The reviews for Mario and Sonic at the Olympics have been rolling in with most scores ranging between a “good” 7-8 or so out of 10. Here’s a roundup of a few reviews from various outlets:

Eurogamer.net gives the game a 7/10 with the following thoughts:

There are plenty of enjoyable mini-games here and they’re nicely varied. There are some stinkers but that’s to be expected. Most of the mini-games are well-balanced, and some have enough depth to make you keep playing again and again. Many of them will make you laugh out loud. It’s a shame you can’t play all of them without having to complete hours of single-player challenges. But if you’re willing to put the hours in, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is a highly entertaining party game.

Computer and Video Games scores Mario and Sonic with an 8/10 saying:

It’s bigger and better than Wii Play. It’s more fun with friends than Mario Strikers Charged. Yes, some of the events are a pain; others drag on way too long. We can see someone on one side of the country detesting M&S like baked bean sandwiches, while someone else on the other side happily plays it until the real-life Olympics roll around. But if Pictionary and cheesy rolls aren’t doing it for your party, there’s a good chance Mario & Sonic will.

IGN scores the game with a 7.9/10 with the following quote:

Aside from maybe a few very specific instances, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games won’t deliver any mind-blowing gameplay for Wii owners. With a similar format as the NES’s own Track & Field, M&S divides the world of the Olympics up into a few key challenges, each based on speed, timing, and a little bit of strategy. What it’ll boil down to, however, is a whole lot of controller drumming, and bit of semi-needless waggle, and a few more innovative experiences sprinkled in there as well. As the kicker though, we went in knowing exactly what Mario & Sonic was bringing to the table (strong characters, generally repetitive gameplay) and come out weeks later now having a blast with the game. It just goes to show you that the right mix of style and gameplay can change up even the simplest of concepts.

GameSpot chimes in with their score of 6/10:

The big problem with Mario & Sonic is that the mechanics for most events just aren’t much fun. The game requires some precise timing and movement to pull off certain maneuvers (you get penalized if you wave too hard when you jump), and the instructions are poor, which means that you’ll spend a lot of time yelling at the TV because you just can’t do the triple jump properly. Even if you aren’t having trouble with an event, you probably won’t have much fun–unless you enjoy waving your arms to pretend that you’re running. There’s also very little depth to any of the events. Other than a few sports where the controls really get in the way, it’s not difficult to win gold on your first attempt. In fact, you’ll probably set world records on your first go at a sport on more than one occasion. Consequently, though you might have fun for an hour or two, you’d be hard pressed to squeeze much more entertainment out of the game, even when playing with up to three other friends.

Has anyone played the game yet and want to give their input in the comments? I’m going to give this one a rental eventually as I still have my hands full with Mario Galaxy. I do think it would be fun to break out when you’re having people over and playing with your friends.