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Marathon is an athletics minigame that features in the Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, in the 3DS version.
The gameplay for this minigame is extremely simplified, having almost nothing to do with the actual action of marathon but merely comprising of picking up water bottles from the tables whilst moving.
This event is reserved for the Hero group of characters, comprising of Mario, Sonic, Luigi, and Tails.
Gameplay[]
There are four rounds in this minigame, where each of the characters approach the table with four water bottles sitting upon it. The aim of the game is to get the timing right when picking up the water bottle, as the characters have to grab it whilst in motion.
As your character approaches a bottle, a red cursor in the shape of a bottle will appear and move along with the character's hand. When the cursor aligns with the bottle of your choice, instantly press A at the right timing to pick it up.
The ultimate goal of the game though, is to gain as much points as possible from picking up certain bottles during each round. The bottles are all marked in different colours and give a certain number of points:
- White bottles give 5 points;
- Blue bottles give 10 points;
- Rainbow bottles give 15 points.
With that in mind, the player ideally should aim for the rainbow bottle to pick up the maximum points, especially if your character is the first in the queue.
Tip []
It is important to consider the placement of the bottle types on the table, and where your character is positioned in the running queue. The order of each character is re-arranged each round so say, if you're at the back of the line and the rainbow bottle is placed at the far end, it is more advisable to just choose the lesser bottles at the closer end instead of taking the risk of getting the rainbow, which could just get picked by the AIs in front. Once you pass a bottle, there's no coming back.
Party Mix medley[]
This event sometimes appears as a high-stakes bonus event in the Party Mix medley sessions, where just one round is played and the number of points gained from picking up a bottle contributes to the player's actual scores.