Sure, sporting games and the Wii's motion controller have proved a good fit so far, but it would have been nice to see Sonic, whose high-speed motion has always pushed console processors to their limits, really pushing a PS3 or Xbox to their limits. That may well happen in another title, but not in this one.

(2) It's an official sports franchise title. The Olympic movement is notorious for exercising tight control over absolutely everything to do with the Games, which is reflected in the fact that this new game is being published in a partnership with International Sports Multimedia, which has locked up the rights to the Olympics in electronic form. Control freaking at the committee level rarely makes for a good game. In fact, to make that point broader . . .

(3) Too many cooks may well spoil the broth. Nintendo has the rights to publish the game in Japan, while Sega will handle the rest of the world. That's probably a reasonable commercial division of the spoils, but the need to compromise to meet the needs of both sides may well result in a title that offends no-one, but doesn't excite anyone either.

Read on to learn how the Olympics building program and the fundamentals of games physics could also cause problems for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.