Sonic 1 vs. Mario World

[j_factor]

They were both pretty revolutionary and had a big impact

I think in terms of "revolutionary" and "impact", Sonic has Mario World beat, hands down. Socket, Bubsy, Superfrog, Zool (and so on and so forth) weren't taking anything from SMW. The only game that ever reminded me a lot of Super Mario World was Donkey Kong Country.

[Eponasoft]

Both games were amazing for their day. It's hard to choose which one is better... depends on the criteria. But when you consider everything, SMW comes out on top. It's a lot bigger, allows you to play with a friend, is loaded with secrets and non-linear paths... there's just way more variety in the game. Sonic, on the other hand, is more challenging and plays a hell of a lot faster... it's not devoid of secrets but that's not really one of its strong points... more an afterthought than anything. But that's cool too, because they're still done right.

It really depends on which paradigm you prefer... an adventure game or a level-based game. SMW is an open adventure, Sonic is straightforward progression. Pick your poison.

(And I will actually disagree that Sonic 2 was a better game... I found it worse. It's too easy, Tails is obnoxious, the bonus stage was stupid... the bosses were inventive but that's already a mainstay of the series. Sonic CD was way better.)

[thegamezmaster]

Super Mario World for me. So much more to do for my taste.

[ReaXan]

Depends on how much money your family had. During 1995 and 1996 the Playstation, Saturn and Nintendo 64 libraries were still pretty small, not delivering as much variety as they eventually would in 1997 and on. For people like me the Genesis and SNES still seemed like they would be important to have around and games like DKC2, SMW2, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Kirby Super Star, DKC3 and Sonic 3D Blast were just too exciting to see in shopping ads to pass up. Before the internet, the two main places I found out about games were TV commercials and printed ads in the mail from major retailers.

I agree with what you are saying and you do have a valid point, I still collected Genesis and SNES games even before and after PSX/N64, I just dont remember SMW2 being some epic gaming my friends were waiting for. Everyone around here brings SWM2 into the "console wars" equation but it came out after it had ended for the most part. I also think being 7th/8th graders at that time had to do with our tastes shifting a bit as well. We were into MK and other more mature games that didn't have the super kiddie aspect. Zelda is the exception to this rule always

[j_factor]

Yeah, Yoshi's Island did seem pretty "kiddie", moreso than Super Mario World. But you still had plenty of other 16-bit games. The way I remember it, Playstation and Saturn didn't catch on until the following year. 1995 was still mostly about the 16-bit systems.