Do you want to know what the best thing about a year featuring the Olympics is? No, it’s not watching athletes from all around the world compete in a range of sports (though that certainly is appealing); it’s knowing that you’re about to enjoy another Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. However, you might notice that we don’t have one for Paris 2024. Well, it looks like that’s no accident, as the game series is allegedly finished.
Taking to X, Lee Cocker, someone who’s very familiar with the Mario and Sonic games, having worked on all entries in the series, claims that there isn’t going to be another Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. I know that’s not the news you want to hear what the Olympics are going on in Paris right now, but at least you can still enjoy the 2007 original for the Nintendo Wii and its numerous sequels, including London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020 as well as the two Winter Olympics entries.
According to Cocker, the videogame series ended in 2020 with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – yeah, all good things must come to an end, but an earlier heads up would be nice. My disappointment is palpable. Some of my fondest childhood memories are with my favorite Sonic characters as they go head to head with the best Mario characters in various sports.
Throughout the series, these sports games have covered a range of activities, including athletics, Swimming, archery, gymnastics, fencing, and table tennis. Then, with the winter-based ones, we get to enjoy skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, curling, and, of course, figure skating – plumbers and hedgehogs dancing on ice is something I never knew I needed until Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games came out in 2009.
These crossover titles are among the best Sonic and Mario games you can play, so if this really is the end, it’s a crying shame. But hey, considering these two icons both have racing games under their belts, maybe we can get a different type of collaboration in the future. Hey, you know what? One of the best Crash Bandicoot games is a racer, too, so just throw him into the mix as well.