It has been two years now since Nintendo starting shipping the Wii console to retail stores for anxious fans to take home. Following the release of the game console, the race began for Nintendo and third party publishers to develop new game titles that would appeal to the Nintendo’s newly acquired market segment of casual gamers. This turned out to be a steep challenge for most game publishers who were struggling for sympathy. Unlike Sega Corp., who seemed to be doing nicely, even more so than Nintendo with Sonic the Hedgehog in the vanguard of their game releases.

Simon Jeffery, president of Sega of America, said himself "Sega was the first third-party publisher to believe in the Wii". Leading off the race gave Sega a good head start above all other third party developers as far as game titles for the Wii console. One of the biggest and most notable rewards in this early commitment was that it allowed Sega to join forces with Nintendo in the development of "Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games". The result of the combined effort was overwhelming, more than 10 million copies sold around the globe.

Sega president claims that Sega games "tap into the same market that Nintendo opened". Among the most popular of the game titles is Sonic the Hedgehog game series, which has captured the heart of millions of players worldwide. Originally, the blue blur character Sonic was developed to rival Nintendo’s Mario. Today however, we are happy to them sharing the same platform and joining forces in the same video screen. Sega’s latest Sonic installment unveiled this week is called "Sonic and the Black Knight". An innovative approach to Sonic the Hedgehog games in which Sonic has been boldly equipped with talking sword, and sent back in time to the middle ages to explore the land of Camelot and King Arthur. Bordering the ever so popular role-playing games genre, with a sorceress and medieval times, Sonic comes to the rescue of a sorceress battling against an evil force trying to posses King Arthur.

Overall, maybe there is not much to say about other third party game titles for the Nintendo Wii. But owners who took home the last release of Mario and Sonic mashup are still happy. Following the success of Sonic and Mario at the Olympic games, the team at Sega and Nintendo plan to unveil "Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics", just in time for the winter Olympic games to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, next February.