Published: Tuesday, 24th November, 2009 5:25pm

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

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Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS

Christmas is coming (I'm sorry, but it is) and that means it's time to start thinking about ways to keep all the family amused while under one roof for the extended festive break. For sheer breadth of gaming you'd do very well to pick up this game.

Taking the format from the Beijing Olympic games release, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games - yes, it does sound clunkier than at the 'Winter Olympics' - builds on the successes of the previous release with a plethora of entertaining multiplayer minigames to keep everyone entertained, no matter what your age or skill level.

There are sixteen different events to try and - as ever - the bulk of them are done either with the Wii-mote or a Wii-mote and optional nunchuk. But in a new development you can now use the balance board for some of the events - which provides a whole new level of enjoyment, not just for the person playing but also for those laughing from the sidelines, particularly on the skiing and bobsleighing.

As with the original version of the game, there's a lot of great characters to play as (including welcome new additions Metal Sonic and Donkey Kong), but in an improvement for single players you can now pick one and take them through the full Olympics experience - from training through every event.

While it's inevitable with a game like this that some events work better than others - we loved speed skating the best - there's enough depth and replay value to this that it'll keep gamers of all ages entertained well into the new year.

Five stars.

* Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is out now for the Wii and the DS