Sonic's 10th Anniversary: Sega's Rivals

In the past, Sega has had tough competition from an old respected rival called Nintendo. Consequently, Sonic and Mario were constantly fighting for the Number One spot in people's lives (of course, the hedgehog won). But aside from Ninty, who have been Sega and Sonic's rivals, past and new? Well, here's the lowdown on the bad guys.

Nintendo

A foe of days past, Nintendo and Sega were constantly fighting for success during the early to mid 1990's (ah those were the days...), and I must say 'Ninty' released some impressive games such as The Legend of Zelda and Starwing (Starfox in US). While Nintendo conquered in Japan, it was Sega's Mega Drive that ruled supreme in the West. Despite their rivalry in the past, the two companies have nothing but the utmost respect for each other these days, and Sonic Team will start developing all of its major titles for the GameCube, so Sonic fans know what their next console is now!

Mario

With Nintendo being Sega's major rival, Sonic was largely facing off against the original platforming hero, Mario 'Mario' Mario. It was Mario who started off the whole platforming thing, but all other games that followed in its footsteps were just pointless rip-offs. Until Sonic the Hedgehog came along that was. It was the entrance of Sonic that Mario had a real feud on his fat little hands, and even now, since Sonic Team are developing for GameCube, there's even more mascot rivalry going on. But, with games released at totally different times, and a Mario game hardly appearing after Super Mario 64, it doesn't seem that Sonic moving platforms would make a difference.

Super Mario

Shut up.

Sony

Yes, the company that we all love to hate, it's 'Mr. Imaginative Company', everyone! Hooray. That WAS sarcastic by the way. Thanks to being sell-outs to the older audience, which Sega had an audience for in the first place (oh come on, you can't tell me that Sony actually brought older people to video games - Sega had already done it) their first toilet console, the Sony PlayStation, was actually quite popular. Now, after Sega's move to third party, games such as Crazy Taxi and Virtua Fighter 4 are coming to the (originally named) Playstation 2. About time, the console desperately needs some decent games...

Crash Bandicoot

Not really a contender against Sonic - or Mario for that matter, Crash Bandicoot was Sony's hope to bring imaginative mascot platforming to their consoles. Not that the games were imaginative anyway - the levels were linear - but in its defence, I sort of like it. Now that Universal, the company responsible for Crash, has fallen out with Sony, Sony may be heading for a tumble. Although I haven't heard news of a new Crash game yet...

Electronic Arts

Sega's new rival, now that the company has gone truly third party. And I reckon that's a good thing - EA isn't known for its particularly imaginative lineup of games these days, instead leaning on annual generic sports titles and other lowest-common-denominator stuff. Sega is going to be a big force in the third party industry, whether EA likes it or not. And the House of FIFA has already made a blunder by stating that they'll be supporting Gamecube (after Sega announced a bunch of games for the system), after they publicly said they were placing all their bets on PlayStation 2. Oof.