i came out of this feeling way more positive than i was expecting! at the end of the day, as with the other games it's just a simple mini game collection at the end of the day, but i think this game does a whole lot right and so far is my favorite mario and sonic game i think!
the story mode was fun! it runs through every event in the game and the big appeal to me was there were 10 unique mini games to progress the story and i really appreciated that! they weren't like insanely amazing or anything but it added some unique value to the story mode that i liked a lot. the character interactions and stuff are nothing crazy but i liked them for sure. i like how everyone interacts like they've known each other for a while since it's 5 games in, that's a fun touch.
aside from the story mode, the mini games themselves are the same as they've always been for the most part. i find that each game is either the best they've been or on par with what they've always been. none of the games felt downgraded to me, which to be fair it'd be hard to do that LOL. the new games (skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing) are all fun. skateboarding and karate especially stand out to me. i appreciate that every game has the choice between motion controls and button controls as well. if you just want some quick silly little mini games you can use the buttons but if you're with some friends and want the wacky insanity of motion controls you can still do that which i appreciate.
the big problem with the events is the focus being taken away from dream events. the 3 dream events that are there are fun to be fair but there's only 3 and that's a bummer! it was always such a fun way to flex creative ideas or even just farm some nostalgia which was fun! the alternative to these is the tokyo 1964 events which visually use the 8-bit mario or 16-bit sonic sprites for each character. these events are solid, and are a cute little side mode but i don't think they make up for the lack of dream events fully unfortunately. they soften the blow for sure, and things like marathon, shooting, and 10m marathon i thought they were some of the more fun events in the whole game to be fair.
i hope we get a 2022 winter olympics game with a story mode this silly and fun. i lean towards preferring those mini games so i think i'd really like that game (hopefully they put more effort into dream events though), but as this game stands it was a surprisingly fun time! i understand the fatigue of this series and not caring about a 5th one, that's a completely normal response but i find this to be the best one honestly and was glad i finally got around to playing it.
the story mode was fun! it runs through every event in the game and the big appeal to me was there were 10 unique mini games to progress the story and i really appreciated that! they weren't like insanely amazing or anything but it added some unique value to the story mode that i liked a lot. the character interactions and stuff are nothing crazy but i liked them for sure. i like how everyone interacts like they've known each other for a while since it's 5 games in, that's a fun touch.
aside from the story mode, the mini games themselves are the same as they've always been for the most part. i find that each game is either the best they've been or on par with what they've always been. none of the games felt downgraded to me, which to be fair it'd be hard to do that LOL. the new games (skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing) are all fun. skateboarding and karate especially stand out to me. i appreciate that every game has the choice between motion controls and button controls as well. if you just want some quick silly little mini games you can use the buttons but if you're with some friends and want the wacky insanity of motion controls you can still do that which i appreciate.
the big problem with the events is the focus being taken away from dream events. the 3 dream events that are there are fun to be fair but there's only 3 and that's a bummer! it was always such a fun way to flex creative ideas or even just farm some nostalgia which was fun! the alternative to these is the tokyo 1964 events which visually use the 8-bit mario or 16-bit sonic sprites for each character. these events are solid, and are a cute little side mode but i don't think they make up for the lack of dream events fully unfortunately. they soften the blow for sure, and things like marathon, shooting, and 10m marathon i thought they were some of the more fun events in the whole game to be fair.
i hope we get a 2022 winter olympics game with a story mode this silly and fun. i lean towards preferring those mini games so i think i'd really like that game (hopefully they put more effort into dream events though), but as this game stands it was a surprisingly fun time! i understand the fatigue of this series and not caring about a 5th one, that's a completely normal response but i find this to be the best one honestly and was glad i finally got around to playing it.