Was Sonic better than Mario during its peak?

Hello friends,

Recently Sonic Movie trailer has arrived. and it receive incredible amount of backlash as only good thing is jim carrey as Dr robotnik.

however it make me think that during the peak that is Snes/Genesis era Sonic was leaps and bound better game. in literally every way. it was truely a unique game of its time. a fast paced ring collected platformer is so much more fun than slow mario walking and jumping towards enemies.

although sonic didnot work after 2D era but mario does that why people may regard mario as better.

I was a kid back then and even as kid i never liked Mario but sonic was on different level.

so my friends, was it better than mario during peak? im not talking about now because obviously people would say mario because sonic never worked past 2D platformers.

lets discuss

No, I don’t think so myself. I’ve always preferred Mario over Sonic myself. Even when Sonic was at its best I always felt any average Mario game to be better and more enjoyable.

Nope

I can’t decide.

Super Mario World is the peak of Mario games. Sonic 2 is the best Sonic game.

I love both to death and have fond memories of them.

I will say that Sonic 2 is better than SMB1-3. SMW = Sonic 2.

Well actually, I did enjoy Sonic games on Sega Genesis back in the 90's growing up. Sonic has had some good stuff in it's prime time, but Mario is more consistent, and imo Mario's peaks are higher and Sonic's lows are lower.

I had a SNES, Megadrive and an Amiga2000 at the time. Sonic was better than any platforming series on all of them IMO, at least until later in the gen when games like Earthworm Jim and Dynamite Headdy came out. I have never liked any of the 3D Sonic games.

No. Sega in general was always kind of the less popular little brother, hence their current state.

Dreamcast was dope though and in my top 3 consoles of all time, but way too late to save them.

8 Bit - Mario

16 bit - Sonic

Ever since - Mario

Hell no. Level design in Sonic games has always been trash. I know the point of Sonic is to go fast, but try exploring the levels in a Sonic game. It's a confusing mess.

Nah no way.

@ghosts4ever:

Mechanically, Mario was always better. But I just like Sonic better.

Hell no, dude.

Im talking about genesis sonic and not any one after that.

This sonic and knuckles is best 2D platformer ever and craps all over any mario game imo.

I remember lot of my friends and my cousin own NES and they were mario fans. even back then when i was kid i hated mario let alone now.

You are comparing two brilliant game series, so it is about equal anyway, but I would say that Sonic 1 and 2 left the most lasting impression on me. Sonic 1 is no. 5 on my all-time favorites list. I still vividly remember when I got a Genesis in 1991 and put the game in the console. Wow! Loops! Speed! Catchy tunes. Amazing graphics which were way better than any platformer on my Amiga 500.

Super Mario 3 and World are probably the highlights of the 16-bit era, and while those games have more playability, depth and variation than Sonic, they lacked the instant wow-factor that the blue hedgehog provided.

Always thought Alex The Kid was better. At least the first two.

It was a lot of features these two lacked. An item shop, logical puzzle solving, inventory, multilayered levels (air, land, ground) and vehicle choice built in a level, than a vehicle centric level.

i'd rather play these over most Mario/Sonic 8/16 bit titles.

Shinobi makes perfect use of the MS hardware as well, really is a beautiful looking little game. (8 bit)

Mario was always trash.

super mario world was better than any sonic game imo. it's probably my favourite platformer of all time. the early sonic games were phenomenal though. mario 3 was brilliant but i used to prefer mickey mouse's castle of illusion on the master system, i think. wonderboy 3 holds a special place in my heart too.

the early 90s were a great era for platformers. the amiga had some really good ones as well - james pond robocod, another world, flashback, batman the movie game, zool, gods, superfrog all spring to mind. probably loads i'm forgetting too. none on mario's level though

Sonic was definitely better than Mario back in the 16-bit era. And in terms of 2D platforming, Sonic is still better than Mario to this day. Sonic Mania is easily better than any 2D Mario game of the last several generations.

But what has kept Mario far more relevant after all these decades is his successful transition to 3D, which Sonic was unable to do. Sonic works best in 2D.

It also doesn't help that Sonic has an image problem, with a '90s teen "attitude" that hasn't aged well. In contrast to Mario's image of a lovable working-class plumber, which has aged a lot better, and why Mario is the face of video games.

Not for me. Mario at it's finest is the pinnacle of platform gaming in my eyes.

@DocSanchez: Nailed it, end the thread now. Although Sonic Mania is pretty awesome and competes with any side scrolling newer Mario IMO, but the 3d Mario's BLOW 3d Sonics outta the water.

Even Klaus is laughing.

Sonic is a one-note character for me (He is that guy that hangs out with Tails)

Mario excells at being both a 2D and a 3D platformer.

Not a lot of games work both in 2D as well as 3D. But Nintendo pulled it off... multiple times succesfully.

There's not really a definitive answer to this. Both franchises were objectively high quality games and to say if one was better would be a matter of personal preference. For me it was always Sonic and even with modern games I prefer Sonic.

Sonic is better than Mario.

/thread

I guess it depends on personal taste, to me Sonic was shit. Playing Mania just made me sure it was never my thing and will never be. And I played way more Megadrive than SNES.

No, Mario has always been better than Sonic.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever really enjoyed a Sonic game. The early games in particular have bad level design and fairly average gameplay - I think it's partly nostalgia that puts Sonic ahead of, say, Bubsy the Bobcat.

I think Sonic is better now too. Somehow, I was able to eek out 41 hours from Forces despite it being the worst boosting game, but I was bored out of my mind with Odyssey, and ended up dropping it after reaching the city world. Sonic is just an inherently more fun series to me, while Mario is somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Never... I was an 8th grade kid when Snes and genesis where hitting their stride behind super Mario world and sonic 1,2... Sonic was never in the same world as Mario to me. Mario was a way better controlling platformer and the whole "speed" element of sonic never translated to better gameplay.

2D wise i'd sort of agree. New Super Mario Bros is really, really bland. There is almost no challenge and the art direction looks like a a-typical mobile game. It's lifeless and none of the music stands out. Had it not been Mario, Deluxe would have been slated imo.

Having said that, would Rayman over both of them. Seems to be the only series Ubisoft hasn't fucked up yet with their bullshit.

No

Well, I enjoyed Sonic Generations more than Mario Odyssey. But they're very different styles of games. 3D Mario games are slow-paced 3D platformers, whereas 3D Sonic games are fast-paced, arcade-style, platform-racer hybrids. And I find the latter more fun than the former. But the latter just isn't in-line with modern game industry expectations, where fast-paced fun games are no longer in fashion, but we live in an age where gamers instead prefer slow-paced walking simulators.

Sonic has never been great. I never understood the fuss. The graphics have been average (although the whale in the Dreamcast game looked cool in its day), gameplay and platforming mediocre at best, and he’s not really cute.

Over Mario? Come on - are you insane?!?

I preferred Mario.

For me the first Sonic is better then Mario 1 and 2 but once Mario 3 came out it's game over for Sonic.

This doesn't make any sense. Mario 3 preceded sonic 1 by three years.

:P

Ignoring everything else argued here- Sonic (namely 2/3 was most definitely a looker. It's presentation was impeccable, timeless even. Sonic Mania is a good looking game and didn't change much, because it didn't need to. Comparatively, I would say Sonic Adventure has aged badly visually, mainly due to terrible attempts at being cinematic, compounded with weird shit like... humans and realistic looking cities. Most of the 3D Sonic games just look bad.

-

Worth bringing up, Sonic on the Master System/GG wasn't a port, it was it's own game and also looked terrific. Along with Phantasy Star and Streets Of Rage, a good demonstration of what the system was capable of.

Genesis era Sonic was better, but Ganbare Goemon was better than both!!!

@uninspiredcup: Sonic 1 was it's own game too in many ways. Completely different style of game. Very few bad guys, and some completely new levels like Bridge and Jungle.

Sonic has always been overrated. It was "cooler" than Mario, and that's all it had.

I'm going to go with this, with the exception of Super Mario World, I prefer the 2D sonic Games.

However Sonic CD is considered to be one of the best Sonic games, sadly it's on the Sega CD and very few people got to play it back in the day.

But Mario transitioned to 3D much better than Sonic. I dont think any of the 3D Sonics are worth playing at all.....unless you're looking for a good laugh

@Planeforger: Wow comparing Sonic to Bubsy...that's a bold, highly dipshit opinion you got there. So you're trying to say that the best Sonic had to offer, for most that being Sonic 2, which is considered one of the top platformers ever, is no better then Bubsy, one of the worst platformers ever? You're either deep in troll territory or that's like I said earlier, the biggest dipshit opinion I've read in ages.

As a huge Sonic fan, even I can admit Sonic was never better than Mario. Ever...

Sonic CD is probably my favorite game, but the gameplay and secrets in Super Mario World push it over the top for me critically

No.

Sonic was great during the 16-bit era, but even when Sonic was at it's peak during the 16-bit era, I still thought Super Mario World was a better game.

And Donkey Kong Country was better than both of them.

2D Sonic has always been great. Evident from the fact that Sonic Mania is better than every 2D Mario platformer made in the last two decades. Sonic is the king of 2D platformers.

I also prefer the 8-bit Sonic games over the 8-bit Mario games. I had way more fun with Sonic 1 & 2 on the Master System than any of the Mario games on the NES.

No.

I think that back in the day, even though i'm a sega man through and through, I'd give the edge to Mario due to the three big ones by a knifes edge. SMB 3, SMW and Mario 64. Just edging out Sonic with Sonic 2, sonic 3 and k and sonic cd. In recent times ive grown very bored of Mario games and I would say Sonic is a more exciting series to me. Sonic Mania and Sonic Generations blow away any recent Mario games in my opinion. 3D world games feel stale, odyssey and galaxy marios are not that great.

Oh yeah sonics music blows away marios too. In fact, sega game music in general is better than nintendos game music overall.

Here is my opinion summed up by the artwork of a random 5 year old from the internet.