Winter Sports Champion Race

Knuckles competing in Winter Sports Champion Race.

Winter Sports Champion Race is a Dream Event in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. It is a combination of skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, and bobsled.

Gameplay

Each of the four competitors start the race coming out of a blimp. At the start, all four competitors are on skis. After a brief straightaway, the come to the first gear-change gate, where they switch their equipment. At each gear-change gate, there are four different lanes to go into. Two have a light blue sign above them and the other two have a white sign above them. The lanes with light blue signs will give the player either skates or a bobsled. The lanes with white signs will give the player either skis or a snowboard. After one player goes through a lane, that lane will always give any subsequent competitor to pass through the same item the first player got (this item will be shown on the sign). Each section of the track has two different types of terrain, snow and ice, with the final section having a "neutral" terrain. The player will either go faster or slower depending on the current equipment and terrain they are on. The event itself is a simple race to the finish. The player that crosses the finish line first wins.

Equipment

There are four different types of equipment in the event. Skis, snowboard, skates, and bobsled. Each type of equipment has its own traits and special abilities. The game will recommend certain routes to the player based on these abilities.

Skis

Skis will make the player go faster on snow, but are slower on ice. Using the skis will allow the player to jump higher off of certain ramps.

Snowboard

The snowboard will make the player go faster on snow, but is slower on ice. Using the snowboard will allow the player to grind on rails to take shortcuts through certain parts of the course.

Speed Skates

Skates will make the player go faster on ice, but are slower on snow. Using the skates will allow the player to traverse certain patches of ice that are too small for other types of equipment to cross easily.

Bobsled

The bobsled will make the player go faster on ice, but is slower on snow. Using the bobsled will allow the player to crash through barricades to access shortcuts that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Stats

Each character has different stats for each type of equipment. The actual stats vary from character to character, but equipment stats can sometimes be shown to correspond with one of the main types (e.g. bobsled stat is good for power characters). The stats are balanced out so that one character's two best stats aren't the same type of item (e.g. both skis and snowboard, the "snow items") so that the player doesn't go after one type of item every time.