Latest News  How Mario and Sonic get outfitted for the Olympics
by Steve Watts, Dec 19, 2011 4:00pm PST  The London 2012 Olympic
games are coming, which means another Mario & Sonic at the
Olympics joint-effort from Nintendo and Sega. The team shared
their thoughts on the franchise with Nintendo president Satoru
Iwata, including Sonic's poor swimming ability, customized
bikes, and how to deal with ladies in swimwear. Yes, seriously.
Sega chief producer Osamu Ohashi said the most difficult
character to develop was Sonic, because hedgehogs aren't water-
faring animals. "He isn't supposed to swim," Ohashi said in
Iwata Asks. "And aquatics is one of the star attractions at the
Olympic Games, so we were stuck." He says he went back and forth
with the Sonic supervisor insisting that he should swim. The
team considered putting him on a kickboard, but they settled on
a life jacket. "That's why when Sonic swims, he doesn't put his
face in the water and his upper body is positioned like it's
floating."  Other character