Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Wii U)

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a sports title for the Wii U, which is the fifth installment on the Mario & Sonic series, along with the Nintendo 3DS version. Like the other games, it takes place in the host city of the Olympics of the corresponding year, being Rio de Janeiro.

Copacabana Beach
In the game, the main menu, called Shortcut Menu, is unlocked after winning a medal in the first tournament, is optional and is activated with the button. The game always starts instead on Copacabana Beach, that is explorable and contains several characters the player can talk to, either characters from Team Sonic and Team Mario or Miis of other players. Furthermore, when the player is participating in a tournament, all the characters participating in said tournament can be found at the beach. By talking to Miis of players from unknown countries or by talking the first time to characters from Team Sonic or Team Mario after entering the first tournament, countries' and characters' flags can be obtained respectively. While participating in a tournament, there are also Miis that give suggestions about hidden controls of features of the tournament's event, some but not all of them are in the form of a card that can be collected and is shown after each match in said event. Furthermore, after participating at least once in the Heroes Showdown mode, there are Miis that can give suggestion cards about the Heroes Showdown mode. When characters from Team Mario or Team Sonic are found at the beach, one Mii also gives additional information about one character, chosen randomly among at least two small pieces of information of this kind per character. In addition to this, there are important locations and characters that can be talked to in order to access the game's modes, to purchase items or to obtain additional rewards, these are:

Maracana Stadium
Here the Single Events modes can be chosen by talking to the following characters:


 * Orbot (Single-player Single Events)
 * Cubot (Multiplayer Single Events)

Rio 2016 Tournament Gate
This sand statue is completed after the player arrives first in five single events. Here the tournaments can be chose or the number of players participating in them can be changed by talking to the following characters:


 * Green Toad (changes the number of players participating in tournaments)
 * Blue Toad (allows the player to choose the tournament or continue the current ongoing tournament)

Miiverse Monitor
This monitor is activated after passing the first match of the second tournament. Here, messages from other players sent to the game's group on Miiverse can be seen, furthermore the player can talk to Red Toad to send a message to the game's group on Miiverse.

Versus Arena
This sand statue is completed after the players arrives in first place in all the single events or wins a medal in seven tournaments. Here the Heroes Showdown modes can be chosen by talking to the following characters:


 * Charmy Bee (Single player Heroes Showdown)
 * Birdo (Multiplayer Heroes Showdown)

Ghost Match Entrance
This pedestal appears once the statue of the Versus Arena is completed. Here a Shy Guy can be talked to in order to participate in match against the ghosts of other players in three events. The player can choose to challenge a ghost of a player with similar skills or the best ghost recorded for the event.

Pousada
Here Big the Cat can be talked to in order to see the current collected items, to change the player's Mii's outfits, to change the background music of events, to change various settings or to see the game's credits once all level 3 tournaments are cleared.

Item Stands
Item Stands are gradually unlocked as tournaments are cleared. There, the player can obtain items using coins or rings. 5 coins or ring allow to obtain an item, while 50 coins or rings allow to obtain 11 items. The items obtained are chosen randomly, and the same item can be obtained more than once. There are three item stands, hosted by the following characters:
 * Omochao (Rio 2016 Item Stand, unlocked after winning a medal in three tournaments)
 * Cream the Rabbit (Sonic Item Stand)
 * Pianta (Mario Item Stand)

Reward Reception
A Lakitu on his Cloud appears on the beach every five gold medals earned. By talking to him the player receives additional coins and rings as a reward.

Rio Carnival
After winning all level 1 tournaments, Rio carnival floats can arrive at Copacabana Beach once a tournament is cleared. There are four types of float, each one with a character (selected at random from a pool of specific characters for each float) that can be challenged to a Carnival Challenge in order to obtain a part of his or her costume. The carnival challenge consists in winning in an event against the character while satisfying peculiar conditions. In order to participate in said challenge, the player must pay either Rings (for Sonic's and Dr. Eggman's floats) or Coins (for Mario's and Bowser's floats). If the players fails to win the challenge, he can retry it paying an increased amount of Rings or Coins. After a few unsuccessful tries, the character on the float becomes easier to beat. The Rio Carnival stays at Copacabana Beach until the player participates in a tournament. There are four floats: Mario's, Bowser's, Sonic's, and Dr. Eggman's.

Characters
Thirty-five characters are playable. Character costumes that can be used by Miis are playable as well. The 21 characters that are playable in the Wii versions of the second instalment and third instalment, as well as the fourth instalment, are playable in all events. All newcomers to this instalment (known as guests) are only playable in one event each. Unlike the other home console versions of Mario & Sonic games, there are no character types. However, each character still has their own stats for each event. Like the 3DS version of the game, guests have to be unlocked by winning an event against them.

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

Guests
Compared to the 3DS version, Dry Bones, Ludwig, and Roy have been cut. However, Toad makes an appearance as the sole playable character exclusive to the Wii U version. Birdo has also been cut, but makes an appearance as a non-playable character at the sand statue at which the Heroes Showdown modes can be chosen.

Guests
Compared to the 3DS version, Omega and Eggman Nega have been cut. Cream the Rabbit has also been cut as a playable character, but appears in non-playable capacity much like Birdo, as keeper of the Sonic Edition of the Item Stand.

Others

 * Miis

Supporting characters

 * Birdos
 * Boom Booms
 * Egg Pawns

Non-playable characters

 * Toads
 * Shy Guys
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Goombas
 * Lakitu
 * Chao
 * Birdo
 * Pianta
 * Big the Cat
 * Charmy Bee
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Omochao
 * Cream the Rabbit

Events
Fourteen official Olympic Games events and three Duel Events are playable along normal events. In the Duel Events, special items from the Mario and Sonic universes are usable and certain actions increase Duel Points that are added to the total score of the team once a try, point, or goal is scored.

Tournaments
Tornaments, unlocked after winning in five single events, are event-specific and consist in three phases (qualifications, semifinals, finals), in each of which half of the athletes are eliminated. If the player manages to end up in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, a gold, silver or bronze medal is earned. Furthermore, a special prize is earned if a condition related to each tournament is satisfied. Four levels of increasing difficulty exist. Characters from Team Sonic and Team Mario can sometime participate in tournaments of level 2 or higher. In each torunament, difficult to beat athletes are indicated with an exclamation mark. Finally, guests of the particular event of the tournament may appear after the qualification is passed, if the player talks to them their flag is earned, furthermore if the tournament is succesfully cleared, the guest challenges the player and, if beaten, is unlocked.

Leagues
Leagues are special tournaments that can be accessed after winning 25 tournaments using either an amiibo related to the Mario universe or a Sonic amiibo. The Mario League, accessed with a Mario-related amiibo, has the player's Mii facing opponents from Team Mario, while the Sonic League, accessed with the Sonic amiibo, has the player's Mii facing characters from Team Sonic. The reward of the Leagues is either a Mario or a Sonic Mii costume.

Heroes Showdown
A Heroes Showdown mode is featured as well. It is unlocked after getting the gold medal in all the single events or after getting more than seven bronze medals in the tournaments. In it the player joins either Team Mario or Team Sonic and participates in knockout rounds against members of the other team in events chosen randomly, until either all members of one team or one of the two captains; Mario and Sonic, are knocked out.

amiibo
The game supports amiibo functionality, accessed from the Shortcut Menu after winning a medal in 25 tournaments rather than by talking to a character in Copacabana Beach. A Mario-related amiibo lets the player enter the Mario League, the Sonic amiibo lets the player enter the Sonic League, while all other amiibo will give either coins or rings.

Costumes
As with the previous games, there are a variety of collectable costumes for the player to use for their Mii character. A majority of the costumes return from the previous installments, in addition to some brand new ones.

Music
As in the previous installments, music can be collected. All guests' themes are unlocked after beating them in an event.

Stamps
Players are able to obtain stamps to use in Miiverse posts. There are a total of 100 stamps in the game. Stamps are obtained at the item stands.

Pre-release and unused content
The game originally featured Boom Boom among the playable characters of Team Mario in the introductory video of the game shown in the Nintendo Direct of March 2016. This video was also reused as the introduction of the game. Despite this, in the final game Dry Bowser, who doesn't appear in the introduction among the playable characters of Team Mario and is only referred to through his flags, replaces Boom Boom and the only playable Boom Booms are the supporting characters of the Rugby Sevens events. Additionally, Birdo is shown as a goalie in the Duel Football event. In the final game, Birdo is replaced by different colored Birdos as goalies while Birdo makes no appearance in the game aside from appearing at the Heroes Showdown sand statue.

Trivia

 * This is the first home console Mario & Sonic game to be released on the same year of the Olympics in real life, being released six weeks before the Opening Ceremonies.
 * This is the first home console Mario & Sonic game where all of the events take place in real life locations.
 * Like in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, there are special animations for some paired characters for whenever the player gets first place in a team event, all being recycled from that game (with some new ones added for characters like Mario and Toad, Sonic and Jet, Rouge and Blaze, and Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong).
 * One of the additional pieces of information told by Miis about Wendy O. Koopa references her battle in New Super Mario Bros. U, where she uses ice skates and her battle stage is made of ice, further suggesting she will be a playable character in at least an ice skating event of a future Mario & Sonic game dedicated to the Olympic Winter Games.