sonic and shadow games: Mario and Sonic game releases due in 2010

Looking through the official Mario and Sonic video game release schedules for this coming year, the first thing that stands out is that there aren't very many releases scheduled! However, the second thing that stands out is that these few releases do look to be of the very highest quality indeed! This is a really good thing, trust me - quality is way better than quantity, every time!

There is only one new Mario game currently scheduled for a 2010 release, but given that it is Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii, I think we can all forgive Nintendo for that, lol!

Nintendo promise that it will be an even better Mario experience than the first game, which will take some doing in my opinion - it's not easy to improve on virtual perfection! Nintendo also promise that this game will be a lot more challenging than the previous one. Not so sure that's such a good thing myself, but whatever - the "Big N" know what they're doing. The release date is still to be confirmed.

Update 24/02/10: Nintendo announced today that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23rd.

There are three new Sonic games currently scheduled for release in 2010, and they are:

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - A Kart racing game featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy Rose, Big the Cat and Dr. Eggman plus Alex Kidd, Billy Hatcher, Ai Ai from Super Monkey Ball, Amigo from Samba de Amigo, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, Beat from Jet Set Radio and Zobio and Zobiko, the zombie couple from The House of the Dead EX plus Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie! Due for release on the Xbox and PS3 on February 10th, and on the Wii and DS in early March;

Sonic Classic Collection - For the DS only, this promises to be a little gem, containing the first four ever Sega Genesis / Mega Drive "Sonic the Hedgehog" games, namely: Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from 1992, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from 1994 and Sonic & Knuckles from 1994, complete with reportedly enhanced Sonic & Knuckles "lock-on" features for the earlier games. Due for release on March 10th;

And finally, an as-yet unnamed Sonic main-series game currently referred to as Project Needlemouse - All that is currently known is that this will be a 2D side-scrolling platformer very much in the style of the classic original Sonic games, with an emphasis on speed! Yes, Yes, YES!! It's been far too long since Sega made a "proper" Sonic game! I want it NOW!!

Anyway, here are some totally awesome free Mario and Sonic online games for you to play while you're waiting for the above games to come out, all courtesy of the famous MarioSonicGames.com site: