Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Nintendo 3DS)

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is a sports title for the Nintendo 3DS with a Wii version of the game released as well. Both games make up the third instalment of the Mario & Sonic series, which take place in London, home of the.

Olympic Mode
Olympic Mode is the main mode within the game, and is based around playing the various events in the game. The mode can be played in both single player and multiplayer.

Highlight Match
In this mode, the player plays a single match of an event using the standard rules. For each event, the player an select a COM Level which determines the difficulty of the computer-controlled opponents from Easy, Normal and Hard. A medal an be earned for each COM level in every event, however earning a medal at a higher difficulty level will also earn the medal for lower ones. For example, earning a gold medal at normal COM level will also earn the gold medal for easy if the player does not already have the medal. The player can select their character for each event from the four available for the entry character class, with each event being assigned one of the five character groups. After completing each event, an award ceremony is held, during which the final placements of all of the characters are shown on a podium. If two characters tie for a position in an event, through having the same number of points for example, they will both appear on the podium in their respective position. For events in which the player controls two or four characters as a team, only the players' characters will appear on the podium and will do their victory animation for their placement. The characters will appear on a podium even if they place fourth in the event, whereas only those in the top three stand on the podium for single character events, with the fourth place character off to the side. After the awards ceremony, the player is given the options to replay the event, choose a different event to play or return to the main menu.

Certain events require the player to select a team of either two or four characters to play the event. For these events, extra teams made up of non-playable characters are added for the event. In two-character team events, the extra teams are a pair of Chao and a pair of Koopa Troopas. The teams never physically appear in the events, and in events where the player is required to directly compete against a COM team rather than using a score to determine the rankings, the player can only place first or second in the event as the Koopa Troopa and Chao teams will always place third and fourth. For the events that require the player to use all of the characters in the class, the COM teams will be made up of green, yellow and blue Shy Guys. The Shy Guys only physically appear in 4x100m Relay, with their times and scores being used for the other events of the type.

Medley Match
In Medley Match mode, the player can compete in medleys made up of several different Olympic events to earn points, aiming to score more points than their opponents. For each event, the player will receive a number of points based on their placement in it, winning 10 points for first place, 6 points for second place, 4 points for third place and 2 points for fourth place.

In this mode, certain events are always treated as bonus events, giving them slightly different rules and awarding different point scores at the end of the event, mainly based on the score that the player achieved. The following events are treated as bonus events:
 * Marathon- Only a single round of the event is played, with the score being determined by the water bottle that the player grabs. The characters are ordered in the reverse order of their current overall placement, such that fourth place is in the lead while first place is at the back. Collecting the rainbow colored water bottle scores the player 15 points, the blue water bottle scores 10 points, the white water bottles score 5 points each and failing to collect any of the water bottles awards the player 0 points.
 * Basketball- The player will have a short practice session with a cursor before being able to make a single shot without the cursor to determine their point score for the event. The color of ball that the player receives depends on their placement in the medley, with higher ranked players receiving worse balls than the higher ranked ones. White and orange balls are worth 5 points, blue balls are worth 10 points and rainbow colored balls are worth 15 points.
 * Handball- The event is played as normal with ten shots thrown by the Egg Pawns, and the type of balls thrown depending on the player's placement, with lower-ranked players receiving more multiple point scoring balls than those in higher positions.
 * Football- The event is played mostly as normal with only five shots thrown by the Shy Guys, and different types of balls thrown depending on the players' placement, with players in low positions receiving more multiple point scoring balls than those in high positions.
 * Keirin- The characters start the event with advantages based on their placement, with the fourth placed character starting further ahead than the third place character and so on. The event plays as normal, but scores are awarded so that first places gets 15 points, second place gets 10 points, third place gets 5 points and fourth place does not receive any.

Upon creating a new file, the player completes the Warm-Up Medley consisting of three events, 100m, 100m Freestyle and Judo. Any records set during this medley do not count, and the player cannot see the results of the events. This medley is not available in the game afterwards.

There are two ways to play Medley Match, standard mode and quick mode. Standard allows players to choose a character from each of the groups, as well as allowing them to set and select a group of favourite characters. When playing two-person medleys, the second character will be randomly picked, and when playing team medleys the player's selected character will be the lead character. Each event shows the player the instructions screen before playing, and also provides intermittent screens between events showing each player's current position, point increases and position changes and often features commentary from Toad, Wenlock and a Chao about recent occurrences. In the quick mode, all of these things are absent, with the player receiving a random selection of characters and their current position in the medley and number of points being displayed in the bottom right of the Touch Screen during the events. The quick mode is the only mode in the game where the main instructions screen of an event can be fully skipped.

London Games
London Games mainly consists of medleys based on a selection of events from a specific class, but also features some medleys that are a combination of classes or based on the team size instead.

Variety
Variety Medleys are made up of events that are grouped together based on things like the type of gameplay or input used in the events.

Party Mix
Party Mix medleys function differently to other medley types, as while there are three different individual medleys, all of them use a randomised selection of single character events. All three Party Mix medleys are available at the start of the game, with the only differences being the number of events in each and the amount of points awarded for the Party Mix Awards event. The main difference to Party Mix medleys is the addition of Party News events, which are various randomly occurring events in the form of a news broadcast hosted by Omochao that appear at various times in the medley and often award players bonus points. The Party News events that can occur are:
 * Event Selection: A randomly selected human player chooses between four event types, including Timing games, Microphone games, Judgment games, Finesse games, Rhythm games, Flexibility games, Do-or-Die games, Wrist workout games, Repetition games, Balance games and Intelligence games. An event is selected from the player’s chosen category and played as the next event. During this Party News event, a picture is taken of the player choosing the event and is used to announce the chosen Olympic event.
 * Captain Drake’s lost treasure: The lost treasure of is found, and players take it in turn to select a random chest that includes a number of bonus points. The number of points varies between players to even the scores such that players in lower positions will receive more points than those in higher positions, and the other players will be able to see how many points are in the choosing player's chests.
 * Bonus Update!: Announces all of the player’s current ranks and the upcoming bonus events before they are played.
 * Party Mix Awards!: Handed out at the end of each medley, awarding players points for the most and least points earned in a certain event class, 10 and 15 points respectively for Party Mix 10 Medley in one class, 15 and 20 for Party Mix 15 Medley in two classes and 20 and 25 for Party Mix 20 Medley in two classes. This Party News event also makes use of the camera when revealing players that won awards and before announcing the final results, with computers receiving one of a number of images to represent them.

Custom
Custom Medleys consist of medleys that the player has made using the Make an Event Medley mode or traded with another player using the Trade an Event Medley function. The player can create up to twenty medleys, with the options of making medleys with five single character events or three two or four-character team events. The player can store up to twenty medleys across all types, and is also able to name their medley. Custom medleys have a rarity rating, which is rated from 1 to 10 stars, which is based on both the average of each event's Best Event Ranking from 1 to 57, and a "hidden value" that takes the ratio of the average score of the events in the medley to the average score of all 57 events in the game. An event's Best Event Ranking is determined by three attributes: The three attributes determines a score for the event used to determine the Best Event ranking, which is shown to the player while making their medley. By picking events with a lower number ranking (the lower this number, the better the player is at an event), the rarity rating for the event will increase. The ranking does not take into account events being in other classes though, meaning that if a player's top events are distributed over single character, double character and quadruple character events, the maximum rarity rating of ten cannot be obtained unless the player changes their top ranked events by repeatedly playing and winning the events in either Highlight Match, Medley Match or Story Mode. A "hidden value" is also another factor of determining the rarity rating, which is the ratio of the average score of the events in the medley to the average score of all 57 events in the game. When a player plays an event, this "hidden value" will increase very rapidly for medleys containing the event, and decrease very slowly for medleys not containing the event. This "hidden value" will have an effect on the rarity rating given to a medley containing certain events.
 * Frequency: Determined by how many times the player has played the event. In the Play Data section of the Record Log, the player can check which 5 events the player has played the most.
 * Difficulty: The average level of COM opponents that the player competes against in the event. This attribute will change even if the player cannot compete against a COM player or team because of the number of players or the selected event.
 * Performance: The average finishing position of the player in the event.

When playing multiplayer, the medleys available in the Custom list are based off medleys in the host's list, and only the host can win badges for winning a medley with a certain rarity rating. The rarity of the medley does not change once a medley is created and the player must recreate the medley to determine if the rarity rating has changed. The COM Level that the player competes against in a custom medley does not affect whether a badge will be won for winning a custom medley with a specific rarity rating.

Multiplayer
4 players compete or co-operate in an event that is selected by the host. After an event, the player can choose to play the same event, change the event or quit the game (this is shown as Disconnect in case of multiplayer).

Local Play and Download Play are both offered for 2 to 4 players. In Local Play, both Highlight Match and Medley Match are played as normal, although with only the host being able to make selections. All records, including those set by a team, can be saved in Local Play.

In Download Play, the player can play Highlight Match, in which only the host player can select the events, or Medley Match, in which only a "Party Mix Demo DL Medley" is available, in which all players play all of the events as different colors of Yoshi. Download play also features some technical restrictions, including character sound effects being removed and some music being changed, certain features being removed, the top screen becomng inactive at some points, and data such as records not being saved. Additionally, the "Quit game" option to return to the main menu is replaced with a "Disconnect" option during multiplayer modes.

The way that teams are set up in multiplayer also changes depending on the number of characters playing. A number of different set-ups can occur to optimise gameplay for multiple players.
 * When playing in multiplayer, each player may team up for an event depending on which event is selected. The controls in an event may be different in co-op than in single player.
 * When only 2 players are connected, the human players automatically go to the Finals in case of tournament-based events.
 * When selecting an event or medley with 2 members per team, if two players are playing, then they will both always be teamed up against the COM characters. When there are three or more players, the host sets the teams after the characters have been selected. The player that ends up on a single team will then be paired up with a COM.
 * When selecting an event or medley with 4 members per team, the following will happen depending on the number of players connected and if the the COM can control some characters of the user-controlled team:
 * If there are 4 players, each player selects a character. The order of the characters is P1 > P2 > P3 > P4.
 * If there are less than 4 players and the COM can control some characters of the user-controlled team, each player selects one character. The COM will control the characters that were not selected by the other players in certain events. This also applies in Single Player mode.
 * If there are less than 4 players and the COM cannot control some characters of the user-controlled team:
 * 1 Player - The player will not select a character. Instead, the order of the characters in the Select Character screen will be the order of characters in the event.
 * 2 Player - Both players each select 2 characters. P1 will control the first and third characters while P2 controls the the second and fourth characters.
 * 3 Player - P2 and P3 both select a character, with P1 selecting 2 characters. P1 will control the first and fourth characters, P2 controls the second and P3 controls the third.

Story Mode
In the Story Mode, players play through a story split into several episodes. Each episode consists of an opening and closing cutscene, with a number of challenges that must be completed in between them to unlock the next part of the story. The cutscenes can be skipped using the start button, and also feature dialogue which the player can page through by pressing the A Button. The first cutscene usually sets up the challenges, occasionally mentioning specific events that the player will play. Each episode can have up to seven challenges, which are either single events or medleys of three or five events. The events featured will often be adjusted for the mode, sometimes featuring fewer specific and occasionally exclusive opponents, with medley challenges working the same way as in medley mode, though occasionally with adjusted point values based on the number of opponents. Not every challenge is required to be completed for every episode, as episodes with multiple challenges will sometimes specify a smaller number of challenges that need to be completed in order to progress, and the player can complete any of the available challenges to fill this quota. The difficulty of the opponents gradually increase throughout the Story Mode, with the opponents being easy difficulty up to A Rainbow In Fog, where the first set of normal opponents appear. Normal opponents appear up until the end of the main story, and hard opponents then appear in all of the bonus episodes.

When first starting the mode, The Night Before cutscene is the first episode unlocked, and must be watched to unlock the first pair of episodes with challenges, Stadium Blues and Sonic Arrives. Completing each episode unlocks another initially, with the Mario episodes leading into the Girls ones, and the Sonic ones leading into Challengers. Once both The Mysterious Thief and Enter Bowser?! are completed, Mario and Sonic is unlocked, and completing this episode then unlocks The Secret of the Fog. After completing the Secret of the Fog, Waluigi's Ambition, Wario's Scheme, The Banana Incident and Corner the Koopa King! are all unlocked. Waluigi's Ambition and Wario's Scheme must both be completed to unlock Stop Dr. Eggman!, and completing it along with The Banana Incident and Corner the Koopa King! unlocks the Clear Skies Again cutscene. After watching this, each episode is unlocked sequentially until the completion of Junior Triumphant!, which unlocks both Bowser's Blues and Dr. Eggman's Robots. Both the Wild Ones Bonus Story and Tricksters Bonus story must be completed in their entirety to unlock the Girls Bonus episodes, with Mario's Defeat?! and The Fog Returns' completion unlocking An Innocent Request. The final two episodes are then unlocked sequentially.

The mode also offers players a Clear Assist option, which allows them to complete a challenge in the episode after failing it enough times. This allows the player to progress through the story, but will mark the episodes cleared in this way with a grey banner until challenges that the player used Clear Assist on are properly completed by the player. Even if the player completes the required number of episodes for the challenge without Clear Assist, if one or more challenges is finished with the Clear Assist the episode will be marked with a grey banner. Episodes that have optional challenges will marked as cleared with a white banner if not all of the challenges have been completed, and episodes where every challenge has been completed regardless of whether it was compulsory will be marked as clear with a gold banner.

Characters
In the 3DS version of the game, there are a total of 20 playable characters (the character roster being identical to the one featured in the Nintendo DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games). However, only certain characters can play certain events. These characters are identified in five different classes and get their own storyline. Some characters can compete in other events that they would not normally be playable in Story Mode.

Rivals

 * Dry Bones - Sailing - 470 (Pair)
 * Dry Bowser - Sailing - 470 (Pair)
 * King Boo - Badminton (Doubles)
 * Boo - Badminton (Doubles)
 * Magikoopa - BMX
 * Eggman Nega - 4x100m Relay
 * Omega - Wrestling - Freestyle
 * Jet - 3000m Steeplechase
 * Rouge - 100m Backstroke

Referees

 * Toad
 * Cream
 * Lakitu
 * Shy Guy
 * Charmy
 * Espio
 * Omochao

Other

 * Koopa Troopa
 * Shy Guy
 * Goomba
 * Thwomp
 * Toads
 * Egg Pawn
 * Flapper
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Chao

Events
The Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games features a total of 57 events, the most of any instalment in the series. The events are split across 11 different classes, and make use of most of the features of the Nintendo 3DS as inputs for them. Each event has a specific character group that is used for it, and the player can only choose from characters in that group to play the event- for example, 100m is a Heroes event, and hence the player can only use Mario, Luigi, Sonic or Tails to play it. Each event has three difficulty settings which alter the performance of the COM characters in the events, as well as being given a game level rating which estimates the complexity of the event, going from one to three stars. Different events also require different numbers of characters, and as such may require the player to select multiple characters to compete n the event, or to pick one out to specifically control in the team. Some of the vents also record records, which will have a starting record when the game is first played, but if the player manages to beat the record, their record will be stored as the top one for the event instead.

Demo
On March 1, 2012, a demo of the 3DS version of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop. Five events are playable in the demo: 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Football, Trampoline, 100m Backstroke and BMX. The player cannot choose their character or name, as it is always set to "M&S". The demo can be launched a maximum of 30 (20 in Europe) times once downloaded.

Pre-release and unused content
Originally, all characters were going to wear swimsuits for the Aquatics events rather than just the girls, but the idea was rejected by Sega because Sonic cannot have his shoes removed. Swimming costumes for some male characters were later added in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Galaxy - The in-game font is reused in this game, being the only Nintendo 3DS title to do so.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games - In the Story Mode, Toad, Magikoopa, and Silver reference competing in this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games - This game is Wii counterpart and shares many elements with the Nintendo 3DS version, including characters, general aesthetic and music. Interstingly, the music used for placing outsie of the top three in the Wii version is used for placing third in this game, with a different trak being used for fourth place.