Marathon (2D)
| Marathon | |
|---|---|
| |
| Appears in | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 |
| Type | Athletics (Tokyo '64) |
| Controls |  ↕ /  — Move /  — Speed Up /  — Get Drink
|
| Circuits | Chapter 16: The Time Remaining |
- “I don't think the athletes are trained to avoid bees.”
- —Commentator
The Marathon is an event in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 where the goal is to reach the finish line first.
A voiced commentator with a low-fidelity filter applied to his voice can be heard before and during the race. As with the other Tokyo '64 events, no motion controls are available. Distances are given in metric in all versions of the game, including the length of the regular marathon rules at 42.195km.
10 seconds in real time is approximately 11 minutes in-game during the race.
Gameplay[edit]
The race follows the Ridge Racer format in which the player characters start the race in last place (68th place in the case of this event) and then has to work their way up to first place by bypassing visibly slower opponents, while also having to avoid colliding into the opponents so as to not lose speed. Colliding several times in a short time period will make the character tumble backwards onto the road.
The player gains control at the 100m (00.100km) mark at which point the athletes have entered the streets, while a short transition from the street back into the stadium occur at the 42.000km mark, followed by the final sprint to the finish line located at 42.195km.
The player character can move up and down in the streets. Running onto red-white ground arrows will give a large boost, but will heavily reduce momentum afterwards, resulting in having to press / immediately afterwards to get back to running speed again. A whirlwind will give a boost when getting out of it. CPU runners up ahead can occasionally provide a slipstream effect but are very easy to collide into when the CPU runners split up.
Bee swarms will slow the player to a near-standstill, banana peels will make the runner fall backwards, while running through a water puddle will slow the runner down slightly.
Although there is a designated main opponent in the race that is randomly selected from one of the other seven available characters, the main opponent will rarely, if ever, win the race themselves.
Energy meter[edit]
The player character has an energy meter in the upper left. Pressing / to gain speed will use up a part of the meter. It can be refilled by not pressing / for a while, by running in a slipstream and by picking up a bottle at the bottle stations. The red bottles refill somewhat more than the blue bottles, and the player character can only pick up one bottle in each station. Running out of energy will make the runner much slower.
The bottle stations show up at 7.4km, 14.8km, 19.8km, 24.7km, 29.8km, 34.7km and 39.7km.
