Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

It's about 8 characters, and you go to one world. One world is sling shooting. "This is the best video game ever", said the guy in front of me in the store. It's rated E and it's good for kids.

Bit of a different perspective here: Absolute beginner at Wii gaming, having skipped all consoles since the original Atari.

And another twist: I covered the 2010 Winter Olympics, spending most of my time in Whistler with a couple of visits to Vancouver.

From a sentimental point of view, I love this game. Some of the scenery reminds me of Vancouver and Whistler. It's very pretty.

The problems are:

1. The menu screens take forever. I'm worried I'll break my A button trying to get through everything.

2. The hockey game is a little convoluted. Surely there are better ways to play hockey on the Wii.

3. The "Dream" events are rather silly aside from the snowball fight.

4. Several of the games feel pretty much the same. That's the nature of the Winter Games, as many have noted. A lot of these sports consist of going downhill as fast as you can.

5. No biathlon. Seriously, no biathlon. That was one of the sports I covered, and I'm an actual biathlon geek. But I think most people would rather see that than some other iteration of "go that way really fast -- if something gets in your way, turn," to quote "Better Off Dead."

But the game is still entertaining. The curling action -- and I say this as a curling geek as well -- mimics actual curling quite well. Kids will like the familiar Mario and Sonic characters, even if some of the games are too difficult. The ski jump and snowboardcross are highlights.

Hoping for a few small improvements for Sochi 2014.

I got this game and the summer Olympics game. This is a much more advanced game than the summer games one. This is a fun game and the controls are very easy to learn. I like the characters and the scenes. The game is a bit simple for me (being 23) but it's still fun with large groups. I think it would be a great game for younger kids.

If you've played other winter sports game than this one won't be a surprise either, the sports control for this game where actually almost similar to the winter game sports I had gotten earlier for r my Wii and except for playing iconic classic characters from the Sega and Mario there wasn't to many different thrills to really shout about. The games are pretty fun to play don't get me wrong and the ability to play with your Mii character is another plus but if you're not playing with another player it soon becomes rather tedious and somewhat boring, the games are many from ski-jumping to ice hockey and again playing with the characters like Sonic and Tails to Mario and Bowser is fun but if you've played other winter games the feeling of deja-vu is strong. The animation and effects are very good and the music soundtrack is also well done also you can customize some of your clothing for your Mii's and customize your sports equipment and a few other things as well, but at the end unless you're a hardcore winter sports junkie you might loose interest in the game after a few weeks of playing. So is the game worth getting?, for the price it is right now I say 50/50 at best but again if you're a longtime Sega and Mario fan or like winter sports games than I say yes the game is worth getting right now but for anyone else I say try playing a demo at a game store and see if it's your cup of tea...

Mario and Sonic are my two favorite characters. Did you know that Daisy and Pete are the fastest skeleton People? -J (age 8)