I don’t have MSOG, but my son does have MSOWG. He’s only played it a couple times, but from what I saw, there were definitely the types of sports I see on the Olympics, skiing, bobsledding, curling, skating, etc. As for whether it more resembles the winter Olympics than MSOG resembles the summer Olympics, I can’t say as a) again I don’t have MSOG, b) I haven’t actually played MSOWG myself, c) my son has only played a couple of the games in the disc for a total of less than an hour and d) I don’t really watch the Olympics. But I CAN answer one part of your question. You do NOT have to use the balance board to play the games, when my son played, he didn’t use the balance board, and I know that he did bobsledding, which you could use the board on, but he tilted the wiimote to simulate the direction of the turns and such.