Triple Jump (Mario & Sonic)

Triple Jump is an Olympic field event that has featured in some games of the Mario &amp; Sonic franchise.

It is an expanded variation of the long jump event that consists of athletes running across a strip of platform to jump as far as possible horizontally, onto the sand pit. This time, the athlete has to hop, skip and jump in these three sequences across a longer platform, hence the name "triple jump".

As is customary with the field events, there are three attempts given with the best score taken as the final result.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games


Featuring in the first edition of the Mario & Sonic series, the triple jump event plays with the same principles and mechanics as the long jump event - the obvious difference being that the athlete must make triple 'jumps' as opposed to one.

The controls are naturally the same as the long jump event, with the applause at the start each of attempt carried out by swinging the Wii Remote and Nunchuk towards each other in a clapping fashion. This is followed up by running across the runway - swing the remote and Nunchuk up and down alternately, as fast as possible.

When approaching the foul line, the athlete will enter "speed lock". Swing the remote upwards just before the green strip of the foul line, to do a 'hop'. Immediately after landing, swing up the Nunchuk to do a 'skip', then once again swing the remote upwards on the second landing to the final jump into the sand pit.

With each jump, a gauge is filled to indicate the power put into it. It is important to balance the power of your swings; you need to swing up the remote or Nunchuk with enough force to fill up the gauge, but applying too much force will overfill it and result in a botched jump.



The handheld version of the game on the DS has its own triple jump equivalent, that is otherwise more-or-less identical except for a different control scheme.

At the start of each attempt, the player can draw applause from the crowd by blowing into the microphone of the system, which fills up the inspiration gauge. Keep blowing continuously though, or the gauge levels will immediately drop. For the running phase, slide the lower screen with the stylus as fast as possible.

This brings up the most crucial element of the event - the triple jumping. After the speed's locked, draw a diagonal line to the top-right just before the foul line to do the first hop, then after landing draw two more diagonals to do the skip and the final jump respectively, in quick succession. What's important though is to try and keep a consistent angle of around 45° with each jump to travel farther and get the best possible result.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games


The triple jump makes a return in the 3DS version of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Here, the gameplay is given a new twist with the literal use of the player's fingers on the screen for the controls.

There is no more clapping this time, with the event going straight to running. The 3DS system needs to be laid down horizontally; to run you must tap your left and right fingers on the screen as quickly as possible. When the speed is locked, tap the screen just before the foul line to take off and carry out the triple jumps. Tap the screen precisely in time with the character's landings, just as the blue circles behind the character overlap.

At the end of the jump, Cubot as the referee inspects the footprint from the take off to declare whether the player has done a legitimate jump or a foul - there is no extra chance if you commit one, as in this game there is only one attempt. The event is also restricted to the Challengers category of characters in this game, which are Yoshi, Bowser Jr., and the Shadow and Silver hedgehogs.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games


The jumping events have made split appearances over the consoles in the Rio edition of the series, with the Wii U version taking the triple jump and the 3DS version taking the standard long jump instead.

The gameplay for this iteration of triple jump focuses heavily on the buttons of the Wii U GamePad. At the start, the character willl draw applause from the crowd by performing three claps, which's actually done by repeatedly mashing the A button and a single press of the B button to add more power to the clap.

This brings the running section, where you again mash the A button repeatedly. Whilst running, the game will throw up three input commands for the jumping sequences, which are: The input commands remain the same and never change, regardless of the character. If you time each of the jumps perfectly, the character will unleash special movements to jump even further. Remember the input commands in this order, as they will not be displayed on the screen during the second and third attempts.
 * Up on the control pad for the hop;
 * Up on the control pad again for the skip;
 * B button for the final jump.

Espio serves as the guest star of this event.

Trivia

 * Each one of this event's four appearances has been on a different console.