Mario VS Sonic

[red shadow]

Does anyone think that Mario & Sonic are a bit too similar? I am a SEGA fan so I like Sonic, but I kinda like Mario too. I think it's kinda weird that someone copied off the other company. I think it was Nintendo that copied off SEGA, but I could be wrong. I mean, come on! It's un-original! They're so similar, that they have to join games!!!! Does anyone know who copied off who? Anyway, which one do you think is better? Mario or Sonic? U decide!!!

[moonlit]

Actually, they're both pretty different, both from a gameplay angle and a storyline angle. See, Sonic's "thing" is that he's fast, Mario definitely isn't, and while Sonic can jump it's definitely not his forté, Mario on the other hand is known for pretty much only jumping. Sonic never had weapons either, Mario could fire things at enemies.

Storyline-wise, Sonic was a natural creature which hated Robotnik's relentless technical attempts to rule, Mario's storyline has quite the reverse, Mario is the human rather then Bowser, and Mario's motivation is rescuing Peach.

Personally I favour Sonic, I was a Sega kid, but Mario has his moments too. The 2D games mostly rule over their 3D offspring, though, on both sides of the console coin. Except maybe Sonic Adventure and Mario 64, those were alright.

Edit: As for who copied who, Mario came first (about 10 years previous to Sonic's arrival) and I don't think Sega necessarily copied them, but I do think they realised they needed a mascot to counter Nintendo's Mario. Whether either of them were designed to be mascots I don't know, but clearly they ended up that way, and likely for the better in both cases, both are very well recognised and extremely popular characters/game series.

[red shadow]

I'm talkin' about the BIG things here, We're talking about the gameplay. Mario and Sonic's gameplay are pretty much the same. I think Sonic is definately cooler because I'm a gamer and I like SEGA more than crappy Mario. I do play some Mario games, because they are pretty cool 'coz they're similar to Sonic. And I have a Wii so I kinda have to play it.

[etftw]

I have to go with Mario, I think anyone who had a NES as a kid or used to play the original Donkey Kong will understand where I am coming from when I say that Mario brings back a lot of memories.

I think both Nintendo and Sega brought out great material, I wouldn't say either of them copied off each other as such, as moonlit said Nintendo did come first, but Sega's style was pretty fresh when they released their first system in my opinion.

[red shadow]

I think they're only similar because back then the controls and graphics were very limited. Anyone who uses gamemaker can make a game like that in 7 hours, with better graphics. There are heaps of games that are very similar eg: Alex Kidd, Mario, Sonic and heaps more :)

So, lets just say that it took a while before they got much different, all 3: Alex Kidd, Mario and Sonic.

Do they still make Alex Kidd games?

[ericdesouza]

Sonic had a few very good games on Genesis, but really fell off hard after that. All the Sonic games lately have been beyond crap. While a majority of Mario games are great. There might be a few average ones, but I can't really name many horrid Mario games.