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    Default Sonic vs. Mario in the 16-bit era

    It's hard to pick a favorite between Genesis and SNES, because they each had their strengths and weaknesses. One of Sega's biggest strengths, in my opinion, during the 16-bit era was their main mascot games. Sonic just crushed Mario in the 16-bit era (talking home consoles, not portables). On the Genesis alone, between 1991-1994, Sonic had 4 games - 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. Mario, meanwhile, had just one released during that time period on the SNES - Super Mario World. If you include the Sega CD, that's FIVE games against one. And these weren't mediocre games either. These games ranged from pretty good (1) to better than SMW (2 and CD).

    While SMW was a masterpiece, I just find some of the 16-bit Sonics more fun, and the rings system was a significant innovation over Mario. In SMW, if you get hit, you either die or lose strength, and power-ups are harder to come by than rings in Sonic. You get hit in Sonic, you still have the same strength and usually can go back and pick up some of your rings. It has a lot more room for error.

    I know that SMW 2: Yoshi's Island also came out for SNES but it was outside the "core" 16-bit generation. PlayStation and Saturn were already out and it was an attempt to compete with them just as much as the Genesis. Although Super Mario Bros. 3 came out after the Genesis and Turbo Grafx-16, and the Master System and 7800 were dying off by that point so SMB 3 was really a competitor to 16-bit systems.

    We all know where the competition went in the next generation, but I feel in the 16-bit era Sonic was just better than Mario.
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    Quantity doesnt override quality. if there had been a Super Mario World 2 (not Yoshi's Island), Super Mario World 3, Mario CD, and a Super Mario & Luigi during 1992-1994, and the quality was the same as SMW1, I dont think youd say that Sonic>Mario..

    not having a save system sucks. and if you miss the Chaos emerald you dont really have a chance to go back and get it unless you reset the game

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    Not having a save system might suck... but we're talking about games that take like, 30 minutes to an hour to beat if you have any clue what you're doing. I replayed the Sonics recently and was shocked how easy the special stages were, after remembering how tough they were when I was a kid.

    ......

    That said, in the battle of Sonic vs Mario, I say the correct answer is "Mega Man."

    To be honest for me it was never about the mascots. There was actually a time I outright hated Sonic but still loved my Genesis. These days, I'm just not a huge fan of either character.... I actually kind of think they both symbolize different ways franchises can go wrong, with Mario presenting the overly-safe route and Sonic being the milked-to-death almost comic-book-like "just made up so much crap it fell apart and now its desperately trying to cater to nostalgia" route.

    For me, SNES vs Genesis came down to what kind of things you wanted. When I was hugely into JRPGs, that was the major thing that made me turn towards the SNES... the Genesis had barely any that I was aware of in my teens, and even now that I know of many, they play a lot more like MS-DOS RPGs in a lot of cases (possibly because a lot of them are ports of MS-DOS games), and which style I prefer tends to depend on my mood.

    These days, I tend to keep my Sega permanently hooked up, but its largely because I have a Sega CD and the crate I keep unused consoles in... well, its just easier to keep the Genny constantly hooked up. This produces an odd situation tho where I am more likely to play it than anything else if I'm just bored, and also I have come to feel I like this certain aesthetic that Sega Genesis (and sometimes TG16) games have that I don't think I see much on the SNES.... games like El Viento, Chakan the Forever Man, or Valis III which are "dark" but not in the edgy grimdark way, more in a sort of surreal way. SNES games in my experience tend to have this more nostalgic feeling for me.

    Put another way, I sometimes associate games with seasons or weather, and there's a lot of "rainy/cloudy day" games on the Genesis while the SNES has a lot of "sunny spring/summer afternoon games."

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    Sonic is the 16bit generations Assassin's Creed. For the most part, a lot of the sections of the game will be on auto pilot and then some sections of the game the player actually has to put forth their own skill. I don't like the Sonic series and except for the very rare level, the games just suck. Being a mascot is the only reason Sonic is as well known as he is because it's certainly not because the games were good.

    As has already been said, quantity over quality. This is sadly something representative of the Sega Genesis itself. Huge lack of quality overall. There's some hit games here and there, but too much of the content on Sega Genesis is pretty mediocre.
    Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kupomogli View Post
    Sonic is the 16bit generations Assassin's Creed. For the most part, a lot of the sections of the game will be on auto pilot and then some sections of the game the player actually has to put forth their own skill.
    Uhhhh....

    This might be true for the Dreamcast era on up, but for the Genesis era? Hell no.

    It's actually one of the disconnects I have with the Sonic franchise. Apparently at some point people misremembered the Genesis games as always being super-fast and while there are tricks like loop-de-loops, if you're constantly running you'll get hit or outright die (especially due to bugs). For decades I thought it was strange how Sonic was remembered for his speed when in the Genesis games you basically never really got to use it--you had to stop and platform too much. Unless you were a god-tier gamer who had the game mastered.

    Starting with the Dreamcast and with Sonic Advance and such, the series suddenly is about constant running, and that's why I get bored of that era--its all spectacle.

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    People misremember the good Sonic games if the majority of the series sucks. its the same with the Simpsons. once they came up on 10 straight years of unfunny episodes, people start to think the whole series sucks even though the first ten or eleven seasons had mostly good episodes

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    Quote Originally Posted by WelcomeToTheNextLevel View Post
    If you include the Sega CD, that's FIVE games against one. And these weren't mediocre games either.
    If you include the 32X there's also Knuckles Chaotix, although that's not a main Sonic game it plays close to one. It's not a Sonic Spinball type of spinoff game where it plays completely differently.

    I'll also give credit to Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES as it includes The Lost Levels, so that's an extra game. I don't suppose Mario is Missing or Mario's Time Machine count.

    I personally prefer the Sonic games though I still never beat any of them. And Sonic 3 had a save feature, the earlier games had level select codes if you wanted to skip ahead.

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    I still have never played through Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD, but I like Super Mario World more than the first Sonic and Sonic 2. That said, I find all of them overrated. They're good, very solid games that are fun, but they didn't wow me or really stick with me. I actually like Sonic Spinball more than the first Sonic and Sonic 2, as horrified as some would be to hear that. I think nostalgia boosts these games for a lot of people, but I never played them until I was an adult, past the year 2000. For the 16-bit era, give me Donkey Kong Country, Kirby, Castlevania, and so on when it comes to platformers. As for Mario, I think Super Mario Bros. 3 is much better than Super Mario World, and I also like Super Mario 64 more too.

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    Sonic had 1 great game and 1 good game and the rest were mediocre to bad that generation. Sonic 2 and 3. Sonic CD sucks. Sonic 1 isn't very good either.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryudo View Post
    Sonic had 1 great game and 1 good game and the rest were mediocre to bad that generation. Sonic 2 and 3. Sonic CD sucks. Sonic 1 isn't very good either.


    yeah this is how i feel,
    I love sonic 2, it is a really great game

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    I wouldn't say that any of the Genesis era console Sonic games are mediocre, just not all were great. Mediocre would be the various knock off clones that followed for most of the generation, and the portable Game Gear games.

    I liked Sonic CD for what it was, it came out before Sonic 2 which most people seem to forget. It offers lots of variety with the multiple paths and versions of each level. To me it's still fun to play every now and then.

    I do like Sonic Spinball quite a bit. It's the only game I'm aware of that's based on the SatAM TV show. I'm still hoping to find the original release version which had different music, but who knows if I ever will.

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