Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Allow me to say how excited I am about this piece of news. Mario? Sonic? In one game? Be still my heart. Also, allow me to say how happy I am that I finally got a Wii. I hug it daily.
The game won’t find the infamous duo fighting side by side, but rather competing (as is only natural). The game will be available for both the Wii and the Nintendo DS and will star more than just Mario and Sonic. Indeed, Luigi, Knuckles, Yoshi, Tails and others will be joining in.
“We are thrilled to partner with Nintendo and ISM on this groundbreaking title,” said Hisao Oguchi, President and Chief Operating Officer, SEGA Corporation. “For the first time, two of the world’s greatest games’ characters come together to compete in the world’s greatest sporting event and we couldn’t be more excited.”
“Mario and Sonic have been respectful rivals since the early days of video games,” says Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Entertainment Analysis and Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd.. “In fact, for a long time they have been discussing the possibility of one day competing against each other. Now that they have been given the perfect opportunity to meet at the Olympic Games, we may finally learn who is actually faster, Mario or Sonic?”
Who ever thought this day would come? Not I. I dared to dream, hope, fantasize. But to actually go as far as to invision a future where Mario and Sonic would graze the cover of the same game?
In the spirit of Things I Thought Would Never Happen But Am Glad They Have, Sega and Nintendo seem to have come together in unity, love, and good humor.
When did the very first talks begin between Nintendo and Sega to bring Mario and Sonic together in a game?
Simon Jeffery: The very first talks? Probably actually happened while Sega was still in the hardware business. Because of the rivalry between the two companies at the time, that was rather fanciful. But when Sega abdicated the hardware business, it was something that just began to make more and more sense, and it was really a case of finding the right commonality that would work for both companies, and that commonality happened to be the Olympic Games, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Were Sonic and Mario the only characters on the table, or were there others that you were thinking of bringing together? Maybe Panzer Dragoon with Metroid, or Virtua Fighter with Super Smash Bros?
Jeffery: Because both companies have such iconic mascots–when people like Ziff-Davis do their gamer research, it’s fairly consistent that Mario and Sonic will come out number one and number two as the most favored icons of the videogame industry. So it was just very logical from both of our perspectives to pursue a partnership between those two characters.
Why does Mario get top billing over Sonic?
Jeffery: Perrin, do you want to take that one?
Jeffery: Sega’s being respectful. Mario is older than Sonic, and we’d like to give the old man some respect by letting him go first.
Kaplan: Here’s the bottom line: He’s Italian, he’s really sexy, and he can get more women than Sonic.
I’m not so sure about that. Sonic is rather sexy.
Via | Nintendo Wii Fanboy & Newsweek
Related Stories
POSTED IN: News, Upcoming Games, Wii
1 opinion for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Dillan
Sep 18, 2007 at 4:10 am
Wow! It’s peer pandomonium!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: