One classic Nintendo Wii game from 2010, Sled Shred featuring the Jamaican Bobsled Team, provides a unique look at one of the most bizarre and dramatic tales the Winter Olympics has ever seen. The Wii may not be the first console gamers think about when it comes to dramatic sports stories, but Sled Shred may be the perfect gateway to get excited about the Milano Cortina 2026 games in Italy.
The tale of the Jamaican national bobsled team is one that won the hearts of the world. Appearing for the first time at the Calgary Olympics in 1988, the four-man team of Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, Michael White, and Nelson "Chris" Stokes was an immediate underdog, having to train for the icy downhill sport in a tropical island country that experiences warm to hot weather year-round. Though the four-man team failed to finish the event following a crash in the third run, and White and Dudley Stokes placed just 30th out of 41 teams in the two-man competition that year, the team's story was popularized by the 1993 live-action Disney movie Cool Runnings. The country has also continued to send Olympic hopefuls in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2014, and 2022, along with the debut of its women's team in 2018.
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Old Jamaican Bobsled Team Game is a Great Way to Get Excited About the Winter Olympics
Now, Jamaica is preparing for another run at bobsled success, fielding teams in the two-man, four-man, and women’s monobob, all of whom have successfully passed the qualifiers for the games in Italy, which run from February 6-22. Those who find themselves cheering on Jamaica, who also happen to have an old Wii sitting around, can relive some of that early magic with Sled Shred featuring the Jamaican Bobsled Team, a SouthPeak game first released in 2010. Though typically not counted among the best Nintendo sports games, Sled Shred features a lot of similar qualities that have made games like those in Mario Kart series successful, providing a party-like atmosphere and plenty of cold-weather downhill action.
Though it features the Jamaican bobsled team name, players shouldn't expect an authentic experience that mirrors the original team's trials and tribulations. Rather, Sled Shred adopts a fun, more lighthearted, party game atmosphere, as players slalom down icy hills on inflatable inner tubes and disc sleds, tossing snowballs at each other and positioning their trajectory through gates to boost their speed temporarily as they compete for a spot on the team. The game also features branching paths and is compatible with the Wii Fit balance board accessory or classic control scheme. And while the courses themselves are covered in ice, tracks like Calypso Canyon and Abominable Tropics provide warm-weather backgrounds more suitable to a game set in Jamaica.
If a party game based loosely around the Jamaican team doesn't sound appealing, there are a number of other games players can dive into to get ready for the Winter Olympics 2026. Since 1983, there have been a couple of dozen different officially licensed Olympic video games released by a number of publishers and developers, starting with Konami's arcade-only title Track & Field and all the way through nWay's Olympics Go! Paris 2024. While official games have focused on the summer games in slightly greater numbers than the winter ones, titles like Sega's Vancouver 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and 49Games' Torino 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox have provided more accurate depictions of a bunch of different winter sporting events, including Alpine skiing, giant slalom, bobsled, luge, snowboarding, ski jumping, and speed skating.
Those looking for a slightly more modern experience can also check out the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series. While the presentation has been a little more cartoonish than other officially licensed Olympic games due to their cast, their gameplay is still built to depict a number of different sports with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Once again, the summer games in this series outnumber the winter games two-to-one, and fans seeking to participate in events like skiing, bobsledding, curling, figure skating pairs, and snowboarding won't find a more recent entry than 2013's Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Still, from Jamaican bobsled qualifiers to the everlasting competition between Mario and Sonic, gamers have a lot of options to pump themselves up for the games in Italy.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 56 /100
- Released
- November 8, 2013
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Sega
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
WHERE TO PLAY
It's the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia—and Mario, Sonic, and friends are ready to go for the gold in 16 Olympic Events, as well as 8 Dream Events that mix things up in a big way with unique mechanics from the Mario and Sonic worlds!
The game features five different modes, including a single-player mode where you attempt all the events, a mode for friends and family that mixes quizzes into the competition, and an online mode where you take on players around the world.
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games
- Genre(s)
- Sports, Party Game
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo DS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
