The Olympic games are a time for those who participate in sports and those who simply like to watch to come together and marvel at the spectacle that only happens every few years.
Although the winter games are happening now, we can still appreciate the summer games, mostly because the winter games do not have their own licensed video game yet.
“Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games” has been a staple in sports-for-people-who-don’t-play-sports ever since it hit the scene in 2008 for the Beijing summer Olympics. Since then, Nintendo has released multiple installments of the series. They all have one thing in common, they have highly stylized and cartoonish versions of sports that make them fun for people of all ages. You’re not here for that “rated E for everyone” stuff, you want to break a sweat and have fun doing it. That’s where “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020” comes in.
The addition of motion controls to the Switch grants it a lot of potential to become your at-home workout routine. “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020” does not offer motion controls on all of its events, but here are a few that can be used in a workout session together to maximize cardio.
To warm up, playing any of the difficulties in the swimming event can help prepare your body for the wild flailing you will be doing all day. Depending on the character you choose, you will move your arms in one of the many swimming motions that the game has prepared for you as your character glides past the other contenders.
Up next is table tennis. Although this sounds like one of the less exciting of the events, that notion will soon be disproved as soon as you make your first serve. With the difficulty bumped up a bit, expect a wild table tennis match where it seems like the moment you swing your controller to return, you’re immediately swinging in the opposite direction.
The 100m might be one of the harder events to play on motion controls, despite how quick of an event it is. The premise is simple: swing your arms in the motion shown on-screen when prompted to and win the race. This gets difficult when you play the event multiple times and start to get tired with each blow of the whistle.
If the 100m is not your thing, you can peak your work out with some boxing. The motion controls on the boxing event are also very straightforward. You move your arms a certain way to punch and that’s what your character does. Surprisingly, this is actually one of the more accurate cartoon boxing games that is on the market. Despite the lack of a stamina bar – boxers can just keep punching forever – there is a technique that needs to be applied to the game. Bigger fighters like Bowser have a harder time of getting up but punch harder, and smaller fighters like Amy hit light but often.
Any one of the other events can be used as a cool down, such as the javelin throw, gymnastics or canoeing. Now, of course you can just go and play these sports in real life, but there’s something so special about seeing Bowser knock out Sonic in the first round.
