Do You Prefer Sonic Over Mario? (gameplay)

[Baraksha]

When ever I see a sonic vs mario argument, sonic usually wins when it comes to story and characters, you know because of the whole "mario saves the princess all the time while sonic does more then that" but when ever it comes to gameplay mario just steals the show and being praised while everybody bashing sonic to the ground as the non superior and should sit in the corner and be shameful for even trying to compare.

Now I personally have nothing against mario's gameplay, infect mario is one of my first video games of all time and I love it, infect how can you hate mario when Yuji Naka based sonic's speed concept around finishing the first world in super mario bros quickly, but personally even through I played mario way before sonic has always appealed to me more in way i'm going to try to explain why, i'm not sure if it's going to be any good, but here we go:

Sonic was more appealing for me not just because of the cool attitude and the fact that he's blue (my favorite color) ,but because sonic felt faster then mario,in the classic games I love going down hill and gain speed, one concept that I really loved as a kid was the fact that with sonic I can attack enemies from pretty much any where even below by using the spin attack or the spindash while with mario you can die pretty easily if you're not careful and the only way to kill enemies is from above, one thing that can be frustrating is that you can sometimes try to aim on a goomba's head and accidentally hit it's sides and get hit. another concept is the collectibles, in super mario you had the coins which can grand you an extra life witch is cool, but sonic's rings can do that and also keeps you alive , each time you get hit you simply just lose all your rings and you can easily get another extra hit by collecting at least 1 ring that fell off , I know it's may be a N00bish thing to say and that it might prove that sonic is a too forgivable game compared to mario, but I didn't really had that much of a good time with the almost unforgivable super mario rules also rings had more purpose since you need them to enter the special stages and to turn super sonic which is another cool concept I love, for me super sonic while making the game extremely easy and really satisfying because I'M A SUPER SAIYAN MOTHERF*** HEDGEHOG THAT BLAST THROUGH EVERYTHING IN MY WAY SUPER FAST  LIKE I JUST DON'T CARE, THAT'S AWESOME.

Now some of you may going to think that I only like the classic games better and that today it's not the same, I agree, today is WAY different from back then , but im still a fan of the sonic series somehow more, it's unexplainable, but i'll try to.

 

mario over the years has become a much more forgiving game, it can usually give you tons of lives through out the game and the platforming has become much more forgiving, not to mention there has been more different power ups and the game is still fun and enjoyable because it didn't changed a lot, Nintendo likes to play it safe and try to keep it traditional, how ever sonic has become the complete opposite (or as some people would refer it "nintendo'nt), he started to make a lot of different changes and tried to change he's formula many times , sometimes for the worst ,sometimes for the better,  but he mostly didn't got praised for it. anyways lets get to the dreamcast area, sonic adventure 1/2 for me felt for me and many others like how sonic should play in a 3D world, sonic controls are smooth and fast and satisfying , when sonic gone down a hill, he would go faster and when ever I controlled sonic I felt like sonic and I felt fast and free and I could jump accurately at any point, with mario it's not so different accept from the fact that I feel faster when playing with sonic and I love the way sonic can kill enemies in more simple way with the homing attack, with mario you still had to jump on enemies and since it's a 3D world it's kinda harder to aim at them, apparently sonic team though of this and that's why they add the homing attack, and while I agree that in sonic adventure you didn't always played as sonic and also had to go through the various campaigns including everyone's favorite excuse for why this game is bullshit known as the purple menace BIG THE CAT, I felt like most of those campaigns were tolerable and kind of fun actually, and those who weren't  didn't last long and I could simply ignore them and it's still doesn't change sonic's gameplay,  plus I feel like mario had too much back tracking , I didn't like the whole star collecting concept that much, it just made me go back and redo the same level multiple times but with a small change.

ok, I can go on and on, but I think I should stop there because other wise this wall of text will become even more scary, so those are some of the reasons why I prefer some sonic games over mario's I hope you liked it and if you didn't you are welcome to go ahead and  tell me why I suck so much below, or if you also like sonic better in a gameplay perspective , you can tell me whats your reason as well.

[ThePrinceOfSaiyans]

Do I prefer Sonic's gameplay over Mario's? That Depends on the games that are being compared, really, but in most cases, yes. I often find Mario games to be incredibly dull, with the only one's I like being Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario Sunshine. Being able to blaze through a level using momentum or incredible speed is just appealing to me. Couple that with an engaging story or narrative and likable characters, and you have the makings of a wonderful series, that can be admired despite it's flaws.

[Failinhearts]

I like both of the gameplay from Sonic and Mario but I prefer Sonic over Mario. There are many games with different playstyles in Sonic games and I enjoy playing most of them! Mario, especially now has the same formula and it can get very samey. I'm looking at you, "New Super Mario Bros!"

I always crave a sense of speed and Sonic obviously delivers! So there's that.

[Diogenes]

I think the best of Sonic just barely edges out the best of Mario...but the unfortunate truth is that Mario is pretty consistently amazing, while Sonic...very much isn't.

[GamerGirl54321]

I like both, but for different reasons. Sonic is what you play when you're looking for something fast-paced, and Mario is what you play when you just want to sort of... Enjoy it, I guess? I dunno how to word this.

[FriendBot]

Of course, I'm going to be pretty biased when it comes to this since I've only legit played 1 Mario game and only played the demo of 3D World. So obviously, I'm going to go with Sonic.

 

There's just something that's really appealing about Sonic that every other platforming franchise that never seems to do it for me.

 

It's obvious that the fast-paced gameplay is a big part of that but I think it's also the non-gameplay parts that helps enrich my gaming experience as well.

 

Like Lost World for example.

 

The game suffers greatly from experimentation making the game feel confused in its direction but the game is still a very enjoyable platformer despite that, not great but not really terrible either. But there are other small things about Lost World I enjoy as well, like the waiting animations. When I saw the waiting animation when Sonic was skydiving, I found it cute. It gave the game some sort of personality. Another example was the fact they put an extra "s" in a humourous half-assed manner in Dessert Ruins Zone 3. I like those kinds of touches.

 

So, the small things are surprisingly big reasons why I'm sticking to Sonic.

[kdotj24]

I generally prefer "traditional" style platformers to Sonic, so Mario. Although I love both franchises equally.

[Toby]

Mario has a certain whimsy and magic in it's style and gameplay that more often than not, Sonic is missing. If that makes any sense.

[azoo]

Mario is consistently a very well designed game series. Levels are filled with this "magic" quality in regards to how they were crafted, the controls are simplistic but very effective, and the genius to the level design comes in how much it'll bend itself to benefit the gameplay experience. Levels are both somehow clear-cut but also hold many secrets and mysteries.

 

Objects have complex physics that you can play with, and Mario's levels never lose ingenuity in regards to gimmicks and new ideas (unless you count the NSMB games past the first one, but I don't because they honestly are the outliers of the series' usual creativity). Power-ups are always bringing something new, and his actual movement is always tweaked to give you the most satisfaction you can have in a game of it's style.

 

To put it in short, Mario is almost always amazing, and tends to be the same level of amazing every time. 

 

But Sonic can potentially be (and has before been) better, in my opinion. What Sonic at his best of times has over Mario is that the majority of his games try to establish the worlds he travels through as actual environments rather than gamey play-areas. And for what it lacks in giving truly creative areas / things to do, it makes up for in amazingly good game and level design that also succeeds in giving you a good narrative; which considering Mario's infamous need to stick to a status quo, it makes for a wonderful trade off.

 

And if that doesn't set him apart enough, I think that the main thing Sonic gets at his best is that his movement in the classics (and to an extent, the Adventures) are some of the most satisfying controls, physics and movements in any platformer I've ever played. The amount of flow you could get in a great Mario game is simply quadrupled in a great Sonic game, and sprinkled on top with an extra dash of pure adrenaline. 

 

Sonic at his best is superb, and some of the best kind of games I've ever played. His main problem though is that Mario gets to be consistently great whilst Sonic's best days seem behind him, with everything that has followed either being somewhere between "pretty good" and "absolutely awful". So, by default of that alone (not even talking of gameplay changes Sonic has went through), Mario wins without question.

[Wraith]

Mario is is so much better it's not even funny IMO. While I used to think that wasn't the case, as I grew older I grew to appreciate Mario's design and mechanics more while Sonic only grew worse in my eyes. While I prefer the classic Sonic games to the original 3 Mario games, Sonic has the advantage of his games coming out years later on stronger hardware, so I don't feel they're all that comparable. 

 

I feel like, while Sonic used to do some things better than Mario and always had the potential to pass him, he never actually did that. NSMB aside, Mario just kept building on itself an evolving while Sonic went off the rails soon after he tried to leave 2D. 

 

People cite narrative as a reason they prefer Sonic, which I can't say I agree with either. Even with how often they try, Sonic games rarely have a story that I would consider good. Mario doesn't try nearly as often, but when he does he blows Sonic out of the water in that regard. Even little things like Mario Galaxy's attempts at storytelling resonate with me more than most of Sonic's attempts. Let's not even get into the Mario RPGs. Mario still doesn't try often enough, so I'm not saying he's much better than Sonic in the story aspect or anything, I just feel like that he does it way better when he does.  

 

Mario will always win over Sonic as long as Sonic continues the trend of having no idea what it wants to be. Mario never lost sight of what made people like it in the first place, and continued to build on it and change it over the years. Sonic will never catch up as long as he keeps trying to reinvent the wheel and chase trends instead of just figuring out what it wants and sticking to it.

 

 

 

 

[Vectorman]

I like both Sonic and Mario, but I don't know I just prefer sonic more. Maybe it's because Sonic was the first platformer I had ever played, or maybe it's the fast-paced gameplay. Maybe it's also the amazing music and the crazy over-the-top stages he's had. But it's still close. Mario has really good games, and found  way to do 3d games really well. I felt that sonic started to get that too, starting with unleashed, but they stopped it just as his games started to get better.

[Ripe]

Well, in terms of Mario games I have played SMB and SMB3 on NES and the all-stars pack on Wii, so 4 games. That why I can compare only 2D games.

I love both NES games I have played. I played them long before any Sonic game when I was a kid so they have nostalgia factor on me. Both SMB2:s I played on Wii and honestly, I don't enjoy them nearly as much. SMB2USA because of I don't really like the changes on it and I have never got far with Lost Levels.

Sonic games I have played first time less than year ago. But more that I think od that the more I seems to like more Sonic. If I would compare my favourites, S3&K and SMB3, I go with Sonic. As much as I love SMB3, Sonic fast paced platforming jusr offers me more. Mario has all those great power ups but I like more the multiple charachters. And the shields are also awesome. And level desing is gteat and music, need I even say anyting? And visual, because all-stars is basically SNES game so comparing them is fair. And Sonic easily wins and when it comes to Mario games, especially with SMB3 I prefer NES-look.

[Tara]

I don't think I would say that I prefer one over the other as much as I have more of an attachment to the Sonic series.  I've followed both series growing up but have found myself getting more into Sonic merchandise and Sonic games and everything than Mario.

 

Others have said what I pretty much think is true.  To me, the main difference between Sonic and Mario is not quality, but consistency.  They both do exceptionally well when they do well, but Sonic fails harder when he falls short of ideal quality.  Also, Mario has never jumped the shark in terms of atmosphere.  At least, not to me.  It's still the same Mario I enjoyed when I was a kid, but it still expands on its original ideas enough to be interesting instead of nostalgia rehashing.  Before Boom, Sonic looked like it was trying to take that route, but it wasn't doing enough to make the experience both new and familiar.

 

I love both brands enough that I would probably be invested in them both equally if finances permitted me, but I think that Mario has more consistently good moments despite me personally having more of an attachment to Sonic games.

[Wittymations]

This depends what Sonic we're talking about, really.

 

Classic style, eh... guess It's about even. Really. 2D platformers are something I have to be in the mood to play.

 

Adventure vs 3D Mario? Definitely adventure. I have more fun than any of the Mario titles with Sonic. Any of them.

 

Heroes, Shadow vs 3D Mario? 3D Mario, hands down.

 

Boost vs 3D Mario? 3D Mario. Sorry, I just do not like boosting.

I haven't played Lost World, so I can't judge that fairly.

[Stritix]

I'm not sure if I do. They are different types of "fun" for me personally. I can play a Mario game for 7-8 hours without taking a break, however I'll be done with it within a few days, whereas I can only play a Sonic game for 1-2 hours, but will play it for months.

[-blank-]

Honestly, that depends.

 

Sonic's been one of my go to gaming franchises for well over a decade now. I find myself much more attached to the characters and their world than I have with most Mario characters. The series may suffer from inconsistency, but when it gets things right, damn does it get things right. Sonic can be, and has been at times, better than Mario. I love the fast-paced gameplay. For me, there aren't many things more satisfying in video games that pulling off impressive runs of levels that you can't quite match in Mario. The locales tend to be more memorable, and I find the music better as well. I mean, does Mario have anything like Open Your Heart? No. Does it have anything like Live and Learn? Again, no. 

 

Then again....

 

Without Mario, I would most likely not even be on this forum. The series is what got me into gaming in the first place with the classic Super Mario Bros. 2, which is one of my favorite retro games of all time. And the thing about Mario, that while Sonic has been all over the place with gameplay, story tone, the way the world he and his friends populate, Mario has pretty much been consistent all across the board. I don't mind a series doing something new from time to time, but I think you really need to have a couple main gameplay styles and stick with that for a series. The world of the Mario series is whimsical and light-hearted and rather welcoming. And though I much prefer Sonic music, the tunes in Mario are freaking classics and some of the most memorable music to ever grace video games. To me, Mario is one of those games that you want to play when you just want to relax and chill out. And, being the Yoshi fangirl that I am, I have to remind everyone that http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l92bnoiZ2V1qbszfjo1_500.jpg THIS piece of awesomeness would not be possible without Mario. ;P

 

So, really, I love both series for a myriad of reasons. If I had to chose, I guess I would pick Sonic, but Mario is a close contender.

[Phos]

Being able to hit enemies from below blew my mind back in the day.  Sonic does what Marion't.  Think I'll work on that one.  

 

I think the best of Sonic just barely edges out the best of Mario...but the unfortunate truth is that Mario is pretty consistently amazing, while Sonic...very much isn't.

Man have you played Sunshine, that game runs out real ideas on the way to Delfino.  

 

OK, a bit more, uh, level headed way of putting it, It's not one of mario's best.  Mario's spin move is a retroactive example of why the flud was so bad, doing everything the jetpack does in a faction of the time, which was also the only actual use the floood had.  Watching the Game Grumps playthrough reminded me that regardless of Arin's skill, a lot of those objectives were rather poor in one way or another, from tacking on pointless difficulty (such as a timer) or just being somehow impenetrable, such as that level with the cataquacks and the mirrors.  The game's best levels were the "secret" levels that got rid of the flüd and and only further highlighted how bad of an idea it was.  

 

Also, man is that aiming method in Yoshi's island bad, it's like the bargain bin RC car of aiming systems.  I could go on a rant of how much I don't like Yoshi's Island at least as long as, and the same goes for Super Mario 64.  

 

So yeah I actually have maybe fewer mario games I really like than Sonic games.  Even some of the best games have holes, play Super Mario World enough and you'll come to find that the cape is not far off god mode, enabling you to just fly over the bulk of levels and infinite spinning your way through most others.  Funny story about Super Mario World, I actually had a CNZ barrel moment with it, the first time I got to one of those smiley wedges, was completely at a loss as how to get past it, because the solution went so against basic understanding of physics that I didn't even think to try it.  A similar thing happened again in the tutorial level of Megaman X.  I just have a problem with weird ways to deal with walls it seems.  

 

And that last bit (btw, this post stopped having anything to do with Dio's post a while back) is a good example of why I like Sonic's gameplay more.  His physics feel correct, and internally consistent.  He never gains the ability to run up a wall because he got there by way of smiley magenta wedge, it's a clear curve, and the famous loop ensures that you can't misinterpret it, and Sonic remains in the same physical reference the entire time.  

[Amomynous]

Honesty I do, even regarding Sonic games tend to be less polished or less well-thought-out (ie, "objectively" worse)

 

I can't remember which 2d one's I've played now, (super Mario Bros or super Mario Bros 2 I think)for the Nes. Also played super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario galaxy, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 It's hard to explain what I found "wrong" with them really, except for the galaxy games where you had to collect stars to progress, and I found the star collection to be a real ruiner for me.

 

In other cases I think it was probably a collection of smaller things that added up, like physics that didn't gel with me,cleaning up goo in Sunshine,art design that doesn't strike me, perhaps a bit of an overabundance of certain enemy types.

I don't really like the characters which doesn't help.

[Super Sonic Speed]

Sonic mainly because I can't predict what he'll do next. Keeps things interesting.

 

Years ago when I left sonic after the megadrive, I became a nintendo fan. It was nice playing Mario and Pokemon and many others. However I have found a downside to consistency. It gets boring to me after a while.

Personally I think the best mario games are still mario 64 and mario sunshine mainly because nintendo were willing to try something slightly different which keeps them fresh. Unfortunately I noticed starting with galaxy they started moving into a safe frame of mind.

 

Mario galaxy still had experimentation and had some fund aspects to it but it seemed more linear than normal. Mario galaxy 2 decided to get rid of the hub world. Then the Mario games afterwards seem like 3D version of the nes and snes mario games.=/

I don't know what's happened to Nintendo but they seem to be in this must play it safe frame of mind and unfortunately this has pushed me away from them. It was actually this, along with Pokemon getting boring that I even started getting back into sonic.

 

Sonic may have hits and misses but each game offers a different experience and personally I actually really like this approach. I find it very hard to get bored of sonic as a result.

[McGroose]

I prefer Sonic 1- 3&Knuckles over all of the Mario's 2D games before the N64. Not to say Mario's games up to that point are bad, quite the contrary, they're very good, but Sonic's gameplay formula just felt perfect the way the Genesis games handled it.

 

Once 1994 was over, pretty much every Mario game that was released pretty much destroyed Sonic's 3D games. Mario's 3D games have almost always continued to be god tier while Sonic just ranged from horrible to somewhat good in terms of 3D gameplay. Mario even managed to bring back his 2D gameplay in a way much more enjoyable than what Sonic 4 did.

 

So ya, Sonic>Mario 15% of the time and Mario>Sonic 85% of the time.

[PandaChao]

I always liked Sonic's gameplay more than Mario's gameplay but i'm going to be honest here. I wish Sonic did have as much effort, consistency, and polish put into his games like Mario does. Personally, I believe Sonic's 2d classic games blew Mario's 2d games out the water in every department. The music, visuals, and gameplay. However, after 1994 it just seems as though Sonic has just been struggling to play catch up with Mario. Sonic has not been doing anything innovative or breaking boundaries and making history in a positive manner like Mario has.

 

With Sonic I don't know what i'm going to get, which is not a good thing to me. The game will either be garbage, meh, or it'll be a good game. Sonic doesn't come out with consistently good games like Mario does, and it's great that  Mario's fanbase  at least knows what to expect from their respective franchise. Lol, Sonic is not even a formidable rival to Mario anymore at all. But that's been over for a long time now anyways.

[sonicDX]

I think Mario is a simple game and it's a bit out-dated. Although Sonic is going on this way, too, I still prefer its gameplay thanks to the great speed, homing attack (I think that's a great invention), and all the elements used in the Sonic games.

 

I have no problem with Mario, I just think it's not a very special and great game nowadays. I also prefer the stories, characters and levels of all the Sonic games.

 

All in all, I think although Mario was before Sonic, Sonic is still btter.