Equestrian Plus

Equestrian Plus is a Plus Event that appears in the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The objective of the event is to complete the course in the fastest time while hitting as few obstacles as possible. The playable characters in this event are Mario, Bowser Jr., Larry, Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Blaze and Mii, with Larry being unlocked by beating him in the event on the fourth day of Sonic's story in the Road to Rio mode. A Toad appears as a referee in this event.

Gameplay

To start this event, the player must move the Circle Pad upwards or press up on the Control Pad to speed up and start moving. Once the event has begun, the player can change the speed o their horse by pressing either up or down, needing to hold up for the duration of the event to remain at higher speeds, and move left and right by inputting the respective directions on the Circle or Control Pad. The player must aim to remain on the ideal line indicated in the event, and will lose speed if they do not remain on it. To jump an obstacle, the player must press the B Button at the right time. Pressing with perfect timing will give them a "Perfect" rating for the jump, slightly early timing giving them a "Great" rating and early timing giving a "Good" rating. If the player fails to make the jump, they will get a "Miss" and will receive a penalty based on how poor their timing for the jump was. As well as standard jumps, the player will also have to jump over Thwomps, which will come down throughout the event and occasionally land on top of each other so that they cannot be jumped, and Moto Bugs, which slowly move towards the player in rows of three. By successfully jumping over obstacles and collecting Charge Balls, the player can fill up their Super Dash gauge, which allows them to perform a Super Dash by pressing the X Button, which gives them a significant speed boost for a short length of time. The player can charge up to three levels of Super Dash, with higher levelled ones having higher speed boosts and longer-lasting effects. The player can also gain short speed boosts by running over Dash Panels. The character who finishes the course in the fastest time while receiving the fewest penalties wins.

Advice

• Watch the Thwomps' movement and judge whether to dodge or jump quickly.
• You will slow down when not on the speed line, so use the Super Dash.
• Using several Super Dash charges at once gives a longer effect and faster speed boost than using one charge at a time.