Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is getting an intriguing retro mode

I’m…kind of interested now

I usually write off Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games titles. It’s not that I don’t try them: I do! But the vast majority are mere diversions in an attempt to partake in that very lucrative Olympics budget. This time though Sega is scaling things down a bit with just a Switch release, and amazingly, a huge focus on retro games.

Although Mario and Sonic have already met in Super Smash Bros. (and the billions of aforementioned Olympics mashups), there’s something joyous about seeing their retro incarnations together. “For the first time in series history,” Sega is including “classic 2D events” in the mix with the typical 3D motif. There’s even little minions (Goombas, Shy Guys, Sonic critters) in the stands!

This iteration will feature “10 different 2D events,” including 100m, 10m platform diving, 400m hurdles, gymnastics vaulting, judo (haha), Kayak singles 1000m, long jump, marathon, shooting (trap), and volleyball. Look at the screens in the gallery below, they’re great! I’m not sure how alluring these micro-events will be in terms of justifying the $60 asking price, but I dig the effort.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will launch on November 5 exclusively on Switch. There’s also an arcade cabinet version coming in 2020.