History VideoGame / MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames

A crossover was the next logical step. Then Sega got the license for the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, Nintendo jumped in to get a piece of the tasty, tasty, athletic action, and that was where they decided the first crossover would be, so the casts of the respective series were slapped together to compete in various events.

A crossover was the next logical step. Then Sega got the license for the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, Nintendo jumped in to get a piece of the tasty, tasty, athletic action, and that was where they decided the first crossover would be, so the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters of the respective series were slapped together to compete in various events.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The first game has sixteen playable characters, and ''Vancouver'' expands the roster to the series standard of twenty. ''Rio 2016'' stretches it by fourteen (Wii U) to twenty (3DS) more, but each new character is exclusive to one event.

[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The ones where]] it's an ''official'' IntercontinuityCrossover between two former famous rivals.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Characters are paired off into pairs of cross-canon {{Friendly Rival}}s, Mario and Sonic, Luigi and Tails, Peach and Amy and so forth. With a few exceptions, the ''Sonic'' cast is made up mostly of teenagers, while the ''Mario'' cast are all mostly in their twenties.

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: ''Tokyo 2020'' is set in the summer of 2020 when the Olympics are happening, when in real life, months after the game was released, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to jokes among fans about the game being set in an ideal AlternateHistory where there's no pandemic. Ultimately averted as the Games will still [[NonIndicativeName keep the '2020' name]].

[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The ones where]] it's an official IntercontinuityCrossover between two former famous rivals/

* DummiedOut: Several characters were axed from the Wii version of the first game, but it is possible to hack the game to play as them.

** Also, the two most recent installments of the series were given an Everyone 10+ by the UsefulNotes/{{ESRB}}, up from the typical Everyone rating from prior games, due to more realistic depictions of martial arts competitions among the characters.

* RealityEnsues: In ''Tokyo 2020''. [[spoiler:Turns out, keeping a handheld game console on all day drains the battery, just as it would in the real world.]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mario_and_sonic_snowboarding.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:A crossover sixteen years in the making.]]

** Rosalina normally wears purple nail polish, but in ''Rio 2016'' her nails are unpainted (best seen in her [[https://mario.wiki.gallery/images/f/f2/Rosalina-Rio2016-NoBGround.png official render]].) RealLife gymnasts [[https://gymnasticshq.com/getting-dressed-for-a-gymnastics-meet-some-guidelines/ are in fact discouraged]] from painting their nails, so as not to potentially distract the judges.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Characters are paired off into pairs of cross-canon {{Friendly Rival}}s, Mario and Sonic, Luigi and Tails, Silver and Yoshi, Peach and Amy and so forth. With a few exceptions, the ''Sonic'' cast is made up mostly of teenagers, while the ''Mario'' cast are all mostly in their twenties.

** Silver and Yoshi's special animation in the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016videog ame is a homage tot hem high-fiving in the Vancouver 2010 video game.

* SoreLoser: Wendy O Koopa in the Tokyo 2020 when Silver beats her in Swimming. She pretends to whimper dramatically to give the game console to Bowser Jr.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Characters are paired off into pairs of cross-canon {{Friendly Rival}}s, Mario and Sonic, Luigi and Tails, Peach and Amy and so forth. With a few exceptions, the ''Sonic'' cast is made up mostly of teenagers, while the ''Mario'' cast are all mostly in their twenties.

See also the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, another crossover involving both Mario and Sonic; and Toys/{{amiibo}}, Nintendo's toyline which ''Rio 2016'' supports. Not to be confused with a side series of serious, down-to-earth Olympic video games also developed by Sega.

* The devs remembered that [[SuperDrowningSkills Sonic can't swim]]; in water events he's the only one who wears a life jacket, stands up and falls into the water instead of properly diving, and just splashes his arms and moves himself forward instead of actually swimming.