Originally posted by: starkiller
Mario

Sonic's just got a spin move, speed, and the ability to act like a (s)pinball.

Mario can become invulnerable and fast, launch fireballs, swim and jump like a frog, fly, change into a statue, throw hammers, grow rabbit ears, clean up after himself...and I understand he throws a pretty good party, otherwise he wouldn't have had 7 of them already.

Dude, you can't argue Mario's superiority on that basis - Sonic too can *become* invulnerable, in fact, he can become Supersonic or Hypersonic depending on which game you play; he can turn himself into a fireball, which I believe is far cooler than throwing one (which looks more like a pellet or birdseed anyway), bla bla bla we could discuss powerups all day. Either way, it makes no difference as to which character is inherently better. But I will argue this:

I believe that the 2D Sonic games, on the whole (including Game Boy Advance iterations), are superior in the way of level design, gameplay innovation, and general excitement, in comparison to the 2D Mario games, on the whole (although I still agree that they are fun and titles like SMB3 are classic). I'm talking strictly about the platformers here, and not the spin-offs. As far as spin-offs go, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Super Mario Kart is the best (can we?). Sonic 3, I believe, was a crowning achievement in terms of REAL, co-operative two player action. Sonic 2 offered some awesome two player competition in itself, with the two player versus mode. But aside from that, level devices like secret caves, cannons, water-slides, half-pipes, pinball paddles, among a whole host of other things just made the game different and fresh. This is all subjective, of course.

As far as 3D goes, I believe that Mario made a smooth transition whilst Sonic has not. I, for one, LOVED Sonic Adventure at first, but I have to admit that my experience with the game wasn't nearly as awe-inspiring as the first time I played Mario 64 in Japan. Things like collision detection errors and other bugs kind of detracted from my experience, but most of all, they've kind of changed the Sonic character into what we've seen in the cartoons. He talks too much, he has too many friends - he has lost all the mystery and attitude that made him so cool in the first place. Now he is like some loud-mouthed, annoying American (no offense to Americans that aren't loud-mouthed or annoying). Sonic Team is clearly going crazy if you ask me, putting out lowest-common-denominator crap like Shadow the Hedgehog (an evil Sonic walking around with a gun?!) and Sonic Riders, while Nintendo has been putting out titles like Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario, Smash Brothers, Mario Party, etc.

So, props to Nintendo for inventiveness, but I do like the original Sonic character better, and I hope for a return to form from Sonic Team. A 2D platformer maxing out some next-gen hardware would be awesome.