Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is a sports game for the Wii with a Nintendo DS 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 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, Hong Kong, and Taiwan while Nintendo has done publishing/marketing duties for Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan themselves.

About
The Wii version employs the Wii Remote controls, as well as the Wii Balance Board. The game features a Festival mode where the player starts from the opening to the closing ceremony. In the Festival mode, the player can choose to play an individual festival, where the player faces off against 7 other CPU characters, or a team festival, where the player can choose three other teammates to play.

New to the game is a marketplace that allows the player to purchase various items such as clothes and accessories for the player's Mii, tunes from both series, and customizable snowboards. Players can purchase these items using Star Tokens, which earn based on their performance. Also, the gallery for Olympic trivia has now been replaced with the Library.

Also, all authentic (real-life based events) are unlocked from the start. Dream Events are in this game and all of them (excluding 2) need to be unlocked.

The aforementioned Festival Mode, is a special adventure mode where the participants must compete with some boss characters from the Mario and Sonic series in various events. Both the DS and the Wii versions take place in a place known as Christmas Village.

Olympic events

 * Alpine Skiing - Downhill
 * Alpine Skiing - Giant Slalom
 * Ski Jumping - Individual Large Hill
 * Ski Jumping - Team Large Hill
 * Freestyle Skiing - Moguls
 * Freestyle Skiing - Ski Cross
 * Snowboard - Halfpipe
 * Snowboard - Snowboard Cross
 * Speed Skating - Speed Skating 500m
 * Speed Skating - Short Track 1,000m
 * Speed Skating - Short Track Relay
 * Figure Skating
 * Skeleton
 * Bobsleigh
 * Ice Hockey
 * Curling

Dream events

 * Dream Alpine - Dream Alpine
 * Dream Alpine - Dream Alpine
 * Dream Ski Jumping - Dream Ski Jumping
 * Dream Ski Jumping - Dream Ski Jumping
 * Dream Ski Cross - Individual
 * Dream Ski Cross - Team
 * Dream Snowboard Cross - Individual
 * Dream Snowboard Cross - Team
 * Dream Short Track
 * Dream Figure Skating
 * Dream Bobsleigh
 * Dream Ice Hockey
 * Dream Curling
 * Dream Snowball Fight
 * Dream Gliding - Individual
 * Dream Gliding - Team

Characters
All of the characters from the previous game, including Miis for the Wii version, return. There are also four new characters who were not present in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Retaining the first game's style, all playable characters are unlocked from the start (including new participants).

Playable characters
* A character who marks their first time playable in the series.

Other

 * Mii

It is possible to customize the outfit of the Miis in the game. Aside from differently colored suits, the Miis can also wear outfits that resemble the ones of the regular playable characters and a few bosses. Playable character costumes are unlockable by getting 1st in five events as the character. The player can buy equipment through the store in the game and unlike Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the Miis' stats gets altered depending on the equipment they wear.

Mario series
There is a total of 16 different costumes for Miis based on characters from the Mario universe.

Sonic the Hedgehog series
Like the Mario universe, 16 characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe also appear as costumes for the Miis.

VIP members
These characters only appear as cameos and tells the player that they've been watching the player in certain events. Pausing the game and hitting the when they're spotted gives the player 100 Star Points. The VIP members are:

When the player spots Birdo and Big the Cat, they will also be given costumes.

When the game is played during the month of December, Santa Claus also appears as a VIP. Unlike other VIP characters, Santa gives 300 Star Points instead of 100.

Locations
Locations from both Mario and Sonic series appear in the Dream Events. The following stages are:

Mario series

 * Mario Circuit (featured in Dream Ski Cross) from Mario Kart Wii.
 * Bowser Castle (featured in Dream Ice Hockey) from Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
 * Good Egg Galaxy (featured in Dream Ski Jumping) from Super Mario Galaxy.
 * Sherbet Land (featured in Dream Curling) from Mario Kart 64.
 * In Dream Figure Skating, three backgrounds from New Super Mario Bros. appear: World 1, Bowser's Castle, and Peach's Castle. It uses classical versions of the Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme and Castle theme, and the Super Mario World Staff Roll.
 * Dream Snowball Fight has the same music as in Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman's Land from Super Mario 64.

Sonic the Hedgehog series

 * Radical Highway (featured in Dream Snowboard Cross) from Sonic Adventure 2
 * Seaside Hill (featured in Dream Alpine) from Sonic Heroes
 * Nocturne/Special Stage (featured in Dream Bobsleigh) from Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sonic Heroes
 * Egg Factory (featured in Dream Speed Skating) from Sonic Riders
 * In Dream Figure Skating, three Sonic backgrounds appear: Green Hill Zone (from Sonic the Hedgehog), Death Egg Zone (from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and the destroyed Station Square (from Sonic Adventure). The music is classical rearrangements of Sonic Heroes from the titular game, and from Sonic Adventure, the Theme of Dr. Eggman, Perfect Chaos Phase 2, and Open Your Heart. The former and latter are completely instrumental.
 * Dream Gliding has the same music as in Sky Sanctuary Zone from Sonic & Knuckles.

Staff
Although he is uncredited in the game's credits, Scott Burns voices Bowser in this game, which marks the second and last instance in the Mario & Sonic he voices him, as Kenneth W. James would voice him in later installments.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros. - A remix of the overworld theme and castle theme of this game is available as one of selectable songs in this game.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2 - Peach's floating ability returns as her special skill in this game.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3 - A remix of the athletic theme of this game appears as one of the selectable songs in this game.
 * Super Mario World - A remix of the athletic and the ending themes appear as one of the selectable songs in this game.
 * Super Mario 64 - The Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman's Land music tracks are remixed for the Dream Snowball Fight event. A remix of the main theme and the Bowser's stage theme is used.
 * Mario Kart 64 - The Dream Curling event takes place in Sherbet Land from this game.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee - Luigi's special skill, Luigi Rocket, is similar to the Green Missile. Bowser's special skill, Spinning Shell, is similar to Whirling Fortress.
 * Super Mario Sunshine - A remix of Delfino Plaza's music appears as one of the selectable songs in this game.
 * Mario Kart: Super Circuit - The Dream Ice Hockey event takes place in Bowser Castle from this game.
 * New Super Mario Bros. - The athletic theme appears as one of the selectable music tracks. Three backgrounds from this game appear in the Dream Figure Skating event, namely World 1, Bowser's Castle, and Peach's Castle.
 * Super Mario Galaxy - The Dream Ski Jump event takes place in the Good Egg Galaxy. Purple Coins can be collected in most of the Dream Events. The Purple Comet theme along with the Gusty Garden Galaxy's theme, under the title "Wind Garden," appear as selectable songs in this game.
 * Mario Kart Wii - The Dream Ski Cross event takes place in Mario Circuit from this game. The Coconut Mall theme appears as one of the selectable music tracks. The Mega Mushroom and POW Block, two of the three new items introduced to the Mario Kart series in this game, appear in at least one Dream Event.

References in later games

 * Mario Sports Mix - The gameplay in Hockey in this game is similar to Ice Hockey from this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games - Most of the Mario and Sonic series music return as well as the Mii costumes. The story mode in this game is referenced by Toad, Magikoopa, and Silver.

Trivia

 * 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 AppStore.
 * This is currently the only game in the series to be released on both consoles on the same day (except Japan and South Korea).