Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 wants to be the Olympic Games in your pocket. It is not. What Sega has shipped to Amazon Fire TV, Android and iOS is a sport game with ten free stages, a paywall behind the rest, and a hedge of a title that tells you exactly how much it trusts its own name.
The game is developed and published by Sega. It is a single-player sport title with action themes, played in third person across bird’s-eye, isometric and side views. Sonic, Tails and friends are here for the ultimate sporting event, billed as the official mobile game of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The pitch is simple: take home the gold with Sonic.
The published critical score sits at 6.5 out of 10, drawn from an aggregate of six outlets. That is the number this review matches, and it is the right number. Not because the game is broken, but because it is thin, and it charges you to find out how thin.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
Ten Free Stages and the All Access Pass
Here is the structure, and it is the whole story. Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 includes 10 free stages. You can purchase more stages in-game, or buy the All Access Pass to play all the game stages.
That is the deal as stated. Ten stages for nothing, then a choice: buy stages one at a time, or buy the pass and unlock everything. The game states the free count plainly in its own description, which is more than a lot of mobile sport games manage.
But a clear paywall is not the same as a good paywall. Ten stages is a small slice of the package. The pass is the way to the rest, and whether it is worth it depends on how much you want the events behind it.
The problem is what those ten stages are asked to carry. A sport game lives on variety, and Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 has to stretch a small set of events across three platforms and a handful of camera angles. The bird’s-eye and isometric views do the heavy lifting. The side view shows up for the events that need a flat read.
None of that is a flaw by itself. The flaw, in this paper’s read, is that the game never finds a reason to be more than a set of events with Sonic characters pasted on top.
Sonic, Tails and the Rest of the Roster
Sonic and Tails are named. “Friends” is the word the game uses for everyone else, and that vagueness is telling. A sport game with a deep roster sells you on the roster. This one sells you on Sonic, then Tails, then a shrug.
That matters because the Olympic Games license is the only thing separating this from any other mobile sport title. Strip the rings and the blue blur and you have a set of track-and-field events with a pass system. The characters are the hook, and the game treats them as decoration.
Sega built the title around Sonic. It put Tails in the description. The source says nothing more about the wider cast, and neither does the game’s own copy.
A player who comes for Sonic and Tails will get Sonic and Tails. A player who comes for the wider cast will get “friends,” which is not a cast. It is a promise the game does not keep in its own marketing.
Three Views, One Player
Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 is single player. There is no mode listed for playing against anyone else, and that is a real limit for a sport game. The Olympic Games are a competition. This is a solo run at your own score.
The three perspectives — third person, bird’s-eye/isometric, side view — are the game’s attempt to make each event feel distinct. It works better than it should. A side-view event reads differently from an isometric one, and the switch keeps the ten free stages from blurring together.
But perspective is not depth. Changing the camera does not change the event. You are still doing the same thing with a different lens, and after a few stages the lens stops mattering.
The single-player structure is the bigger issue. A sport game without a rival is a practice mode. You can chase your own score. You cannot chase anyone else’s. For a title built on the Olympics, that is a strange thing to leave out.
What the 6.5 Actually Measures
The aggregate score of 6.5 from six outlets is not a disaster. It is a shrug. That is exactly what Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 earns.
| What the game has | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| 10 free stages | The rest of the game |
| All Access Pass | One purchase to play all game stages |
| Individual stage purchases | Pay per stage |
| Sonic and Tails | The named cast |
| “Friends” | Everyone else |
| Single player | No second player mode listed |
| Three camera views | Third person, bird’s-eye/isometric, side view |
The table is the review. There is no column for depth, because the game does not have one. There is no column for multiplayer, because the game does not have one. There is no column for the wider roster, because “friends” is not a roster.
What the game does have is a free trial of ten stages and a clear upgrade path. That is not nothing. Mobile games often hide the wall. This one puts ten stages in front of it and lets you decide.
The 6.5 says the six outlets that scored it found the same thing: a competent, limited sport game with a license it does not fully use. That is a fair read.
The Order to Play It In
If you are deciding whether to spend on Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020, the order is simple.
- Play the 10 free stages first. They cost nothing and they tell you whether the core loop holds you.
- Decide whether you want more stages at all. If the free set bores you, the paid set will too.
- If you want everything, buy the All Access Pass rather than individual stages. The pass lets you play all game stages; buying one at a time is the slow road to the same place.
- Skip it entirely if you need a rival. This is single player, and no purchase changes that.
That order is not a knock. It is the honest path through a game that tells you its own terms. The free stages are the trial. The pass is the rest. The single-player limit is the ceiling.
The Verdict on Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020
Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 is a licensed sport game that does the minimum and charges for the rest. Ten free stages, a pass for the rest, Sonic and Tails up front, “friends” behind them, one player, three cameras.
The 6.5 out of 10 is right. It is not a bad game. It is a small one. Sega built a mobile sport title with Sonic on the cover and ten stages in the free tier, then asked you to pay for the part that matters.
What is worth watching is whether the pass model holds. If players accept ten free stages as a fair trial, the structure works. If they do not, the game has nothing behind the wall to justify the price. That is the bet Sega made, and the 6.5 is the critics’ answer so far.
For now, the free stages are the whole review. Play them. If they hold you, the pass is a reasonable buy. If they do not, no purchase fixes a game that never found a reason to be more than its license.
Score: 6.5 of 10.
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