Sonic and Mario are finally meeting for the first time. Which characters can we expect to see in Olympic games, and how diverse will they be?

Gie: We’ve got a handful of characters from both camps at the moment, though obviously the final game will have significantly more.

Different character types have different attributes so you can pick a character that fits your own play style, or just pick your favourite and get used to their strengths and weaknesses.

Also if you’re playing a circuit-style game you can be strategic about your decision and decide whether you want a balanced character, someone’s who’s strong but maybe not as fast etc.

So Sonic isn’t always going to win?

Gie: The great thing about this is it’s similar to Mario Kart in levelling the playing field. Sonic isn’t always going to win the 100 metre dash; it’s really up to the players and how well they use the nunchuk and remote.

Mario and Luigi for example are great all-rounders. There stats are spread across speed, acceleration and dash. Sonic meanwhile has a good top speed but his acceleration is low. It’s a real balancing act.

The final build will have lots more characters in there and some of the animation is really early at the moment. I hope you’ll agree though that it’s starting to like a really strong, almost Nintendo first-party, quality title. It is being published by Sega, but there’s a critical partnership with Nintendo to make sure that the product delivered is nothing shy of first party quality come Christmas.

How have you benefited from having the Olympic Games license?

Gie: This is an official Olympics game so although the look and feel is slightly Mario and Sonic in terms of the world, it has official Olympic stadiums and events that we’ll play – though we’ll only be showing 100 metre dash, triple jump and hammer throw today.

OK, how does the 100 metre dash work?

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