Who's the bigger videogame icon?

[MY85 offline]

Back in the early 90's, Mario vs Sonic was the debate of the century among videogamers. Mario was the figurehead of Nintendo while Sonic was the figurehead of Sega. So I'm bringing this debate, curious to see if time has changed the majority opinion. So, tell me, who was/is the better video game icon:



or

[Tangent128 offline]

Based on those particular pictures, Mario.
Based on final boss music, Sonic.

[knifey offline]

I vote for Mario. I played a fair amount of his games, and when I saw Sonic, I always thought it was boring and I never really found it appealing.

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[JesusFreak offline]

Mario, because Mario is well, Mario.

[Kamekai offline]

Mario owns all, Sonic is more of a novelty. But at this rate, Nintendo will squeeze Mario dry so hard that he bursts. At least Sega knew when to call it quits. But FYI, I own 'em both. NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast...

[Lyoko Wario offline]

I say Mario. He has a longer history and his games are much more challenging.

...well, the old ones anyway. I'm not savvy to modern Sonic.

(and you should have used the Sonic picture from the SSBB website, as it is cooler)

[Gauntlet offline]

The stereotypical Italian beats the anthropomorphic hedgehog. Mario just has more history behind him, and is more iconic than Sonic in every way; Mario has catch-phrases, symbols, and more popular games than Sonic. I'm not a big SEGA or Nintendo fan, so I can't properly gauge them both (on that token, I'm not biased towards either one), but from what I've seen, Mario is miles ahead of Sonic. Mario is...well, there's no other word for it than "better than Sonic".

Besides, I always get a little bit of puke way in the back of my throat whenever I see artists try to make animals look sexy--Sonic the Hedgehog has a few female characters that have gone down that route. It always induces a bit of nausea when I see Rouge the Bat. Ugh.

[matsumo itsu offline]

id say sonic since he doesnt look no where near like a plumbler like mario.

[Sithking Zero offline]

Based on the way people talk to Mario in the games, and on the other characters, I dislike Mario more.

Sonic is just a more likeable character- a cocky, speed-obsessed being who beats up a mad scientist for a living.

[G-Force offline]

Name a good Sonic game after he made the jump to 3-D, cause I'm having a hard time thinking of one right now.

Mario all the way baby! He's the Mickey Mouse of video games and has been i countless genres of games ranging from racing to RPGs which are all a blast to play. Mario Kart DS has such a strong following that they play that game in Evo which is pretty much the game tournament of the year. Smash Brothers was there as well but there was not a game staring Sonic in the house.

[MY85 offline]

I grew up with Mario, so he gets my vote. Granted that I played Sonic games too, but I was more of a SNES/N64 person in the 90's and I never had any console from Sega.

Mario is a bigger icon, but Sonic was a very important one (and possibly the bigger icon at one point) for the Genesis vs SNES era.

Nintendo had Mario, Luigi, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Zelda... but Sonic did much more for Sega.

The Sonic games... for every good thing they've done (the character Shadow, for example) they have multiple bad things outweighing it (like all the Sonic games since the 90s)

Mario is so overused today it's not even funny...

[. offline]

Solid Snake > *

[Sithking Zero offline]

Name a good Sonic game after he made the jump to 3-D, cause I'm having a hard time thinking of one right now.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Love that game to death, and it introduced Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, two of my favorite characters. Downside: Arguably started the "Modern Sonic Era" of games, including so many of those games that are ripped on so often, including Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and others.

Not to mention it's plagued by the Demon Of Sucky Camera Angles, like all sonic games.

However, it's still really fun.

[JesusFreak offline]

Name a good Sonic game after he made the jump to 3-D, cause I'm having a hard time thinking of one right now.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Love that game to death, and it introduced Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, two of my favorite characters. Downside: Arguably started the "Modern Sonic Era" of games, including so many of those games that are ripped on so often, including Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and others.

Not to mention it's plagued by the Demon Of Sucky Camera Angles, like all sonic games.

However, it's still really fun.

Yep, and the Final Boss battle was one of the best in gaming history.

[Sithking Zero offline]

Aaaaah... Live and Learn... that song's going to be in the new Super Smash Brothers Game as Sonic's theme song... I think.

Still, it is an amazingly awesome song.

Though "All Hail Shadow," and "I am all of me," are still pretty high on my list of songs...

[. offline]

Aaaaah... Live and Learn... that song's going to be in the new Super Smash Brothers Game as Sonic's theme song... I think.

Still, it is an amazingly awesome song.

Though "All Hail Shadow," and "I am all of me," are still pretty high on my list of songs...

I was always more partial to any of Knuckes songs on SA2B

[Sithking Zero offline]

Aaaaah... Live and Learn... that song's going to be in the new Super Smash Brothers Game as Sonic's theme song... I think.

Still, it is an amazingly awesome song.

Though "All Hail Shadow," and "I am all of me," are still pretty high on my list of songs...

I was always more partial to any of Knuckes songs on SA2B

Meh, they're okay, but I always spent so much time trying to find the emeralds that I'd heard the songs about a thousand times each... so they got old.

I like "Escape from the City," as well.

What songs can Mario say he brought into the world? "Doot doot doot, doot doot doot doo, do do do doo doo doo doot doot do do..." What other songs? What works has he helped craft?

[Tangent128 offline]

Hey, the Mario theme is classic!

But yes, Live and Learn = amazing. *plays MIDI*

(By the way, who's listened to Hedgehog Heaven/Project Chaos?)

[Overcaffeinated Sloth offline]

I'd say mario. Honestly, I haven't even heard of sonic for years, and since he never was a big part of my shildhood, I never thought about it.

Now Mario, that's a diferent story. It's fascinating that when it first started they came up with all these elaborite stories for... pixels.

In addition, you just see more of Mario in Pop culture. How many VGCats comics have you seen with Mario?

And does Sonic have a theme? None that I can think of. Better yet, does he have hos own DDR mix? I THINK NOT!

[Lyoko Wario offline]

I really liked that Mario and Sonic will be fighting together (or fighting each other) on the new Smash Brothers. I like it when a bunch of characters from unrelated franchises appear together for something, even though crossover fan-fiction often misses out on the possibilities of this. I really hope this blasts open the doors (or just mildly leaves them ajar. Hey, anything's something!) for further inter-video game company interaction. The world of games must be explored as a whole!

The second SSBB comes out, I hope you guys will be up for a Wi-Fi Brawl!

[MY85 offline]

I thought this forum had a few diehard Sonic fans that would defend Sonic to death and insult Mario in the process.

Turned out that most people support Mario and this topic wasn't good enough for discussion.

[Overcaffeinated Sloth offline]

I don't think so, we're still discussing i, and it's only the opinions of a few members.

And, um, you DID ask who's favorites the charachter were.

[Kita K. offline]

Mario is pretty much the first name to come to mind when one thinks of games. Sonic's up there relatively high too, but he took a nosedive after Sonic and Knuckles.

[zex marquise offline]

Some people know Sonic when you mention him. Everyone knows Mario. And G Force is right, every 3D Sonic game has sucked without exception. Even the brand new ones for 360 and Wii aren't getting very good reviews. Bad controls and freaky storylines (Sonic and a human in love? Eww...). The only thing that made Sonic an icon was the first few games' sense of blurring speed. They have yet to reproduce that faithfully in today's Sonic games, so he's lost his charm. Mario, on the other hand, has never had a game that sucked. He has always been cool and endlessly enjoyable to play. You just can't beat a man with a mustache and a stereotyped Italian accent.

[JesusFreak offline]

*cough* Mario party infinity*cough*

I appreciate Sonic adventure 2, but Crush 40's music eventually just generally melds into one giant heap of guitar riffs after that. I honestly can't take Sonic Riders anymore jsut becfause of the music (The cruddy controls are another issue entirely for me).