Do you think Sonic would exist without Mario, Spiderman and The Flash(DC)

[amenably]

This is how I see Sonic as a pastiche of if he were a combination of characters, but would he be a thought without these particular characters that came before him?

[Badnik Mechanic]

Yes.

 

Because if you look into how Sonic came to be, his creation had nothing to do with any of those characters.

[amenably]

Yes.

 

Because if you look into how Sonic came to be, his creation had nothing to do with any of those characters.

Really without Mario starting the platformer?

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Sonic doesnt need any comic book super heroes or Mario to exist. His creations were not inspired from them. To be honest Sonics personality was inspired from the american goverments and his design was inspired from teenaged boys mohawks

[Cola]

I'm pretty sure he was created specifically to rival Mario, so probably not.

[Vertekins]

He was created to rival Mario and take back the market from Nintendo so I guess it's true for the former but not the latter two since Sonic was in no way inspired by them.

[Dizcrybe]

Sonic doesnt need any comic book super heroes or Mario to exist. His creations were not inspired from them. To be honest Sonics personality was inspired from the american goverments and his design was inspired from teenaged boys mohawks

 

Well, actually he was created to rival Mario, and Mario pretty much kickstarted the platformer genre, so...

[Tara]

Merged the duplicate topics.  Please remember not to press the "Create Topic" button twice. ^_~

[Sparky]

Mario's existence led to the development of Sonic to rival him. 

 

Soinc just so happens to share qualities with Spider-Man and Flash.

[Cola]

Yeah Spidey and the Flash had nothing to do with Sonic's creation, it was all Red Luigi's doing.

[Iggy]

I ditto what everyone else is saying. Mario? He wouldn't, because his original purpose was to gain back the market from him. Spiderman and The Flash? He would, because his creation had nothing to do with them, despite having similarities to them.

[Jix Hedgehog]

X

Edited August 14, 2015 by Jix Hedgehog

[JaidynReiman]

Yeah, I don't see how Sonic would cease to exist without Spiderman or Flash around. How does that have to do with anything? And in all honesty, what does Spiderman have to do with Sonic AT ALL?

 

Mario, on the other hand, yes. Because Sonic was created to rival Mario.

[Sonictrainer]

…what's the connection between Sonic and Spiderman?

[StaticMania]

Without Mario? No. Without the other 2? Yes. Simple as that.

[Marcello]

…what's the connection between Sonic and Spiderman?

The sarcastic jokester personality.

 

 

 

Sonic probably wouldn't exist without Mario since he was created to rival him. His personality and abilities also come from that I think. They wanted him to be different than Mario so they made him "cooler" and faster. I'm pretty sure he wasn't inspired by either Spiderman or Flash, though.

 

The speed and physics were also used to show off the Genesis' hardware, I think.

[iDEATH]

It's pretty safe to say that Sonic wouldn't exist without Mario, he was created specifically to rival Mario.

 

Spiderman and Flash though? Absolutly nothing to do with Sonic so yeah, we'd still have Sonic.

 

There is one comic/cartoon character we could say sonic owes his existence too.

 

No seriously....without Nintendo losing the rights to make a popeye game, we'd have no Donkey kong, no Donkey Kong, no Mario, no Mario no Sonic....

 

...of course you could take it one step back, because without that typo that labelled spinach's iron content at 500.00 instead of .5000 (or something like that, the story isn't true so why argue the exact figures ) we'd have no Popeye.

So we owe Sonic's existence to a misplaced decimal point.

[Tani Coyote]

Have you ever had an idea for an invention, and never got around to it? Then a year or two later you see that same idea has just been invented? In all likelihood, yes.

How is this relevant?

Well, people say "Mario created the platforming genre." In the current timeline, maybe. If we were to erase Mario from history, it stands to reason that some other gaming company would have invented platforming instead; there are billions of people on this Earth, and it is absurd to assume that none of them would have come up with platforming if not for Nintendo. Even if we limit the creative population solely to game designers, that's still a pretty large pool of people, even in the 80s and 90s... and presumably one of them would have still invented a platforming mascot.

So, Sonic likely still would exist. He just would have been rivals with someone else besides Mario.

[SchemingMinor]

Yes, Mario - no to the other two.

 

Sonic was created to rival Mario in the platforming genre, and even if there was another character besides Mario that was the face of platforming, Sonic would be created to rival that, though, probably different than the hedgehog that we have today.

[Salamander]

I have to say that, without Mario, Sonic wouldn't exist as we know him - but something like Sonic would eventually have been invented, just as something like Mario would eventually have been invented.  For all we know, Sonic could've been the jumper and Mario the runner.  It's not like either hedgehogs or plumbers are renowned in real life for being fast or acrobatic.

[Tara]

So, Sonic likely still would exist. He just would have been rivals with someone else besides Mario.

Would he have been the same as he is now, though?  Probably not, because they wouldn't have had the ideas and tropes and inspiration from Mario to base it off of.  Something like Sonic could have easily come around, but it's more than possible that he wouldn't have been a blue hedgehog or named Sonic.  Also, the idea of mascot-based platformers could easily have not been a thing.  It's also possible that a platformer produced by some other company could have sold poorly due to bad marketing or generally being a lackluster product.

 

So at its core essence, Sonic's existence is not inherently tied to Mario as there are a lot of variables that could have led to his conception one way or the other.  But I think it's safe to say that he owes a great deal of his established identity to Mario.

 

As for Spider-Man and The Flash.  They really had nothing to do with him.  I'm assuming Spider-Man was listed because of their similar personalities, but honestly, I don't think that was a consideration for his character.  Sonic's personality was inspired by the late 80's and early 90's "extreme dude" archetype, not the sarcasm and cool, calm, and collective nature of Peter Parker.  As for The Flash, running super-fast isn't exactly a concept exclusive to Flash.  Speed and agility is sort of a staple of most superheroes, with Super-Man described as "faster than a speeding bullet."  If anything, I'd credit the speed to Super-Man over Flash, but even that's a bit of a stretch.  Besides that, his speed was influenced by Yuji Naka's fascination with clearing Super Mario Bros. as fast as he could.  Therefore, it's likely that no superheroes were ever a conscious inspiration for the character's personality or abilities.

[Indigo Rush]

Sonic's very existence is tied towards besting Nintendo's Mario, so without Mario to rival, there would be no drive to create Sonic as we know him today.

 

As for Spiderman and the Flash? Nah, Sonic isn't based off of them.

 

Now, if Michael Jackson, Santa Claus and Bill Clinton didn't exist......

[StaticMania]

Well, people say "Mario created the platforming genre." In the current timeline, maybe. If we were to erase Mario from history, it stands to reason that some other gaming company would have invented platforming instead; there are billions of people on this Earth, and it is absurd to assume that none of them would have come up with platforming if not for Nintendo. Even if we limit the creative population solely to game designers, that's still a pretty large pool of people, even in the 80s and 90s... and presumably one of them would have still invented a platforming mascot.

So, Sonic likely still would exist. He just would have been rivals with someone else besides Mario.

 The idea for Sonic's speedy game-play came from one of the developers playing Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 as fast as they possibly could, the idea for the actual character came from trying to be the exact opposite of what Mario was and be SEGA's own rival mascot torwards Mario, and then it all took off from there.

 

Sonic being a platformer is the same reason that any other game series began as a Platformer, Mario really doesn't have a significant role about why Sonic was a platformer since he was gonna be one anyway.

[iDEATH]

Have you ever had an idea for an invention, and never got around to it? Then a year or two later you see that same idea has just been invented? In all likelihood, yes.

How is this relevant?

Well, people say "Mario created the platforming genre." In the current timeline, maybe. If we were to erase Mario from history, it stands to reason that some other gaming company would have invented platforming instead; there are billions of people on this Earth, and it is absurd to assume that none of them would have come up with platforming if not for Nintendo. Even if we limit the creative population solely to game designers, that's still a pretty large pool of people, even in the 80s and 90s... and presumably one of them would have still invented a platforming mascot.

So, Sonic likely still would exist. He just would have been rivals with someone else besides Mario.

 

I get your point but I still have to disagree. Sonic was created because of a very specific set of circumstances, many revolving around the Mario franchise and it's effect on the gaming industry as a whole.

Had mario existed, I'm sure the platforming genre would still exist and sega would have a platforming mascot. But in all likelyhood it wouldn't still be Sonic. Something sonic-ish perhaps, but almost certainly not sonic himself.

[Tani Coyote]

I think Sonic would still have existed the same for the most part simply because I doubt Mario can cause enough of a butterfly effect that Sonic's creators' brain patterns are altered. I imagine another company would make a different sort of platformer and SEGA would still want to rival that. There was platformer mania in the 80s and 90s, and I assume this isn't due entirely to Nintendo; it's practically a guarantee the platformer genre would still have taken off and SEGA would have wanted a piece of the pie.

Some specifics might change but I think the overall core of what we identify as Sonic would still be there, as SEGA would still be the same company desiring to gut the market share of another company.