Mobile phones (Java)2008Sega MobileAirPlayTrack and field

Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008 mobile game)

Sonic’s own slice of Beijing 2008: five one-thumb track and field events, four familiar faces and a running track that loops the loop.

Released24 Jul 2008 (North America)

DeveloperAirPlay

PublishersSega Mobile; Glu (Europe, Australia, NZ)

EventsFive, from the 1500m to the javelin

AthletesSonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy

Available?No: no longer sold

Title	Sonic at the Olympic Games (the browser version was called Sonic at the Olympics)
Platform	Java (J2ME) mobile phones from LG, Motorola, Nokia and others; cut-down web browser version
Developer	AirPlay (UK); browser version by Mediatonic
Publishers	Sega Mobile, a division of Sega of America (North America); Glu Mobile (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand)
Licence	Official Olympic Games licence, through International Sports Multimedia
Genre	Sports (track and field)
Players	1, with high-score boards
Announced	April 2008
Released	North America: 24 July 2008 (US$2.99–7.99, depending on the carrier); UK: out by 11 July 2008, when Pocket Gamer reviewed it
Events	1500m, 400m hurdles, triple jump, discus, javelin
Availability	No longer sold; Sega Mobile’s page for it survives only in the Wayback Machine

Overview

Sonic had already gone to Beijing 2008 with Mario on Wii and DS. For the phone in your pocket, Sega Mobile made something smaller and Sonic-only: Sonic at the Olympic Games, a Java game with five track and field events, one-thumb controls and no Nintendo characters in sight.

You pick Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy and work your way up from the qualifying round, through the heats and semi-finals, to a final with a podium at the end. Every event is viewed side-on and decided by timing rather than button-bashing, rings are scattered along the way to fatten your score, and the 1500m course climbs, dips and even loops the loop like a proper Sonic stage.

British studio AirPlay built it. Sega Mobile sold it through North American carriers from 24 July 2008, Glu Mobile handled Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Mediatonic later trimmed it to two events for a free browser version. Like almost every Java phone game of its day, it has long since vanished from sale.

Quick Answers

The short answers, with the detail further down the page.

Plot / Story

There is no plot as such. Sega’s pitch was that Team Sonic had come to the Olympic Games to make history, and the game turns that into a tournament: survive the qualifying round, the heats and the semi-finals, then win the final to reach the podium. Each stage is harder than the last, your progress is saved automatically, and good scores can be sent off to a high-score board to see how you rank against the rest of the country.

How it plays

Everything happens side-on and can be played with one thumb. The running events hinge on circular markers on the track: press 5 as your runner crosses one, and the colour you catch decides what happens next. Green builds momentum, yellow keeps your pace steady and red costs you speed, so the trick is rhythm, not bashing the keypad.

Rings turn up in every event and add to your total, and points come from finishing first as well as from what you collect. Pocket Gamer liked how neatly it all worked, but found that the events felt too alike and that most players would have seen everything within an hour.

The five events

Sega listed five events. Four of them include a run-up; only the discus does not.

1. 
   1500mRunningThe long race, on a Sonic-style track that rises, falls and loops the loop. Hit the green markers to keep your speed up.
2. 
   400m hurdlesRunningSprinting and jumping: keep your pace with the markers and clear the barriers as they come.
3. Triple jumpJumpingPress 2 each time you land to bounce on to the next phase; 5 spends a small boost bar for extra air.
4. DiscusThrowingThe only event without a sprint. It was also one of the two events kept for the browser version.
5. JavelinThrowingRelease with 2, then steer the javelin’s flight with 2 and 8, weaving round balloons and picking up rings on the way down.

In comics, TV & other media

No comics or cartoons were tied to this one. These are the games around it. More in Sonic in other movies and media.

Characters

Four athletes, one set of skills: Pocket Gamer found the characters identical, so the choice comes down to who you like. The artwork is from Sonic Scene’s own 2008 galleries; the game shows them as small sprites.

Character	Who they are	In this game	Stats & abilities
Sonic the HedgehogAthlete	The world’s fastest hedgehog, already a Beijing 2008 competitor in Mario & Sonic on Wii and DS.	Front and centre on the official artwork and the title screen, and one of the four athletes you can pick.	Same abilities as the other three Runs, jumps and throws in all five events
Miles “Tails” ProwerAthlete	Sonic’s two-tailed fox sidekick and the team’s resident mechanic.	A selectable athlete. The tile from our old mobile games menu shows him clearing a hurdle.	Same abilities as the other three
Knuckles the EchidnaAthlete	Guardian of the Master Emerald and Sonic’s hot-headed rival turned friend.	A selectable athlete, seen in the screenshots tackling the hurdles.	Same abilities as the other three
Amy RoseAthlete	Sonic’s devoted, hammer-swinging admirer.	The fourth member of Team Sonic in Sega’s description.	Same abilities as the other three

The people who made it

The companies behind the phone game and its web spin-off.

How it was made

Our original page held only an infobox. This section is pieced together from Sega’s announcements and the press of the time.

An Olympic licence for phones

Sega Mobile worked with International Sports Multimedia, the official video game licensee of the Olympic Games, on two phone games for Beijing 2008. One was a straight sports sim, Beijing 2008 – The Official Mobile Phone Game of the Olympic Games, with four events and 32 nations. The other gave the licence a Sonic twist.

Pocket Gamer reported the pair on 2 April 2008, and days later Sega Mobile listed Sonic at the Olympic Games in its 2008 line-up alongside phone versions of Columns and Samba de Amigo, with the Sonic game due from June. The developer was AirPlay, a British studio that specialised in mobile games.

Two publishers, two launches

In June 2008 Glu Mobile announced that it would publish both Olympic games for Sega Europe across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, continuing a partnership that already covered other Sega phone games. The game was out in Britain by 11 July, when Pocket Gamer reviewed the Java version.

North America followed on 24 July 2008, when Sega Mobile put both games on sale through most of the big carriers. The price depended on the network, anywhere from $2.99 to $7.99. Sega’s vice president of mobile, Linda Chaplin, pitched them as quick, bite-sized games that fitted the way people played on phones.

Sonic at the Olympics: the browser version

Sonic at the Olympics was the version you did not need a phone for. Mediatonic, a British studio founded in 2005, stripped the game back to the discus and the javelin, let you compete against players around the world, and wired in its own online high-score table so that scores could be registered from any site the game was embedded on.

Copies went up on Samsung’s website and on Sega’s, and the studio’s page also pointed players to PlaySEGA, the free web games site Sega opened in October 2008. It was never meant to stand on its own: its job during the Olympics was to advertise the phone game and nudge players into downloading the full five-event version.

Glitches, exploits and oddities

No bugs are documented for this one, but it has a few oddities.

The phantom 1500m hurdles

Sonic Retro lists a “1500m Hurdles” event. Sega’s own product page and its North American press release both list a plain 1500m, followed by the 400m hurdles, so the hurdles belong only to the shorter race.

Four characters, one athlete

Picking Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy changes how you look, not how you play: Pocket Gamer found their abilities identical.

One game, dozens of phones

Sega Retro’s list of supported handsets runs to dozens of LG, Motorola and Nokia models, with screens from 128×128 up to 352×416 pixels. Most of the screenshots on this page come from the 176×208 version.

Videos & media

We could not find an official Sega upload, so here are the phone game’s trailer and a full playthrough of the Java version.

The trailer for the phone game, uploaded by Se9aStuff.

A complete playthrough of the Java version, from the JAVA Mobile Games channel.

Trivia & facts

• 

  Rings in a track and field game: they line every event and boost your score, one of the Sonic touches Pocket Gamer pointed out.
• Pocket Gamer’s review opened by suggesting that Sonic would have made a better mascot for Beijing 2008 than the official one.
• The game launched in North America on the same day as Sega’s realistic Beijing 2008 phone game, and the two were announced, published and marketed as a pair.
• There was no single price: each North American network set its own, from $2.99 to $7.99.
• The whole game was tiny even by 2008 standards: Pocket Gamer listed the European Java version at 347KB.
• Mediatonic, which made the browser version, went on to create Fall Guys in 2020 and was bought by Epic Games in 2021.

Media & artwork

Artwork, the logo, title screens and screenshots from the phone and browser versions. Select any image to view it larger.

Legacy

A short-lived phone game with a long line of Olympic successors. Note: Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) is no longer sold; Sega Mobile’s page for it survives only in the Wayback Machine.

Release history

• Announced 2 April 2008 – Pocket Gamer reports Sega Mobile’s two official Beijing 2008 phone games.
• Sega Mobile line-up 8 April 2008 – Listed among Sega Mobile’s 2008 games, due from June.
• Glu deal 17 June 2008 – Glu Mobile to publish it in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
• UK review 11 July 2008 – Pocket Gamer reviews the Java version: 7/10.
• North American launch 24 July 2008 – On sale through most major carriers, $2.99–7.99.
• Sonic at the Olympics 2008 – Mediatonic’s two-event browser version.
• Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games January 2010 – A Sonic-only iPhone game for Vancouver 2010.
• Sonic at the Olympic Games – Tokyo 2020 2020 – The name returns for an iOS and Android game.

The Sonic-only Olympics that followed

The idea of a Sonic-only Olympic game for phones came back twice. In January 2010 Sega released Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games on iPhone, only to pull it from the App Store within days, and in 2020 the name Sonic at the Olympic Games was reused for a new iOS and Android game tied to Tokyo 2020. Meanwhile the main Olympic series stayed with Mario & Sonic, from London 2012 to Rio 2016.

Can you still get it?

No. The game was sold through mobile networks and Sega Mobile’s website, and neither has offered it for years. A full playthrough on YouTube (see Videos) is the easiest way to see it today.

Sales & reviews

Reception and review scores

Java phone games were rarely reviewed. Pocket Gamer’s review is the one we could find and check, read in its July 2008 form (the site’s current page shows the same verdict as 3.5 out of 5).

Jon Mundy enjoyed the slick presentation and the way timing replaced the usual button-bashing, and he liked the Sonic touches, from the looping 1500m track to the rings. His complaints were about size: five events was not much, they felt too similar, and the four characters played the same. His verdict was that it was “a sprint rather than a marathon”.

Further reading

More from Sonic Scene on Sonic’s Olympic and mobile games:

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against the sources below. Sonic Retro, Sega Retro, IGN, Sega’s own pages and Mediatonic’s page were read through Wayback Machine copies. Screenshots are credited to Sonic Retro and Sonic Wiki Zone in their captions.

• Overview: Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (developer, publisher, events, difficulty levels, high-score board; Wayback copy); Glu Mobile and SEGA Europe press release, “Glu and SEGA Team Up to Bring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Mobile”, 17 June 2008 (bit-tech; Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011); Sonic Scene, “Sonic at the Olympic Games” (original infobox article, Joomla 411)
• Quick Answers: IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Glu Mobile and SEGA Europe press release, “Glu and SEGA Team Up to Bring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Mobile”, 17 June 2008 (bit-tech; Wayback copy); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (developer, publisher, events, difficulty levels, high-score board; Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011)
• Plot / Story: Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (developer, publisher, events, difficulty levels, high-score board; Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011)
• In comics, TV & other media: Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (disambiguation: the 2008 phone game and the 2020 iOS and Android game; Wayback copy); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Venan Entertainment, iOS, January 2010, pulled from the App Store within a week; Wayback copy)
• Characters: Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (developer, publisher, events, difficulty levels, high-score board; Wayback copy); Sega Retro, AirPlay (British mobile developer; Wayback copy); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Glu Mobile and SEGA Europe press release, “Glu and SEGA Team Up to Bring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Mobile”, 17 June 2008 (bit-tech; Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011); Wikipedia, Mediatonic (founded September 2005; Fall Guys, Epic Games acquisition); Sonic Scene, Sonic games on mobile, tablet and PC (our old mobile games menu: “2008, Mobile Phone” and its tile image)
• How it was made: IGN, “SEGA Announces 2008 Mobile Games Line-Up”, 8 April 2008 (Wayback copy); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Kath Brice, “Sega announces two official Beijing 2008 games for mobile”, 2 April 2008 (Wayback copy, 6 April 2008); Glu Mobile and SEGA Europe press release, “Glu and SEGA Team Up to Bring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Mobile”, 17 June 2008 (bit-tech; Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Sega Retro, AirPlay (British mobile developer; Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011); SEGA Blog, “PlaySEGA is Live – Read All About It!”, 14 October 2008 (Wayback copy); Wikipedia, Mediatonic (founded September 2005; Fall Guys, Epic Games acquisition)
• Glitches, exploits and oddities: Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (developer, publisher, events, difficulty levels, high-score board; Wayback copy); Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); Sega Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (2008) (supported handsets and screen sizes; Wayback copy)
• Videos & media: YouTube, Se9aStuff, video Fi8nEeThAxU (checked with oEmbed); YouTube, JAVA Mobile Games, video ceI7HzqAj_4 (checked with oEmbed)
• Trivia & facts: Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Wikipedia, Mediatonic (founded September 2005; Fall Guys, Epic Games acquisition)
• Legacy: Pocket Gamer, Kath Brice, “Sega announces two official Beijing 2008 games for mobile”, 2 April 2008 (Wayback copy, 6 April 2008); IGN, “SEGA Announces 2008 Mobile Games Line-Up”, 8 April 2008 (Wayback copy); Glu Mobile and SEGA Europe press release, “Glu and SEGA Team Up to Bring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Mobile”, 17 June 2008 (bit-tech; Wayback copy); Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008); IGN, “The Greatest Sporting Event on Earth Comes to Mobile Phones” (Sega Mobile press release), 24 July 2008 (Wayback copy); Mediatonic, “Sonic at the Olympics” project page (Wayback copy, 7 October 2011); Sonic Retro, Sonic at the Olympic Games (disambiguation: the 2008 phone game and the 2020 iOS and Android game; Wayback copy); Sega Mobile, Sonic at the Olympic Games product page, 2008 (Wayback copy, 20 November 2008)
• Sales & reviews: Pocket Gamer, Jon Mundy, Sonic at the Olympic Games review (Java, European version), 11 July 2008: 7/10 (Wayback copy, 1 August 2008)