Without trying to sound overly cliché, hell has officially frozen over. It wasn't long ago we were all getting into fistfights over who was cooler, Mario or Sonic. Anything one could do, the other could do better. Bloody lips, chipped teeth and scraped up elbows were a small price to pay if you managed to slam the other dude's favorite mascot. Today... not so much. Nintendo and Sega have been allies for years now, so that intense rivalry has lessened. But, in order to let the world finally decide who's best, the two companies have announced Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Wait. What?

Yup, both mega mascots will be competing in the 2008 games located in Beijing (in video game form, at least). Expect to see both worlds collide in an explosion of bright colors and bad dialogue later this year near the holiday season.

The joint press release issued says characters from both sides will be appearing, so fans of Knuckles, Tails, Luigi and Yoshi will be oh-so happy to know their faves have made the Olympic cut, with more characters to follow. Just please leave Big the Cat and Stupid the Whatever It Is out of this, we beg you.

Yeah we're a little bummed this iconic meeting is taking place at the friggin' Olympics of all places (and the balancing issues that readily present themselves), but the Mario sports games are generally pretty good and Sega's rep for arcadey sports titles is equally impressive (Decathlete, anyone?), so we're willing to wait and see what happens.

For our interview with Nintendo and Sega, simply hit the next page.