On Wednesday June 8th, Nuckles87 and I had just wrapped up a Q&A for binary Domain that ran ten minutes late. Sadly this meant we were late for our preview of Mario and Sonic London 2012. But as we entered the small room, the atmosphere was very jubilant and happy. The main host even ribbed me on my Classic Sonic shirt a few times ($7.50 at your local Wal-Mart kids!). He hadn’t revealed much yet as he just began discussing the newest addition to the series, the London Party Mode.
The London Party Mode is a party/campaign mode separate from the Olympic/Dream modes in the game. Here, there are over 50 events available. Not just Olympic/Dream events, but all new mini games just for this mode! In fact, the majority of the 50 events are just for this mode alone. In the game, your character will be walking around the city of London shown from an overhead view. The main goal is to compete with your friends at winning stickers in events. You can talk to many Mario and Sonic characters who are not in the Olympic events such as Jet the Hawk and get mini-games to play from them. However, when Big Ben’s Bell Rings on the hour it’s time for an Olympic event. Also, new to this mode are bosses. First person to touch a boss (like Dry Bowser) gets to take them on in a on-on-one mini-game solo.
There were quite a few of the four-player LPM events shown. One was called “Tag-O-Rama” a cops-and-robbers style game where two players are cops with a siren on their head and the other two are robbers. (Nack would be so perfect for this game.) You basically chase each other down in a game of tag. Whoever get both robbers, or whichever robber lasts without being tagged, is the winner.
The next game shown was “Collect Toad’s Coins” which is basically self-explanatory. Four players are running around a large maze of the London City Streets collecting coins Pac-Man style and jumping on your opponents to get more coins from them. As you can guess, the person with the most coins at the end is the winner.
Next up was “Break-Neck a-thon” Here, you brutally beat your opponent to the point where you could snap their neck. Killing them inst-OKAY! OKAY! Just kidding! It’s a hurdles style marathon race taking place on the city streets. You have to jump and dodge various obstacles as much as possible as you run towards the goal.
That was the end of our preview of the London Party Mode. Next up, we got to see some exclusive events that were not on the floor. The first was “Ribbon Twirling”. Very similar to the figure skating in the last game. The host played as Peach (Nuckles really wanted Shadow doing it) as she danced and twirled the ribbon to some classical music. Once again, timing and rhythm was key to a good score.
Finally, we got to see a new Dream event. “Dream Equestrian”. A 4-player co-op game in which the players must take a cart of Yoshi Eggs from one area to another. The trick is that they have to turn, jump and do other tricks at the same time. The crew on hand really loved this game despite the fact that they were horrible at it. “There’s a dozen Eggs in the basket when you start. Our best score in the last two days has been three.” They took off! A Koopa wizard was creating hazards for them as they raced along. It didn’t take long before mass Yoshi egg genocide commenced. Sadly, at the finish line there was just one egg left. Despite the fact that everyone had been playing this mode over and over the past two days, they seemed to really be enjoying themselves. With the game over, our Q&A was on it’s way.
The dream events were very popular in the last game, will we be seeing more of that?
Much more. There will be a bigger focus on dream events this time with a larger number of events.
Will the games in London Party mode be different from the ones in the Olympic events?
Yes. It’s almost a separate game entirely. The only similarities is in the occasional Olympics event when Big Ben strikes.
Any new entries to Mario and Sonic’s roster?
No. We wanted to mainly focus on adding new events to the game so the roster is the same as the previous game. You will see some newer NPC’s walking around London that you can talk to.
This seems very much like a “Mario Party” style of game now. Since people love the dream events as well, any chance of a pure, non-Olympic M&S party game?
I’m sure people would love that, but there’s no plans at the moment.
Since Mario and Sonic relies heavily on multiplayer, any chance of an online mode this time?
We will have online rankings, but no multiplayer.
Will the music in events like Ribbon mode change, or remain the same?
It will definitely change depending on what difficulty you play on.
With the Wii U recently announced, what kind of games would you like to make with that style of controller?
We don’t have any plans with the Wii U currently, so we can’t really get into that.
Sadly, our time was over before we got any more questions in. Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics is looking to turn into more of a party game than an Olympics game this year. Also, the new mini-games and events look more fun than ever. The party in London begins this November.
Wow, sounds great. (Ha, I have the classic sonic shirt)
Aw…I wanted a break neck a thon.
Just let me get this straight, is the London Party mode for both versions? I really hope its on 3DS as it sounds amazing and I don’t have a Wii 🙁 However, the DS version of the Winter Olympics got a better score than the Wii one so I hope the 3DS beats Wii this time round aswell.
im with you on that one, i have a 3DS but no wii lol
I hope this mode is for DS too, it sounds pretty fun
I’m your opposite: a Wii but no 3DS. 😛 I do, however, have a DS Lite, but the only games I have for it are Mario vs. DK: Mini-Land Mayhem! and Mario Kart DS.
It’s only a matter of time before Mario & Sonic party 27 is announced…
Looking foward to the London Party Mode! 😀 maybe this game won’t be boring after all! If this game has 50 mini-games, then sooner-or-later, SEGA&Nintendo will have to make a Mario&Sonic Party!!
Despite no new characters being included in any of the teams :/ I’m still excited and I can’t wait for this hopefully it will be better than the last too as said before Winter Olympics was the best IMO so I wonder how this will work out but from what we’ve heard I think it’s gonna be great so far 😀
Well, what would you rather have, 4 new M&S characters, or 50 mini-games? I would rather have the mini-games. 8mplying the game mechanics to 4 new characters would take some time, while 50 mini-games is easier to implement, and much more fun. 😛
Good point lol :L I guess your right but I wouldn’t mind a mixture of both and of course it’s easier and fun to stick with 50 Mini games but there is another way they can be included going against them like you did in Winter Olympics (RIVAL APPEARS) but either way It’s okay I understand I’m fine with that 🙂 just a little unsure at first So same referees too? When was the last time Cream,Espio and Charmy were playable? Heroes,Rivals 2,Chronicles?
To be fair, the majority of both casts are playable as is anyways. The only ones left are Charmy, Espio, Cream, I think Rouge, and Big. And I don’t even know for Mario. What, Dry Bones, Boo and Birdo? lol
Diddy Kong and Rosalina would be prime candidates.
What’s wrong with having both?
Because then it would take more time before the gamee is released.
How long would you say?…I wonder if they can still appear but maybe as Rivals like Winter Olympics (RIVAL APPEARS)
Well, since there are 4 sections with 5 characters in each section, we would need at least 4 new more characters to make the roster types even. One for speed, one for all-around, one for power, and one for the skills type. I would say 2-4 months for all of the character’s to be finished by then. I think the reason SEGA did not add anyone is because they probably thought that the majority of the people who will play this game, will just pick the main characters in the Sonic&Mario series anyway, making the new 4 characters useless. Get what I mean? I mean who would wanna play as Big the Cat, or Rosalina, or Birdo, or even Eggman Nega all the time? NOBODY would. Because they aren’t really that important to the Sonic&Mario series.
No ONLINE MULTIPLAYER! WHY NOT
Personally, it does seem like they would be better off making a Mario and Sonic Party game. Would be much funner than Luigi on a horse <_<
Any new entries to Mario and Sonic’s roster?
No. We wanted to mainly focus on adding new events to the game so the roster is the same as the previous game. You will see some newer NPC’s walking around London that you can talk to.
SEGA, you just lost my money.
Wait for sonic generations, maybe sonic 4 episode 2, and the “nevergonnabe” Mario and Sonic ADVENTURE.
Like I just said to that last person, be happy SEGA is focusing more on the events, than characters. 🙂 The events are the biggest element in the game! Be happy about all the characters we have, because SEGA could’ve just put Mario,Luigi,Tails, and Sonic in the game, but no, they decided to be generous, and give us 20 characters!
Btw, does NPC mean new playable characters?
NPC means Non-playable characters.
This makes me feel much better about this game. Though I wish they would add Birdo as a playable character.
@Rickyrick
NPC means non-playable character.
Any new entries to Mario and Sonic’s roster?
No.
WHAT THE HELL!!!
Fine be that way. I’ll still buy it but…grrr
November?
That’s too late…Who knows what would happen by that time? My sister might go overseas and she’s the only one up for party games with me and my best friend is great but not a Sonic fan…
🙁
I hope Baby Mario is a NPC. The latest game he’s been in dates back to 2008. 🙁
c-mon sega could at least make the rivals from the winter olympics playable