Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a sports game and the sixth installment in the Mario & Sonic series. It is based on the real-world, which will take place in Tokyo, Japan. This marks the first instance where the series skips an Olympic Games, as Ubisoft bought the rights to develop video games. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. An arcade version is also set to release in 2020. The game has a companion mobile game releasing in 2020, but only features Sonic the Hedgehog characters. It is also the last game to be developed by AlphaDream following their bankruptcy on October 1, 2019.

Unlike previous games, most characters wear appropriate sports clothing depending on the chosen event. Additionally, the game's title places the location and year after "Olympic Games" rather than before. 2D Events are introduced, which are events from the, only use button controls, and are based off older sports games , utilizing the 8-bit (Mario) and 16-bit (Sonic) styles. The game includes a story mode, which takes place in both 2D and 3D.

Advantages
Excluding the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, this is the first Mario & Sonic game not to report the character stats. Instead, the game reports for each character specific advantages that correlate to their character type (All-Around, Power, Speed, Skill) from the first four games. All-Around characters do not have a specific advantage but are listed as "All-Around" in all events. This is the first Mario & Sonic game with character types to have an uneven amount of characters per type, with only five All-Around types, seven Power types, eight Speed types, and twelve Technique types.

Although not reported in-game, each character has advantages even within a specific type. Luigi, for instance, is slower and less powerful than Mario, but has better technical ability.

In the Tokyo 1964 events, all characters have identical abilities.

Tokyo 2020
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 features a total of 32 playable characters, making it the first in the series to feature fewer playable characters than the previous installment. Similar to the Wii U version of the previous game, the 20 playable characters that have been playable since the second installment are playable in all events, while new characters and characters that debuted in the previous game are only playable as a guest in a single event. Guests are unlocked by beating them in Story Mode, though unlike the previous game, not every event contains a guest character. This is also the first home console Mario & Sonic game not to feature Miis as playable characters.

Supporting characters
These characters are playable in certain events, but are not selectable and have limited functionalities than other playable characters.

Tokyo 1964
There are eight characters that are playable in the Tokyo 1964 events: four from Team Mario and four from Team Sonic. The Mario characters use their 8-bit sprites from Super Mario Bros. while the Sonic characters use their 16-bit sprites from Sonic the Hedgehog (or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3 respectively, in the cases of Tails and Knuckles). Unlike in the Tokyo 2020 events, all characters have the same stats.

Supporting
In Volleyball, each character has five teammates that can be controlled by the player.

Referees

 * Charmy Bee
 * Cubot
 * Lakitu
 * Orbot
 * Toad

Cameramen

 * Toads
 * Chao (2020 only)

Other

 * Bloopers
 * Buzz Bombers
 * Chao
 * Cheese
 * Cheep Cheeps
 * Cluckers
 * Cream
 * Cuckies
 * Flickies
 * Goombas
 * Hammer Bros.
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Mecha Sonic
 * Nebulas
 * Omochao
 * Peckies
 * Pickies
 * Pockies
 * Rexons
 * Rickies
 * Rockies
 * Shy Guys

Events
During Olympic Events, specific characters wear proper outfits for the event. During Dream Events, everyone (except for the female characters) wears their standard outfits, in a similar fashion to previous games.

Tokyo 2020

 * 100m Dash
 * 110m Hurdles
 * 4x100m Relay
 * Javelin Throw
 * Triple Jump
 * Discus Throw
 * Badminton (Singles or Doubles)
 * Skateboarding - Park (new)
 * Sport Climbing (new)
 * Football
 * 100m Freestyle
 * Equestrian - Jumping (Individual or Team)
 * Fencing (Individual or Team)
 * Canoe Double (C-2) 1000m
 * Karate - Kumite (new)
 * Boxing
 * Surfing - Shortboard (new)
 * Gymnastics - Floor Exercise
 * Rugby Sevens
 * Table Tennis (Singles or Doubles)
 * Archery (Individual or Team)
 * Dream Events
 * Dream Racing (Metropolis, Sonic Forces)
 * Dream Shooting
 * Dream Karate (Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey)

Tokyo 1964

 * 2D Events
 * 100M
 * 400M Hurdles
 * Long Jump
 * Marathon
 * 10M Platform
 * Vault
 * Kayak (K-1) 1000m
 * Judo
 * Volleyball
 * Shooting - Trap

Chapter 1: A Mysterious Game System
Mario and Sonic have arrived at the Olympic Stadium, excited for the Olympic Games. A short while later, Toad arrives, with a gift that is addressed to both Mario and Sonic. They open it to find a retro video game system inside with a letter that reads, "To Mario and Sonic with love, in commemoration of the Olympic Games in Tokyo! We made a little game to let you experience the past Olympic Games in Tokyo. By all means, give it a try!" While Sonic is trying to figure out who sent it, Toad mentions how retro it is due to it saying, "Tokyo '64" on it. Since there's no name of who it is from, Sonic begins to get very suspicious of it. Meanwhile, Bowser and Dr. Eggman are hiding behind the sidelines waiting for Mario and Sonic to turn on the system. After Luigi shows up, Bowser begins to get more impatient and decides to turn it on himself. When he shows up, he scares Luigi, who was holding the system, causing him to drop it and press a button on it. When he picks it back up, the screen begins glowing, which causes Mario, Sonic, Bowser, Dr. Eggman, and Toad to all disappear.

Chapter 2: Dr. Eggman & Bowser's Scheme
In a heavily pixelated world, Mario, Sonic, Bowser, Dr. Eggman, and Toad all fall from the sky into an unknown world. After noticing their 8-bit/16-bit appearances and the environment around them, Dr. Eggman deducts that they were sucked into the video game because whoever the light touches gets swallowed into the game. With Toad's help, Sonic figures out that the system was a gift from Bowser and Dr. Eggman, and that their plan was to get Mario and Sonic stuck in the game. Dr. Eggman created the game while a Magikoopa's magic allowed it to suck them in. However, their plan backfired since Bowser and Dr. Eggman got sucked in as well, with Dr. Eggman claiming there is no way out. Eventually, they realize from a nearby sign that the video game is based off the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games (hence the name Tokyo '64). Dr. Eggman decides that he and Bowser should compete in the games, much to Bowser's confusion, but he agrees to it so he can win the gold. They head into the stadium with Mario and Sonic following shortly afterwards. They also decide to compete in the Olympic Games, much to Bowser and Dr. Eggman's shock. The event is the 100m, which Sonic manages to beat Dr. Eggman in. After his loss, Dr. Eggman states that he and Bowser will train harder to win the Olympic Games.

Chapter 3: The Search for Tails
Following the disappearance of Mario, Sonic, Bowser, Dr. Eggman, and Toad, a frightened Luigi is left with nothing but the Tokyo '64 in his hands. After telling a nearby Omochao what happened, the Omochao suggests to find Tails, who is great with machines. However, he does not know where Tails actually is. Suddenly, Amy appears to compete in the 100m. She tells Luigi and Omochao that she does know where Tails is, but since her event could not start due to a lack of competitors, she asks Luigi to compete against her in the 100m first. Luigi accepts her challenge and wins against her. After getting beat by Luigi, Amy tells him that Tails went to go watch Karate. She joins Luigi as he goes to Nippon Budokan to find Tails. There, a Red Toad informs them that Tails already watched matches and left, stating he had a promise to keep, but also tells them that he might have gone to the gymnastics venue with Daisy. Luigi goes to the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, where he finds Daisy, who is warming up for the Floor Exercise event. After Luigi asks about Tails, she says they were going to Ariake together, but split up, with Tails going to another venue. Despite wanting to be focused, Amy wants to compete in Gymnastics against Daisy, which she wins. After Daisy's loss, she asks Luigi why he is looking for Tails in the first place, which also increases Amy's curiosity since she never asked either. After Luigi explains the situation, Daisy joins Luigi and Amy to find Tails. Luigi decides to go to the Ariake Urban Sports Park, where he finally finds Tails, who decided to compete in Skateboarding alongside Sonic, who is currently absent. After a nearby Omochao announces that the event is about to start, Tails, who is unaware of Sonic's situation, asks Luigi to take Sonic's place. Luigi reluctantly agrees and beats Tails in Skateboarding. Afterwards, Amy and Daisy tell Tails of Mario, Sonic, and Toad's situation and Luigi shows the Tokyo '64 to him.

Chapter 4: The Secret Trick
In the 1964 Olympic Stadium, the Long Jump event is next, with Dr. Eggman leaving the victory to Bowser, only to lose it to Mario. After his humiliating loss, Dr. Eggman pulls Bowser to the sidelines. After Bowser asks him why they are collecting medals instead of finding ways back to the real world, Dr. Eggman explains to him the only way to get back to the real world is to collect gold medals, with his lie about no way to return being so he does not give any information to Mario or Sonic. However, they are unaware until the last minute that Toad was listening to everything Bowser and Dr. Eggman said, and begins explaining it to Mario and Sonic as well. They go to confront the villains to see if what they said is true, but they managed to sneak out before they could do that. Thankfully, a nearby Pecky tells Toad that Dr. Eggman flew out west, so Sonic decides to chase him while Mario and Toad go find Bowser. While Sonic is trying to find Dr. Eggman, he finds a Pocky who is standing next to his Eggmobile. After the Pocky tells him that Dr. Eggman got on a bullet train, Sonic sees Eggman on the train and chases after it. After Sonic beats the bullet train to Tokyo Station, he goes around and attempts to find Dr. Eggman, who is hiding behind a tree, but to no avail. After he goes somewhere else, the doctor comes out and calls his plan to stall Sonic a success while he uses this time to go find more venues to go to. Meanwhile, Mario and Toad decide to Sumida River to find Bowser. After seeing Bowser flee on a boat, Mario decides to take his own boat and go after Bowser on the lake. After intercepting Bowser's escapade, they corner him at a dock, but when Toad enrages Bowser and gets behind Mario, they start talking about random things, which Bowser uses as an opportunity to escape. Eventually, Sonic shows up, and they both report that their villain got away and they are probably meeting somewhere.

Chapter 5: The Lost Game System
Upon investigating the Tokyo '64, Tails discovers that Mario and Sonic are competing with Bowser and Dr. Eggman inside the game, which confuses Luigi and friends as to why they would compete at a time like this. However, Bowser Jr. suddenly shows up, claiming that no one can have fun but him, and takes the system away from Luigi. Even after explaining what is going on, Bowser Jr. is still skeptical and runs off with the Tokyo '64 to find out for himself. After Amy suggests that they check out other venues, Tails counters with the fact that they need passes to get in, so he and Luigi go off to find some passes. They go to Tokyo Tower and find Silver there, who was doing a little sightseeing, and ask him about passes. He explains that he had passes for the Tokyo Aquatics Centre and the Aomi Urban Sports Park, but dropped them while he was climbing up the tower. Tails climbs the tower himself and obtains the passes, which Silver lets him keep. He also joins the party due to how serious their situation sounds. With the pass, they go to the Aomi Urban Sports Park, where they confront Bowser Jr., who is being accompanied by Rouge. He still won't give up the Tokyo '64, and Rouge, who sides with Bowser Jr., challenges Daisy to Sport Climbing, saying they will hand over the system, much to Bowser Jr.'s dismay. After Daisy beats Rouge, they return to the ground and realize Bowser Jr. is nowhere to be seen, meaning he ran off to another venue. They track him to the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, who is now being guarded by Wendy. Silver decides to challenge Wendy to 100m Freestyle and wins. Wendy fakes being a sore loser to distract the heroes while Bowser Jr. runs off to find Eggman Nega. Luigi and Tails go back to Nippon Budokan, only to find Bowser Jr. already there with Eggman Nega, who is intrigued by the device. Luigi decides to challenge Eggman Nega to Karate in order to obtain the system back. Accepting defeat, Eggman Nega is ready to hand the Tokyo '64 back to them, only for Bowser Jr. to intervene and tell him that he has to investigate it. Upon further investigation, Eggman Nega realizes this is one of Dr. Eggman's creations. After Tails explains that Mario, Sonic, Bowser, and Dr. Eggman got trapped inside, Eggman Nega decides not to give the device back. He runs off with Bowser Jr. to analyze the game farther and find out how to get Bowser and Dr. Eggman out. Luigi and Tails have to find them before they get the villains out before leaving the heroes inside forever. Not knowing where to find them, a nearby Omochao suggests finding Vector, who is competing in Discus Throw at the Olympic Stadium. When they get there, Tails and Luigi are ready to ask Vector to help them search for Eggman Nega and Bowser Jr..

Minigames
There are 10 minigames that are playable in Story Mode. There are five 2020 minigames, where the player plays as Luigi and Tails, and five 2D minigames where the player plays as Mario and Sonic.
 * Tower Climb: Tails must climb Tokyo Tower to reach the Venue Passes at the top. He must grab the holds and use springs to gain height. Falling off or touching the spike balls reduces time.
 * Metropolitan Goal Kick: Luigi has to defeat Metal Sonic by kicking rugby balls into him. He must first steal one from an Egg Pawn, then perform a Try in the center of the arena. He then must release the kick when the meter is full to get the most amount of damage.
 * Kabukiza Clash: A horde of 36 Egg Pawns are standing in front of Kabukiza Theatre. Tails has to shoot them down with an Archery bow and arrow before they throw spiked balls at him. If he gets hit three times, he loses.
 * Shibuya Scramble Search: In a large crowd of Toads and Shy Guys in Shibuya, Luigi has to use binoculars to find four specific Toads, some of which are holding a specific item.
 * Treeside Rumble: Tails must fight 60 Shy Guys, while avoiding the spiked balls they throw. If he gets hit three times, he loses.
 * Tokyo Sky Flight: Mario is flying a plane while Sonic is standing on top of it, and Mario shoot the enemies that he encounters. When he reaches Tokyo Tower, he must take down Dr. Eggman, who fights similar to his appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog. If the plane takes five hits, the player fails the minigame.
 * Bullet Train Blast: Dr. Eggman is sitting inside of a bullet train, and Sonic must race it to its destination. While running, Sonic must avoid spikes, which will slow him down. Along the way, he can collect Monitors which have invincibility and shield power-ups.
 * Sumida River Boat Ride: Mario races Bowser on a boat. While racing, he must avoid Cheep Cheeps and other boats while jumping waves in order to beat him.
 * Highway Chase: Sonic is running on a road and must catch up to Dr. Eggman's taxi before time runs out. While running, he must watch out for other cars and banana peels while stepping on dash panels to speed up. When he reaches the taxi, he has to attack it to inflict damage.
 * Museum Sneak: Mario must sneak through four floors of a museum to reach the top. On each floor he must find a certain amount of keys to open doors. Throughout each floor, various Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Cheep Cheeps, Bloopers, and Hammer Bros. are carrying searchlights, which Mario must not get caught by.

Announcement Trailer

 * The head icons were recycled from the previous game before using newly designed icons for the final game.
 * In skateboarding, the strips have a different design than the final game.

E3 2019 Trailer

 * In one of the scenes showing off Football, one of the Egg Pawn goalies were orange, while the final game replaces them with the red Egg Pawns instead.

E3 Demo

 * The title screen did not have Mario and Sonic on it.
 * The event and character selection screen used a different arrangement than in the final game.
 * Some of Sonic's voice clips are different in the demo than in the final game.
 * The CPU characters' flags were their standard flag, while the final game used real-world flags instead.
 * Characters did not vocalize during their award ceremony animations. This was changed in the final game, making it more consistent with previous installments.
 * The label underneath the character during the award ceremony did not have the player's flag on it.
 * The menu that would follow the award ceremony did have tips on it.
 * The music that played when setting a new record was the "London Party is Over" fanfare from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, before switching to a new fanfare in the final game.
 * The announcer did not say, "New Record" when setting a new record.
 * In 110m Hurdles, the announcer did not say, "On your mark," at the beginning.
 * Oddly, despite being present in the initial reveal trailer, the 110m Hurdles did not feature the placements showing what place characters were in. This was fixed in the final game.
 * No music played during the replay of 110m Hurdles or when characters were shown their results in Surfing. These were both changed in the final game.
 * Peach's 1st place animation had her hold a pose at the end. In the final game, after the pose, she starts waving to the crowd.
 * In Karate, the announcer had three different voice clips: 「始め」 (Hajime), to begin the match; 「待て」 (Mate), after an opponent was knocked down; and 「止め」 (Yame), when the match was over (which matches real-life karate). In the final game, the "Mate" clip (which means to wait) is replaced by "Yame" (meaning to stop) for unknown reasons.

Staff
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was developed by Sega in conjunction with Racjin, Mario & Luigi series developer AlphaDream, and several other companies.

Amy

 * "Hello there!"

Luigi

 * "No."

Mario

 * "What?"

Omochao

 * "Alright!"

Tails

 * "Darn..."

Silver

 * "What!?"

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: The Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Goomba, Koopa Troopa, Hammer Bro, Lakitu, and Toad sprites in the 2D Events are from this game, with several differently colored Toad sprites being based off the red sprite.
 * Mario Kart series: During Sport Climbing, when a player falls off the wall, Lakitu picks them up with a fishing rod and places them back on the wall, referencing one of his roles in these games.
 * Super Mario 64: The music for Dream Karate is an arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls".
 * Donkey Kong 64: Donkey Kong's bio references a line from the DK Rap.
 * Fortune Street: Bowser Jr.'s artwork is recycled from this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: The character select screen animations are reused from this game.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Donkey Kong’s artwork is recycled from this game.
 * Super Mario Maker: The Key and Blooper sprites in some of the 2D minigames use their design from the Super Mario Bros. style in this game.
 * Super Mario Odyssey: The Mushroom Kingdom serves as the arena for Dream Karate, using its design from this game. The Odyssey can also be seen in the background.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario & Sonic game since Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games to:
 * Not feature special animations for certain pairs of characters.
 * Feature Dream Events in the opening.
 * Be published by Sega, and the first Mario & Sonic game ever published by Sega in Japan and other East Asian countries.
 * This is the first Mario & Sonic game since Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games to feature minigames (via Story Mode and Action and Answer Tour respectively).
 * This is the first Mario & Sonic game since Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games to feature the announcer in the opening.
 * This is also the first Mario & Sonic game to have a Story Mode on the home console.
 * Due to the, it was announced on March 24, 2020 that the 2020 Olympic Games would be postponed to a later date in 2021 , which was later revealed to be July 23, 2021 to August 8, 2021. This makes Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 the first Mario & Sonic game to have its real-world Olympics equivalent postponed and to retroactively be based in the wrong year of the Olympic Games themselves.
 * This also causes Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 to have the longest gap between the game's release (November 2019) and the commencement of the actual Olympics (July 2021).