Since its announcement, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics has been the subject of much hype and intense scrutiny from Sega and Nintendo fans alike. As the first cross-venture in the history of the two characters, this game has a lot of expectations to live up to.

First things first, there is no real rivalry in the game between Sonic and Mario in the game, as there is no pointless story to contend with. All of the intensity is generated by player-versus-player competition, and this will doubtless be quite heated at times. The games are not deep, but the furious motions required and the sheer strength of will you need to win will be more than enough.

The individual games are largely executed well, requiring a combination of skill and muscle-pounding stamina to complete successfully. Sega really has no issues with forcing players to test the limits of their own strength in almost every event, there is no rest, no relaxing at any time or your competitors will easily outdistance you. These competitors are never so good that you feel they cheat, but are always challenging enough to keep you interested. Praise indeed, when so many games resort to cheap tricks to ensure CPU players win, in these Olympics the only one standing in the way of your success is you.

Except in games like fencing, of course. There are a few absolute howlers in here that have no enjoyment value whatsoever, fencing being the most notable. Time and again it is said that developers need to look no further than Wii Sports to see how easy it is to blend good gameplay with simple controls, and it is true here as well. However, gamers should not find themselves put off by a few bad eggs in an extremely enticing basket.

Controls in the game are a good mixture of spinning, pounding and pointing, with little leeway for interpretation. If you don't spin when you are supposed to spin, then you will not win. Similarly, if you don't pound the pound, you'll never get off the ground. There has never been an occasion when the controls felt unresponsive, and the instructions are reasonably clear. It's a guarantee though that your arms will not have felt worse since the first time you played the Wii. Mario and Sonic gives a darned good workout, and is perhaps the most exercise you'll do with the console until Wii Fit arrives next year.

Having been a Nintendo fan for most of my life, I neither know nor car who most of the Sonic characters are, but there are a lot of them. All the characters are mixed into Strength, All-Round, Speed and Skill Types. Naturally Sonic is at the top of his game when running, so he's a Speed-Type. Mario and Luigi fit into the All-Round category as they do in games such as Tennis, Mario Kart and others. Every character, no matter where they are from, is rendered nicely with clean textures, bright colours and smooth edges.

With luck, I have visited a few of the Olympic venues here in China, it can be said that the stadia and other locations are rendered very faithfully. Also present are the crazy Chinese mascots on banners, billboards and wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men. The tracks and sandpits are not particularly detailed when scrutinized closely, but if you're playing this game for a dose of realism, then you've got some serious issues. Otherwise everything looks very good and is appropriate to the fun style of play.

The game sounds good, with some nice remixes of familiar tunes and some fairly respectable new ones. Voices are well done for all the characters, they utter funny little phrases every now and then that gives the game a nice relaxed feel. The announcers sound suitably authoritative and give the game a small amount of realism that makes it a little more authentic.

At the beginning of the game, only a few events are open to you, and more are unlocked as you progress through challenges and win more medals. Initially though, these events will be enough to satisfy your needs. Every gamer will have a favourite event and one that they are best at, multiplayer is just fantastic, though it never reaches the same level of accessibility of Wii Sports –the controls require too many button presses for it to be too easy for Grandma and Grandad. Online scoreboards add a zest of competition, and you can view your records compared with those all around the world. This is a good addition, and anyone in the top 500 worldwide earns good bragging rights.

The game never tries to be anything more than it is: which is an extremely capable party game themed around the Olympics. As a sports simulation it mostly fails, but judging it as such will mean you have completely missed the point of this incredibly fun and worthwhile game.

Our scores, as always, are just below...