Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is Sega's official recreation of the delayed 2021 competition. It comes a year after Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, but plays in the same space thanks to a silly avatar creator and some over-the-top translations of athletic events. While it does introduce some new minigames to its collection, Tokyo 2020 shares a pickup and play sensibility with its Mario counterpart that's most welcome in the world of sports games.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is not well-suited to players going in alone. There's no campaign or career mode to speak of; just the ability to play through a few rounds of each event against the computer or online. The AI doesn't pull any punches by the medal round, so going for the gold requires mastery of each sport's specific mix of timing, button mashing, and other quirks. This does extend the pure playtime by a bit, but not in a way that's particularly interesting.
There are other ways to have fun beyond pure victory, and that's where the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 avatar creator shines. Many were amused by the announcement that players could take on swimming, boxing, and rugby as a person in a Sonic the Hedgehog costume, but that's downright normal compared to some of the other possible combinations players can make on their own. Body size, shape, and height have no bearing on how players actually do in the game, so the avatar system really allows prospective participants to get creative with their representations. Even more options and ridiculous costumes are available for currency earned playing the game, letting everyone from astronauts to cowboys excel at the highest level of competition.
As fun as watching a less traditionally built runner outpace Olympic athletes is, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is best played with friends and family. It falls in the same category as Wii Sports, creating mini-games that do a good job of getting players in the action instead of simulating every single rule. In fact, the more it leans towards its arcade side, the better the games end up. More complex affairs like soccer and baseball try too hard to capture the full game, while events like rugby, BMX, and track and field are easy to grapple with for just about anyone.
In fact, it's easy to wish that some of the events were more fleshed out beyond the Olympics backdrop. The BMX race is a fun ride, but there's only one track that players zoom through multiple times, which hardly makes for a fun racing game. This does fit in with the goal of recreating the Olympics, but SEGA added in stunts and super moves to most games instead of giving players options that could expand their lifespan. As it is, even if a favorite few games emerge, the party won't last for long simply due to repetitive gameplay. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 has that same problem in some areas, but it has more events and an innate character appeal that the official Olympics game can't match.
That's really the biggest failing of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - it can't stand up to its own Mario-themed competition. It's difficult to see why anyone with a Nintendo Switch would lean towards this official game over its mascot-filled counterpart. Both games accomplish their goals as fun party games featuring arcade-y recreations of a handful of sports. Outside of loading it up with friends, the biggest fun in this particular game comes in exploring the character creator and seeing someone's uncle win the Gold in the hammer throw. It's a toss-up whether that's more enjoyable than watching Mario and his frenemy Wario's perfect equestrian jumps on a real horse, but there's definitely something here for people who fall into the former camp.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and Nintendo Switch globally as of today, June 22, 2021. Screen Rant received a digital code for the Nintendo Switch version for the purposes of this review.