Play Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games (us) Online

I picked up Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Nintendo DS back in 2009. It was developed by Sega, which made sense given their history with Sonic. On the DS, it fit right in with that era's library of pick-up-and-play sports games you could take anywhere. It wasn't trying to be a graphical powerhouse; it was just a solid portable title that brought these two mascots together again after their first Olympic outing.

You control characters from the Mario and Sonic universes, like Mario himself or Sonic, competing in a bunch of winter sports. The main goal is to win medals across different events, from skiing and snowboarding to figure skating. The game uses the DS hardware in some clever ways. For events like ski jumping, you hold the DS sideways like a book and use the touch screen to control your balance in the air. In bobsleigh, you tap the screen repeatedly to build speed at the start. The pacing is generally quick, with most events lasting only a minute or two, and the difficulty can spike on the higher tiers, especially in events requiring precise timing. It feels like a lively, sometimes frantic party game condensed for a handheld.