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We may have ragged on the first Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games a lot, but -- as horrible as we thought it was -- it managed to capture the interest (and money) of almost every man, woman, and child in all of the UK. So, Sega is working as fast as it can to get the latest version of its new money-printing machine, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, out to retail, announcing that the game will release this October.

Here's a problem we're sure you're familiar with: you need a new video game console for your own kids right now, but you also need a guaranteed method of ruining that console, and you only have time to shop on one website. GameStop has solved that problem with its Summer Fun bundle, which consists of a Wii and a plastic water gun. Yes, really.

That's actually the least bizarre of GameStop's Wii/cheapo party favor bundles. The others include

• The Pirate Tattoo bundle, which includes a pirate-style tattoo sleeve
• The Take a Bath with a Buddy bundle, which includes a water-squirting rubber duck.
• The Mario & Sonic Olympic Games bundle, which includes -- oh, that one's okay.

We honestly can't tell what's going on here. Is this some form of retail trolling on GameStop's part?

[Via Destructoid]

The UK likes its crime, apparently, as EA's Godfather II has managed to soar to the #2 spot on the region's sales charts. Sure, we've seen a few Guy Ritchie flicks in our life, but we're fairly surprised that you lot turned out in droves to check out the exploits of the Corleone family. The game even managed to topple Resident Evil 5 and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, which we all know are like crack to the UK.

Godfather II was not able to keep Wii Fit from the top spot this week, however. But, hey, the sky is still blue and the grass is still green, so what did you expect?

Eurogamer recently got a hands-on session with both the Wii and DS Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, at an event in Vancouver during which Sega tried to soften up the journalists with free curling. The absolute best news gleaned from the session? Every game will have multiplayer unlocked from the start. Locking multiplayer is the worst possible design decision for a party game, and it's good to see that Sega picked up on that extremely obvious fact.

Also potentially fun: the new game supports the Balance Board for events like skiing and bobsledding. We haven't had a reason to sit down on the Balance Board since Raving Rabbids TV Party! Well, a reason other than exhaustion.
[Screenshot via ONM]

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is finally "official." Sega announced this morning that Nintendo's mascot and Sega's cross to bear will compete on Wii and DS in virtual Vancouver, Canada, with all their friends (and "new faces").

As part of Sega's release, it stated that the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympics has sold over 10 million units globally. The latest casual cash-in will support the Wii Balance Board and feature Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating and many other events. That's all good, but will pairs figure skating deliver tension and romance between Sonic and Mario on par with the classic ice-skating movie, The Cutting Edge? We hope so ... not, we meant not.

Update: Teaser trailer embedded after the break.

The rumors (that we all knew were true) appear to be true: Sega's got a winter version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the way. Dennis Kim, director of licensing and merchandise for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, seemingly revealed Sega's plans to The Province.

"Last year, 2008, they had a very successful game using Mario and Sonic at the Beijing Games, as well as a multi-sport simulation type of game," Kim said. "That's what's being discussed and planned for Vancouver. We are feeling optimistic about sales because of the Beijing experience." Kim has reason to feel optimistic: the first Mario and Sonic game is one of the best-selling releases on the Wii.

Kim praised Sega's dedication to realism: "They want to get a real sense of accuracy, particularly with the landscape and the venues and the look of the Games." If the venue didn't look 100% accurate, people would be able to tell from the first moment a two-tailed cartoon fox stepped onto the track.

[Via CVG]

Sega has licensed the rights to produce games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, taking place in sunny Vancouver, Canada. 1UP notes that more official information will soon be made available on the official website. Of the official games.

This licensing agreement brings credence to the rumor that a Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics game will be revealed soonish. Expecting to compete in those Olympics? Start intense training for all that "A" pressing and waggling now.

For some reason, it never occurred to us that Sega would want to make a sequel to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, but of course they would. Wouldn't you, if your game was one of the best-selling games on the best-selling console? Not even Sonic Team would botch that decision.

This purported scan from Nintendo Acción magazine teases a new Sonic and Mario title with the following text (as translated by Sega Nerds): "Who are these two and why do they come to see each other? Find out all the details on the mystery game in the next magazine. But before that, here are some clues: Games, Olympics, Cold, It's winter..."

Either this is a super obvious hint of a Winter Olympics-based sequel, or a fake magazine page, or intentional misdirection from the magazine.


[Via Joystiq]

COO and Sega Europe president, Mike Hayes, is pumped for 2009. With the release of MadWorld quickly approaching, he's anxious for us to try the experience he's calling "so unique it aches." The Sega Europe president opened up on more than just Platinum Games' upcoming title, talking about the success of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, as well as what the company expects going into 2009.

Click here to read the full interview.


[Via CVG]

We can't exactly trust the validity of the numbers used to create this list of best-selling games across the three home platforms, since it's just some guy on Geocities doing it (and he claims that he might alter numbers to deter copying) but they're close enough to our expectations for most games. These numbers are purportedly derived from Enterbrain and Famitsu sales data. Kotaku reproduced the top and bottom-selling games on each platform, and we think that's a nice way to organize it.

The top ten Wii games are not too surprising, including stuff like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Brawl, and other big Nintendo franchises. The only third-party game on the list is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, which, of course, is a Mario game!

But the bottom ten is a lot more entertaining, revealing, for example, that poor Opoona sold only 5,000 copies, as did Dewy's Adventure. D3's motivation for putting their Simple games on WiiWare is made clear by the fact that their disc-based releases totally bombed. Though not as badly as Hudson's Puzzle Series Vol. 1 Sudoku, which apparently sold 482 copies total.

It's hard to pick interesting tidbits out of the middle of the list (which we won't reproduce after the break in the interest of brevity) but apparently No More Heroes sold just 27,873 copies -- much less than the 84,224 copies of Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 3 that went out!

"I predict that it will sell 4 copies total."

"I feel that this game will bomb but only because of the olympic theme."

"Ha ha ha!"

Those are just a small number of your initial responses to Sega's prediction that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games would sell four million copies worldwide. Not that we're bragging at our readers' expense, for we also pooh-poohed the notion. Over a year on from our mocking laughs, and Sega is now hoping to break two million by the end of this year -- in the UK alone. Yeesh.

"Our aim is to hit two million by the end of 2008," Sega UK sales director John Clark has told MCV (the most recent figures, which we assume are from before Christmas, have the title at around 1.75 million across the Wii and DS), adding that the game has more than a 30 per cent attach rate to British Wiis. We shall think twice before snickering into our Earl Gray and crumpets again.

It may come as a surprise, but there are a few Olympic gold medals that Michael Phelps forgot to nab, magpie-like, for the gold medal throne we imagine he's begun constructing. One of those, the gold for the men's 100m breaststroke, was won by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima. How did he best longtime rival Brendan Hansen? Why, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, of course.

"See, Mario does the breaststroke," he recently told Yomiuri Sports. "And thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall."

... Let's, umm ... let's try to keep this from Jack Thompson, OK?

[Via Kotaku]

That up there is Kosuke Kitajima of Japan. He's just won a gold medal for swimming the breaststroke extremely quickly in that ongoing sporting event you may have heard about. Congratulations are in order then, but what's his secret? Strict 5am starts? Hours of training a day? A controlled diet? All three, we'd imagine, but also: Mario.

It turns out that Kitajima likes his Wii, specifically Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which he cites as an influence. "See, Mario does the breaststroke," explained the swimmer to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. "And thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall." Riiight. Sega can spend all it wants on marketing its ubiquitous game, but that's as good as free publicity gets.


[Via Kotaku]

When Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games came out last year, there were no current Olympic Games for the pair to be at. The game was still branded with the Beijing Olympics logo, despite Beijing not yet having even a single Olympic. Even with the weird timing, the game did just fine; we expect that with the Olympics in full swing, sales will pick up even more.

Are you developing a sudden craving for mascot sports due to the rush of Olympic fever? Has the worldwide mania for athletic competition made you consider buying a game about big-headed animal-things and human caricatures taking part in simulated competition? If you already had Mario & Sonic, have you broken it out since the for-real Games started?

As if Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games wasn't already home to enough abysmal characters, a group of hackers have discovered a way to unlock numerous other unused playable characters in the title, including Silver the Hedgehog, Jet the -- ugh -- Hawk, and Donkey Kong (who would have been a welcome addition, actually). Birdo is also available, though comes with some sort of hideous facial deformity, as though the model never had its nose finished. It looks kind of wrong, truth be told. Not as wrong as this, mind.

There are plenty of other background characters that can be played with (some of which are fairly obscure), though only in certain events (such as trampolining). These include Shy Guy, Toad, the gut-churning Charmy, Espio, Cream, Boo, Bullet Bill (!), Goomba (!!), "Heroes Enemy 1," "Heroes Enemy 2," "SA1 Monkey," and -- nooo! -- Big the Cat. Sprint through the tape and into our gallery for a couple more screens.