Red vs. Blue

We’ve got a pretty unique situation headed our way in just a few weeks. On October 17th, Sonic Superstars, an all-new 2D Sonic adventure, will be landing on store shelves. On October 20th, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, an all-new 2D Mario adventure, comes out as well. For gamers of a certain age, the Mario and Sonic rivalry is one that will never truly die, so having their latest games releasing a mere few days apart opens a pretty fun window to compare the two. The Mario and Sonic franchises have both seen their ups and downs, but which one is the best? Well, that’s all going to come down to personal preference, obviously. There’s no actual definitive way to say which one is “better” when talking Mario vs. Sonic, but that’s never stopped us before, right? 

For the next two weeks, I’m going to break down the Mario and Sonic franchises and try to determine which one is the best at what they do. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, this is just my opinion! But as someone who has genuine love for both series, it’s going to be a pretty fun exercise. 

I’m going to break this down into two main categories. The first is platformers, which we’ll be handling this week, and the second is the spinoffs. This will be where we compare their various other titles, but only when there is a direct comparison to be had. So we’ll put the Mario Kart series up against the various Sonic racing games, but as there’s no Sonic Golf game, Mario Golf is off the table. Make sense? 

Okay, let’s get to work on the platformers! 

8-Bit Adventures

I thought the most fair way to approach this was to see how each franchise handled themselves on different generations of hardware. Since Sonic got started so much later than Mario, comparing Super Mario Bros. for NES to Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis seemed a little weird. Thankfully, Sonic had quite a career on Sega’s own 8-bit platforms. So here’s what we’ve got for Mario vs. Sonic in the realm of 8-bit hardware.

If we’re sticking strictly to platformers, Mario has 6 between NES and Game Boy, and Sonic has 7 between Master System and Game Gear. Yes I’m including Tails Adventure because it’s great. This is honestly a much closer category than most people give it credit for. Yes, Sonic wasn’t really designed for 8-bit hardware, but Sonic on Master System is a genuinely great little platformer. In fact, with the exception of Sonic Blast, all of Sonic’s 8-bit adventures are really solid stuff. Sonic Blast though, man that game is rough. Even if you go with its lesser known Master System port which has a lot more screen space to work with, it’s just a lackluster game all around. Trying to make those CG-rendered sprites work on Game Gear and Master System was a bad plan, and the whole thing just feels sluggish. There weren’t any Mario spinoff character platformers on NES, so Tails Adventure more or less stands alone, and while Sonic Labyrinth is by no means a masterpiece, it’s a pretty fun game in its own right. 

But then you look at the Mario games, and for as good as the Sonic stuff is, even given their age, the 8-bit Mario platformers are simply some of the best games ever made. Well, the Japan version of Super Mario Bros. 2, aka The Lost Levels, is a hateful creature that actively despises its audience, but other than that these are all-time classics for a reason. Even Super Mario Land, for as limited as it is, still shines as an incredibly fun and charming game. 

8-bit Sonic games deserve a ton of respect for sure, but this category definitely goes to Mario. 

Winner: Mario

16-bit Adventures

Now here’s a much more lopsided Mario vs. Sonic battle, or at least it is at first glance. There were a whole 2 original Mario platformers released on the Super NES versus a whopping seven on Genesis and its various add-ons. This really is a tough one though because there’s an astonishing amount of quality on display here. 

Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island are genuine masterpieces. They’re among the best games ever released on one of the best platforms of all time. Just about everything about those two games is about as perfect as can be. But while I would personally say that both of those games are leagues better than any of the Sonic Genesis games, there is quantity to take into consideration. 

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Sonic 1-3 are truly spectacular. The whole Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On business was so unbelievably cool that even my Nintendo-loving self was incredibly jealous of my Genesis owning friends. Those three and a half games almost cancel out Mario’s two, which leaves three more games for Sonic to take the lead with. The thing is, Sonic CD has never really grabbed me the same way as the Genesis games did. Sonic 3D Blast is really quite good, but I’m not sure how much it really moves the needle here. And sadly, Knuckles Chaotix really isn’t a very good game. It’s… novel? But it’s just not good. 

So where does that leave us? Honestly, I think it’s a draw. Mario only had two games the entire generation, but boy did he make them count. Sonic tried more things, and successfully managed to get seven games out during that same time, most of which are great. I can’t decide, so I won’t. Everybody gets a point. 

Winner: Draw

32/64-bit Adventures

This one, on the other hand, is no contest. It’s honestly crazy how few games Mario and Sonic managed to release during this time, but here we are. Super Mario 64 was a revelation. It’s got its problems for sure, but there’s no denying that it’s a master class in 3D game design, especially considering its age. But Sonic, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well on Saturn. I’m being super generous here because Sonic 3D Blast is a port of a Genesis game, and Sonic Jam only qualifies because it has that whole 3D playable bit. Which is fun, but by no means enough to stand up to the might of Super Mario 64. This Mario vs. Sonic bout belongs to Mario. 

Winner: Mario

Next-Gen Adventures

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the 128-bit era, and while it may not be quite as lopsided as the last one, this one handily leans in Sonic’s favor. Super Mario Sunshine is a very good game, but it’s got some pretty serious issues, and is easily one of the weaker entries in the series. Meanwhile, I may not love Sonic Adventure, but there’s no denying the magic that game has. Same with its sequel, especially when it came to GameCube as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Sonic Heroes is where I think 3D Sonic games started going really poorly, but it still seems to be well loved, and the less said about Shadow the Hedgehog the better. I know the game has its fans, but let’s just say I’m not one of them. 

Regardless, Sonic takes this round for sure. 

Winner: Sonic

Game Boy Advance

Look, including Mario Advance 4 is being extremely generous, but it does have those super cool e-reader levels, so it technically qualifies as a new game. But the other 3 Mario Advance games are just enhanced ports of their SNES counterparts, so they don’t count for the purposes of this contest, which really works in Sonic’s favor here because whoo boy is Sonic Genesis ever bad! 

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But honestly, even if I were to include the other Mario Advance games, I’m not sure they’d be able to compete with the Sonic Advance trilogy. Yes, they’re ports of some of the best games of all time, but they’re hardly the best way to play those games. And Sonic Advance is great! The blue blur may have been struggling through some serious growing pains in terms of transitioning to 3D, but his 2D adventures continued to shine throughout. This one’s another easy win for  Sonic. 

Winner: Sonic

Nintendo DS

Oof, here’s another tough one. Here we have one great game pitted against three really good games. (Sorry, Super Mario 64 DS doesn’t count). 

The New Super Mario Bros. games deserve all the criticism that they get, except for this one in my humble opinion. The first NSMB is a legitimately fantastic Mario game. It’s fun, inventive, and has the distinction of being the first one in the series, so all of its various elements are still fresh here. 

Sonic Rush though, is kind of brilliant. The way it used both screens for the action was really cool, and the boss battles looked amazing. Those soundtracks too! Man, those are good games. I think we have another tie on our hands. 

Or at least we would, if it weren’t for Sonic Colors. It may share the same name as its console counterpart, but this is a wholly unique Sonic game, and thus it counts here, tipping the scale in Sonic’s favor because it’s right there with the Rush games as a wonderfully solid Sonic adventure. 

Winner: Sonic

Wii/PS3/360 Adventures

I’m not going to say that the Sonic games released during this generation aren’t good. In fact, many of them are. Sonic Generations is a blast. Sonic Colors is a good time. I didn’t even hate Sonic the Hedgehog 4 or Secret Rings nearly as much as most people did. But even if you’re generous enough to see the good in Sonic 06, Sonic’s superior numbers can’t even begin to compete with the Galaxy games. 

Yes, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is basically a non-entity here. It’s fine. In fact, it’s pretty good in a lot of ways. But it feels like such a rehash of what came before that I’ve never really felt much of a desire to go back to it. Super Mario Galaxy and its amazing sequel though are beyond phenomenal. The first Galaxy was a spectacular experience on its own, so that the sequel managed to be EVEN BETTER is still mind-blowing. This one isn’t even close. 

Winner: Mario

Nintendo 3DS

Again, the New Super Mario Bros. game on 3DS I consider a non-entity. I’ve never even finished that game. It just did nothing for me. So even though Sonic had a pretty weak showing on the 3DS overall, you’d think that his four games could beat Mario’s two. But no, Super Mario 3D Land is just that darn good. 

Super Mario 3D Land is such a crazy good game. It took what worked about 3D and 2D Mario games, and meshed them together to brilliant effect. I can’t say enough good things about that game, and its very existence (coupled with Mario Kart 7) saved the 3DS platform from certain doom. That’s another point for the plumber. 

Winner: Mario

Wii U

This is where the generational differences started to blur thanks to Nintendo being all weird, so I’m just going to include Sonic’s Wii U games here, and credit his multiplatform games to Switch. That’s the way that makes the most sense to me anyway. 

Unfortunately, that puts Sonic at a serious disadvantage on Wii U. Sonic: Lost World is a pretty cool game. Sonic Boom is, well, not great. But it’s not terrible! Mario though, had New Super Mario Bros. U, the only NSMB game that actually felt like a proper sequel to the original, Super Mario 3D World, a game that improved on the already excellent 3D Land in every way, and Super Mario Maker, a game that managed to become a phenomenon even on the Wii U. This generation easily goes to Mario. 

Winner: Mario

Current-Gen Adventures

Look. In any other generation, the excellence that is Sonic Mania would be enough to score Sonic the point. Mania is such a good game. Like, unbelievably so. Recapturing the magic of those Genesis games isn’t an easy thing to get right with modern sensibilities, but they absolutely nailed it on that one. Sonic Mania is just plain great. Forces was pretty cool, though ultimately not for me. Frontiers is also kind of weird and somewhat underwhelming in my opinion. Not necessarily bad, though not really good either. But just look at the absolutely stacked lineup Sonic is up against this generation. 

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Super Mario Odyssey. Super Mario Maker 2. Super Mario Bros. 35. Bowser’s Fury. All four of them are phenomenal. Even if you take away Mario 35 since it can’t even be played anymore for some dumb reason, it’s still a massacre. Mario is absolutely killing it on Switch, and for as great as Mania is, there’s no standing up to that level of quality. 

Of course, the big question comes down to Wonder vs Superstars. But since neither one of those games is out yet, I’m going to hold off on rewarding any points for this generation. But based on what I’ve seen of Wonder, Sonic Superstars has a heck of an uphill battle on its hands. 

Let’s see what the score is so far. 

Mario: 6

Sonic: 4

Even though he has Mario beat in terms of quantity, Mario’s quality has resulted in the winning score so far. But the contest isn’t over! We’ve still got racers, RPGs, puzzlers, and more to take into consideration. Can Sega’s mascot mount a comeback? Check back next week to find out!