The Plot: Unlike its Wii relative, the DS version does have an actual plot integrated into it thanks to the inclusion of Adventure Tours. Bowser and Dr. Eggman team up and kidnap the snow spirits of Vancouver to hold their own Olympic Winter Games. And to add a big spit in the face, Bowser melts the snow off of all the locales. Hard to have an Olympic Winter Games without snow, right?

Eventually, our two heroes come into the scene at Frostown and are shocked to see all the snow gone. Luckily for them, a snow spirit by the name of Frosty (how clever) joins with them and makes it snow again in that specific town. Now our two heroes must travel from town to town to restore the snow to the many towns and restore the olympic winter games, not to mention stop their rivals from ruining all the fun!

The Good: For being a game aimed at a casual audience, the game is actually pretty solid. You’ve got a list of some memorable characters included as playable right from the get-go. From the likes of Wario and even to the robot menace Metal Sonic, they’re pretty much all useable without many disadvantages.

While I won’t go into detail about every event, I will go down one of my favorites: Blazing Bobsleigh.

To turn, you need to use the d-pad and the Y & A buttons respectedly to turn left or right. Team turns earns more boost in the boost meter, which you can use by pressing R. L flips the sleigh around to give it more speed or to put up defense against the snowmen obstacles. If your sleigh’s HP goes to 0, you get disqualified, so be careful! There are hearts on the track that can replinish this though.

As for the Adventure Tours, it’s more or less a good way to start off the game and pretty much replaces Mission Mode from the first game. You start off on a map where you’re free to explore and look around the place as either Mario or Sonic. Mario has access to pipes and mushrooms to get around, while Sonic uses springs and can spin dash into weak walls to press on. You’ll eventually find a news post sitting around with someone beside it. Talk to said character to take on the mission. These missions need to be done in certain ways to complete them. Eventually, you’ll unlock a whole cast of characters to play as besides the heroic duo as you challenge them and

beat them at the mission they offer. If you ever get stuck, look for an Omochao for some help.

The biggest nag I had with the first game on the DS was that the Sonic models and some of the stages looked horrible up close. I’m glad to see that, not only do the Mario characters look perfectly modeled, but so do the Sonic characters as well. Both sides have much more smooth edges than their last entry.

The Bad: While there are good points, there are a couple bad points that drag the experience down a bit.

The difficulty during Adventure Tours likes to jump around a bit, going from ridiculously easy to annoyingly hard. Especially in the final challenge. I won’t say what it is, but it’s pretty challenging. Not to mention Omochao gives pretty vague hints and advice.

I’m also kinda sad they once again didn’t insert some kind of online multiplayer besides rankings. If lag wasn’t an issue plaguing all online games, this would be perfect for an online sports game for the DS.

Extras: You can unlock character emblems to use on your profile, as well as compare your ghost files with others online.

And also, when you beat the Adventure Tours, two pretty ticked off foes (who I will not name at this time) decide to make up their own challenging post boards for you to do. They’ll be labeled as green post boards, and some of them are indeed challenging.

Final say: If you’ve been craving for a good DS sports game, then this is definitely worth a purchase!

Author: Brennan Henry