It's an improvement over the first, just not enough.
Gameplay: 6
When you first boot up the game you're treated to a nice CG opening and see the addition of Silver, Metal Sonic, Donkey Kong and Bowser Jr. to the roster for all of you who whined because DK and Silver weren't in the previous game. Espio and Charmy are still stuck being officials and not playable. Sorry Espio fans....all 10 of you. Another thing this installment offers is something more worthwhile for solo players in the form of "Festival Mode" which is basically playing through sixteen days of events escorted by Toad and Cream, earning medals and racking up points, every other day or so, the also-rends of the Mario and Sonic universes show up to challenge you. Omega challenges you to a speed skating race. Jet challenges you to a snowboard race. King Boo does a downhill run and Boney Bowser and his Dry Bones team challenge you to a game of "slaps shooting the dead." It's nice to see some other characters but wouldn't it have been cool if beating them then made them playable? Still it beats the hell out of the pointless mission mode of the first game. Also a major annoyance is if you mess up in an event, there's no way to restart unless you start the entire day over again.
While there are no unlockable characters, as with the previous installment, winning events in Festival or single match mode does get you star points which you can spend in the local alpine village to unlock music tracks, custom snowboard and bobsled designs, outfits for your Miis and Olympic trivia. The outfits are cute but it would've been fun to dress the Mario and Sonic characters.
It's also disappointing that online play is left out of this game. There are leader boards but that's it. Really, developers, if you're going to waste time making mini game collections for the Wii, then one of you could bother making one supporting online play.
Much like the previous Olympic game, the games vary in the fun factor. Some, like hockey are a blast to play but then you get stuff like the speed skating which is a spastic flailing. And I can't help but wonder why Wiimotion Plus wasn't incorporated into this. Given it wouldn't enhance much in some games but for ones like Figure skating where pinpoint precision is next to impossible, it might have helped. However while WM+ is missing, you can use the balance board, which I will say is absolute crap to use. It either reads your moves too heavy or not at all. Don't bother with it. Oddly enough you can't opt to use it in festival mode. I found some games like hockey were really easy to beat but ones like the half pipe snowboarding seemed impossible. I would fly into the air, flip 20 times, cure all the world's diseases, complete a Rubix Cube and land perfectly and still not do better than sixth place. And then you get something like the Dream skiing downhill where you can do crappy and still get the gold. They did make an attempt to make the events a lot easier to pick up and play and a some improvement in the description of how the controls work and this time around there's very few games where the object is to shake your arms insanely until they fall off.
Once again the Dream Events is where this game still shines and thankfully there are more than four this time around, even in the regular events each character has a special signature move that can give them a speed boost in some events but the Dream Events take a sport and put it in a location like Seaside Hill or Radical Highway and you do a Mario Kart-esque race with skiis and such and you can hit opponents with shells and bombs and such while dodging enemies. It makes you wish they'd ditch this Olympic tie in and just make Mario and Sonic Party. And as with Mario Party it proves more fun with friends around.
Graphics 8
As the Wii goes the visuals are nice and feel like an improvement from the first. There are some gorgeous watercolor backdrops of mountains, character models are nicely done and include little effects like the character being covered in snow when he/she wipes out. The audience characters look as flat as ever though. However the rest of the game does show some graphical improvement from it's predecessor.
Sound 7
Don't expect anything stellar from the music. Most of the event music isn't horrible, but it's just there. The Dream Events at least remixed old Mario/Sonic tunes which adds something nostalgic for fans. The character's voices are as grating as ever full of plenty of fake enthusiasm. And of course the announcer yelling out every selection on the screen. However the Dream Events feature some great remixes of past Mario and Sonic games, most notably a great rendition of Sky Sanctuary and another intersecting feature is eventually in one of the shops you can buy an Ipod that will allow you to change in game music (except for the Dream Figure Skating) and swap it out for music from actual Mario and Sonic games.
Speed 5
The pace has picked up considerably from the last game. You can quickly skip past things like the awards ceremony and your character looking all sad when you lose now but load times are horrible in this. The festival mode feels repetitive at times and many games control so similarly. The events themselves tend to fly by quickly and avoid dragging on for too long.
Look if you're a die hard Mario and Sonic fan and just love them being in the same game together, then you can have some fun with this but honestly, there's better things to spend money on. There's fun to be had but it's mostly hit or miss. There's just nothing that really stands out about this title. A lot of the games Wii Fit Plus or Wii Sports Resort did it better. No online multiplayer kills any lasting appeal outside of parties. Some work really well but at the same time nothing feels overly rewarding. It is a bit disappointing that Sega and Nintendo continue to waste this partnership in promoting the Olympics. I know I'm being negative but the game in it's own right is fun but just not overly memorable.
Final Score 7.0