Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo 3DS)

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a sports title for the Nintendo 3DS, which is the fifth installment on the Mario & Sonic series, along with the Wii U version. Like the other games, it takes place in the host city of the Olympics of the corresponding year, being Rio de Janeiro. It also features amiibo compatibility. This is the first game in the series where the handheld version was released before the home console version.

Characters
All playable characters from previous games in the series return, in addition to 20 new playable characters (10 new Mario characters and 10 new Sonic characters), for a total of 41 playable characters. Among the new playable characters, there are many of the Rivals from prior games in the Mario & Sonic series, with the exceptions of King Boo, Boo, Big Bullet Bill, and Kamek. Similarly to the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, characters are only playable in certain events, with the exceptions of Mario, Sonic, and Mii characters (who are playable in all events). All the other returning characters are exclusive to two events each, while the new characters are only available for one. There are 7 playable characters in each event: 3 from Team Mario, 3 from Team Sonic, and Mii. Also, this is the first game in the series to feature unlockable playable characters (indicated by an *). Characters are unlocked by beating them in Road to Rio on the Plus version of the main event of that day after winning at the preliminaries. Each of the unlockable characters are playable in one event (both its Olympic and Plus versions) exclusive to that character with no overlaps and no events skipped.

The Road to Rio mode features almost all the playable characters, with the exception of Ludwig and Dry Bones, and some unlockable characters, namely Jet, Diddy, Rosalina, and Roy, have additional roles besides that of being challenged to be unlocked.

Other

 * Miis (available in all events) - playable after completing Day 1 of Road to Rio.

Teammates
In the Football event, the characters have set types of team mates that help them in the game.
 * Toads (Mario & Mario's Story Mii)
 * Chao (Sonic & Sonic's Story Mii)
 * Yoshis (Yoshi)
 * G.U.N. Robots (Shadow)
 * Birdos (Daisy)
 * Egg Pawns (Jet)

Goalies
Goalies for Football depend on the team order and are not locked for each character.
 * Pom Pom (1st team)
 * Silver Egg Pawn (2nd team)

Non-playable characters

 * Shy Guys
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Goombas
 * Boos
 * Thwomps
 * Piranha Plants
 * Goomba Towers
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Charmy Bee

Events
There are a total of fourteen events in the game, each with two variants; an "Olympic" version in which the events behave similarly to their real-life counterparts, and a "Plus" version where Mario and Sonic elements are incorporated into the event. Completing each in each difficulty will unlock a gold medal and completing the event in hard mode will unlock a star next to the event.
 * 100m Dash
 * 110m Hurdles
 * Table Tennis
 * Javelin Throw
 * BMX
 * Long Jump
 * Beach Volleyball
 * 100m Freestyle
 * Equestrian
 * Golf
 * Rhythmic Gymnastics
 * Boxing
 * Archery
 * Football

Training Events
In the Road to Rio mode, the player can train by playing thirty events from the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. These events are:
 * Pole Vault
 * Keirin
 * 100m Backstroke
 * Hockey
 * Badminton (Singles)
 * Triple Jump
 * Shot Put
 * Synchronized Swimming (Team)
 * Trampoline
 * Synchronized Swimming (Duet)
 * 1000m Kayak (Singles)
 * 4 x 100m Relay
 * 1500m
 * Water Polo
 * 100m Breaststroke
 * Canoe Slalom (Pair)
 * Handball
 * Badminton (Doubles)
 * Double Trap
 * Rowing - Quadruple Sculls
 * Rings
 * Fencing - Epée
 * Platform Diving (Synchronized)
 * Sailing - 470 (Pair)
 * 25m Rapid Fire Pistol
 * Taekwondo
 * 10km Marathon Swim
 * Hammer Throw
 * Basketball
 * 3000m Steeplechase

amiibo
The game features amiibo functionality, but only with the Mario and Sonic amiibo. Using them will turn the Mario costume into the Gold Mario costume and the Sonic costume into the Super Sonic costume respectively.

Road to Rio
The game features a Road to Rio mode that is similar to the Adventure Tours in the DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and the Castle Club in Mario Golf: World Tour and is divided in two stories, Mario's Story and Sonic's Story, with the Mii joining either Mario's Gym or Sonic's Gym and participating each of the 7 days to the preliminaries and the finals of a main event, the latter of which are against a trainer of the opposing gym. The player can freely explore the areas, where the venue of the main event or the bus stop to reach the area where the main event is held, Training Gyms, shops, non playable characters, unlockable characters, treasure chests and ? crates can be found. Training Gyms are used to train for the main events, by playing an event from the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. After training, the players gains Apples and Training Points. The former are used to buy outfits at the Light-Blue Yoshi Outfit Shop that increases the Mii's stats, the latter are used to level up and gain stars that are needed to wear outfits. Treasure chests contain costumes or musical instruments, while ? crates contain melons that can be used to buy gear at the Yellow Yoshi Gear Shop that slightly alter the gameplay of the main events. Both of them can be hidden and appear only when the player is nearby. The unlockable characters can be unlocked by beating them at a Plus version of the main event after the preliminaries of said event have been passed. Finally, there is an optional subplot involving the contrast between Mario's gym and Sonic's gym and the disappearance of Mario, Sonic, and the medals from the Hall of Medals, that the player can follow to reach the true ending of each story, where it's revealed that Bowser and Dr. Eggman hypnotized two boys in Mario and Sonic costumes to steal the medals and spread rumors that one of the two gyms did it. Mario and Sonic go into hiding to foil the villains' plans, and together with the player, they defeat the two and reclaim the medals.

Challenge Mode
The game includes a challenge mode similar to the Super Smash Bros. games and Kid Icarus: Uprising. Each challenge has three steps to complete the challenge fully with progressing difficulty.

Pocket Marathon
The game has a special mode where based on the number of steps the player's Mii moves, going certain distances unlocks certain milestones. There are three maps each one twice as long as the last. Each 2000m walked a gift is rewarded.

Trivia

 * This is the first game in the Mario & Sonic series to feature the playable debut of characters, specifically Eggman Nega, Zazz, Zavok, and Pom Pom, with the latter being a playable, but not selectable supporting character.
 * This is the first handheld Mario & Sonic game where Sonic has text-based dialogue, and the first overall game where Nabbit has dialogue.
 * This is the first handheld Mario & Sonic game to be released on the same year of the Olympics in real life.