Nintendo and SEGA on the new game

Nintendo's VP of Marketing and Sega of America's President interviewed on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

[urlhttp://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15630&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000028=]GameDaily[/url] interviewed Nintendo's VP of Marketing, George Harrison, and President of Sega of America, Simon Jeffery, on the new game based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Both Harrison and Jeffery say that based on their wide-ranging appeal and their longevity in the videogame world, many younger gamers will be interested in this game, at least as much as the older audience that has grown up with the two franchises. Jeffery cited the latest Sonic cartoon as an indicator and also said that "recent Sonic games have very quickly found an audience with young kids." Harrison expanded on the longevity issue by saying each new Sonic or Mario game is part of a "continuing reintroduction of these characters, Sonic and Mario, to new gamers as they enter [gaming], whether it's through a handheld system or through a console."

Jeffery explained the choice of an Olympic Games team-up, saying that due to the success of recent Sonic games on GBA, DS and GameCube, they were looking for an opportunity to team the two mascots up. He explained that Olympics games have "pretty much had the same gameplay mechanism since the beginning of the videogame days" and "we felt that having a lot of that more fun, family oriented gameplay would be perfect for bringing Sonic and Mario together in an Olympics environment." He then went on to describe the game play, stating that it will "play very differently from those traditional, standard Olympics style games", as it will incorporate gameplay aspects of both Sonic and Mario games. Jeffery indicated his concern of equalizing the two Mascots, pointing out Sonic vs Mario in a footrace as an example.

Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic, was mentioned as well. Despite having no involvement with the project, Jeffery says "he was fully aware of the discussions going up to it and it absolutely has his blessing." Miyamoto is also on board for this venture, performing "overall direction of the game, the gameplay mechanics, at an executive producer sort of level." According to Jeffery, Perrin Kaplan has informed them that Miyamoto is more involved with this project than a lot of normal Nintendo games, and "his blessing is really quite a landmark for a game like this that's being built outside of Nintendo itself."

Jeffery commented on the seeming decline of quality in recent Sonic games, and said "the better games have been on the Nintendo platforms. Sonic Rush on the DS last year was a really good game. Sonic and the Secret Rings on the Wii is a great game as well. It's selling really strongly and is definitely one of the Wii platform favorites at the moment." He also said that Sonic games feel better suited to Nintendo platforms, and they're happy with this opportunity to "reinvigorate the Sonic franchise and inject some more quality into the games going forward."

Rather than being a collection of mini-games, Jeffery explained that the game would be "a series of events with a cast of characters, not just Sonic and Mario, that have their own specialties and traits and strengths and weaknesses." He also said that the game would have a more competitive feel to it, making the player more inclined to go on to the next event after successfully completing one.

Harrison and Jeffery both commented on the team-up of Sonic and Mario, with Harrison explaining that Nintendo is "a lot more open to any variety of possibilities than we were a decade ago when we believed that everything we needed to do we could do internally. And so, opening our minds to what consumers might be interested in and what really strong partnerships might be possible is what has led us down the path of working more closely with Sega." Jeffery said that the video game industry is "probably at its most exciting point in its entire history", and said that collaborative ventures such as this are going to push the videogame industry forward and open it up to a wider audience.

When asked whether this game indicates more of a partnership between Nintendo and Sega in the future, Jeffery replied "At this point we wouldn't rule anything out, but there's nothing else in the pipe that we're ready to talk about right now.". Harrison added, "I think the success of this will help map out their future." They were also asked about the possibility of Sonic being in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, to which Harrison replied "We can't really comment on any sort of hidden characters in Smash Bros. at this point."