Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Reviews

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is ranked in the 19th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
5 / 10.0
Mar 19, 2016

Honestly, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for the 3DS is not a terrible game, but it's not good either. It's just kind of….there. Nothing about the game is really satisfying, nothing about the game stands out, and poor and lazy design choices make it feel much more like a cash-grab than a full fledged experience. Hopefully the Wii U version has some more polish and features, because the 3DS version falls very flat and doesn't even earn a bronze medal.

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3.3 / 5.0
Mar 20, 2016

Mario, Sonic and friends return with more Olympic action, including a campaign that features character leveling and collecting various gear for boosting stats. The events are a mixed bag, however, and could use more depth overall. Players who don't like mini games will want to look elsewhere but the ability to play local multiplayer with one cartridge makes this an option for folks interested in some family-friendly fun. [OpenCritic note: Jason separately reviewed the 3DS (6) and Wii-U (7) versions. Their scores have been averaged.]

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Mar 22, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has all the makings to be a strong multiplayer game for Nintendo 3DS, but it fails to stick the landing due to the misstep of not including an online multiplayer. With a robust offering of sport events, energetic soundtrack, and quality graphics, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a great game for children who have friends or family members with a Nintendo 3DS.

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6 / 10
Apr 5, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a party game featuring a rich cast of 40 characters from the worlds of Super Mario and Sonic, who battle themselves through the Olympic events. Unfortunately, a set group of characters is limited to certain events, the story mode is short, flat and somewhat uninteresting.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

4 / 10.0
Apr 6, 2016

Mario & Sonic at Rio 2016 Olympic Games on the 3DS is a disappointing collection of hastily cobbled together minigames. There's some fleeting fun to be had, but most of its sporting disciplines are an exercise in repetitive drudgery.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
6 / 10
Apr 6, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ticks the boxes when it comes to sticking true to the formula and delivering an experience that is competitive, fun and easily accessible for newcomers. The new additions like Golf, the playable characters and the Pocket Marathon features are good, as well as the twists to traditional Olympic events. For those of you who already own a Mario & Sonic game on 3DS, this particular instalment might be a difficult purchase to justify on the new content alone, but for newcomers, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is the most definitive handheld version yet.

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6.5 / 10.0
Apr 6, 2016

The usual Olympic "adventure" of Mario & Sonic is, as the previous one, a collection of minigames. Well: to be onest, is a collecton of the same minigames we played 4 years ago. And the input detection problems are still here. Think about it only if you skipped London in 2012 and you are an old fan of Track & Field.

Review in Italian | Read full review

6.3 / 10.0
Apr 6, 2016

Mario and Sonic meets again and the result is... kinda boring. While the game presentation is nice and colorful, its mechanics are too shallow.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
4 / 10
Apr 8, 2016

Acceptable fodder for undemanding children, but wasting such an epic crossover on such a non-event of a game has never seemed more perverse.

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5 / 10
Apr 8, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympics for the 3DS is not exactly a bad game - especially if you liked previous entries in the franchise - but it could be so much more. This is the fifth iteration of the series and by this stage the team should have nailed down what makes a game click and what doesn't. Sadly this effort just doesn't come together in the way it should do, and feels just like another sloppy effort to cash-in on a lucrative license. Bring out the pewter medals for this one.

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6 / 10.0
Apr 17, 2016

Mario and Sonic aim for gold but just about scrape bronze, a good effort but more training is required.

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Apr 22, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is good fun, but ultimately it's too shallow and simple to be anything but a passing diversion. Nintendo and/or Sega could actually build a bunch of the minigames in here into full sports games in their own right… and frankly I wish they would do just that.

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3.4 / 5.0
Apr 24, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a sturdy sporting title for the Nintendo 3DS that boasts some decent graphics, fun sound effects that would be expect to hear in Brazil plus some carefully designed sporting games that work on most levels. Sure, it does become a little tedious here and there but for the most part, it's a fun game to play from short to long bursts of gaming that also gives you enough incentives to come back for more.

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5 / 10.0
May 31, 2016

Not up for medal contention. Buy London 2012 for the PS2 instead.

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7 / 10.0
Jun 22, 2016

I do expect that the majority will be disappointed with the lack of specific Mario and Sonic touches, which is totally justified. From all the games in the series, this one shows the roots of the characters the least. Depending on how far your love for these franchises go, it will impact your purchasing decision more than likely.

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6 / 10
Jun 22, 2016

Mario & Sonic At The Rio Olympics 2016 is a solid entry in the series that will provide some undemanding multiplayer fun, as well as a modicum of single player enjoyment. However, a few too many missteps, from the lack of online to some events that don't hit the mark, unfortunately stop this from being anything but overwhelmingly average.

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7 / 10.0
Jun 22, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a fair product. It still shows some quality difference between the various disciplines, and its AI is not well balanced, but it's worth to play it with friends or family, as it can give moments of fun and lightheartedness with its multiplayer mode.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Jun 22, 2016

I won't tell you that Sonic & Mario at the 2016 Rio Olympic games is a masterpiece, because it isn't. It's every bit as shallow and silly as previous titles, taking on a broad range of disciplines without ever really mastering any. Yet, if you're looking for a fun game to play with the family then it's one of the most enjoyable I've played this year – and as a solo player, it's surprisingly good to boot.

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4.5 / 10.0
Jun 24, 2016

The delay between versions should have been used to improve what was already there, instead we get a smaller game with a prettier face.

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6 / 10
Jun 25, 2016

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games brings back the formula of the series that joins the two universes with an Olympic background. While the series has improved as far as customization and integration with the Miiverse are concerned, it starts to show some fatigue regarding the lack of depth of its large contents, while the absence of motion controls feels strange in some events.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review