also shown pulling a mysterious level in Cubyrinth, making all the team fall to a blocked area in Polastraits; he then helps them get out by smashing the large piece of ice blocking the way.

Shadow's story
Shadow is first quoted by Rouge the Bat, who is looking for him. He is found at Cubyrinth. After challenging the player in Ski Cross Racing,he spots Rouge and joins the team. Back in Frostown, Rouge tells him that she is looking for precious gems called Whitestones.

Shadow then uses his Chaos Spear to stop the pictures of a gate mechanism in Sparkleton. Later, he is seen in Icepeak with Rouge, Bowser, and Dr. Eggman, challenging the former in Figure Skating.

Blaze and Silver's story
Right after the player defeats King Boo, Toad meets Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat near a mission sign. The duo explains to Toad how they escaped and came to Polastraits; they then tell Mario and Sonic they're going to join the team if they lose to them in Ice Hockey. As they are defeated, though, they flee. Later in Cubyrinth, Silver and Blaze apologize for what they did; after challenging the player in Fever Hockey, they finally join the group.

Silver is then told of some strange Robo Balls Toad had seen at the beginning of the maze; he helps stopping them with his psychic powers and later gets Donkey Kong on the team in Icepeak. In the same location, Blaze is required to place four blocks with the emblems of Bowser, Eggman, Bowser Jr. and Metal Sonic in the correct places in order to open a gate, which leads to a treasure chest with a Leader's Curling Stone inside. Later in Blizland, she helps getting Daisy to join the team.

Donkey Kong's story
Donkey Kong is found in Icepeak, crying because his bananas had fallen in a deep ledge. After Silver helps him get his bananas back, Donkey Kong challenges him in Moguls and then joins the party.

Back in Polastraits, Toad asks Donkey Kong if he could climb a mysterious pole with a button on top. As he presses the button, a bridge appears. Later in Icepeak, Donkey Kong asks Vector about his headphones. Vector tells him that he likes music in his own band. After beating Vector, Donkey Kong wants him to join the party.

Vector's story
In Cubyrinth, Vector the Crocodile is mentioned by Charmy Bee, who tells Mario and Sonic they should call him or he can't let them pass through the gate that he is guarding.

Later in Icepeak, Vector is seen next to a mission sign, where he challenges Donkey Kong in a match off Short Track 500m in order to join the party.

Back in Cubyrinth, Charmy challenges Vector in a quiz based on Real and Dream Winter Olympic sports and the islands of the snow spirits, in order to let him and the player through. Vector is later seen talking Espio about the whereabouts of Whitestones.

Daisy's story
Daisy is mentioned by a Chao in Icepeak, who wants to show her his patch of Freezaleas. She is found hiding in Blizland, practicing her Ultimate Figure Skating, which she later challenges Blaze in.

After Toad mentions the Chao's Freezalea patch in Icepeak, Daisy joins the group. As they arrive to Icepeak, a stray Kiki begins wrecking the garden; after Daisy manages to stun him with snowballs, the Kiki runs away and opens a previously sealed gate.

Daisy later meets Lakitu in Icepeak, who tells her that she could help boost the popularity of the missions he's in charge of, them being Short Track and Intense Short Track. Once completed, Lakitu will reward Daisy with the Meteor Curling Stone.

Wario and Waluigi's story
Wario and Waluigi are met in Polastraits. The duo challenges the player in Bobsleigh in order to join the team, but after the challenge they flee away and jump in a hole in thin ice.

Much later in Icepeak, Wario and Waluigi are found again. They offer Mario and Sonic to defeat them in Snowboard Cross; once defeated, they officially join the team and give them a machine that detects Whitestones.

Wario uses his Waft to defeat a Chain Chomp that was blocking the way in Blizland, while Waluigi fights a Shy Guy with a Bomb Flapper in Cubyrinth, in order to access the Shy Guys' secret place.

References in other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: The underwater theme of this game plays in the Mario Medley in Ultimate Figure Skating.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3: The athletic theme of this game plays in the Mario & Sonic Medley in Ultimate Figure Skating.
 * Super Mario World: The ground theme of this game plays in the Mario Medley in Ultimate Figure Skating.
 * Super Mario 64: The theme for Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman's Land plays in the Mario & Sonic Medley (Download Play) in Ultimate Figure Skating.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: The athletic theme of this game plays in the Mario Medley in Ultimate Figure Skating.
 * Mario Kart Wii: The Super Star music is from this game.

References in later games

 * Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games: Toad, Magikoopa, Lakitu, and Silver reference this game's story mode.

Trivia

 * Most of the DS profile artwork is borrowed from earlier games like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario 64 DS, Mario Party 7, Mario Party DS, Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Mario Party 8, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Sonic Unleashed. Other art is either new or borrowed from the Sonic Channel. For the female participants in this game, the difference in their profile arts is that they are wearing their respective winter outfits.
 * Bowser's profile artwork is the same as his artwork for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which came almost a month after this game.
 * An app based on this game was released for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, but only features Sonic characters and thus is named simply . This game has since been removed from the App Store.
 * This is currently the only game in the series to be released on both consoles on the same day in most regions, except for Japan and South Korea.
 * Dry Bowser is not present in the photo that shows the bosses at the end of Adventure mode.
 * The sounds used for the Super Mushroom and the Mini Mushroom are the ones used in New Super Mario Bros. for the same items.
 * For unknown reasons, the announcer does not have voice clips for Dry Bowser, King Boo, Big Bullet Bill and Dry Bones in the Korean version.