While I love me some Mario, I think that during the 16-bit era, Sonic edged him out for me. I loved how fast Sonic games were compared to Mario's.

Plus, more of Sonic's music was catchy and memorable to today.

I know everyone remembers the first time they heard Green Hill Zone. That was magical.

How about you?

Mario. His games don't suck.

Being that I never owned a Genesis, Mario wins out for me.

But I bought the Genesis Collection so I could play Sonic 1 and 2, and if I ever get the chance to play them at work, I do so. The thrill of going so fast doesn't really run out.

Ouch. That's hitting below the belt.

And I agree... but only to a point. And that point is the transition to 3D. Mario weathered the change with no problem at all... while sonic on the other hand, didn't do so well as he gave birth to some pretty down right bad games.

But if you are around the same age as I, you grew up mostly around the SNES/Genesis age. And while I loved the nes/snes mario titles, Sonic really took the cake. And here is why.

In mario, it was pretty much just do what it takes to get to Bowser. And even skip as many worlds as possible while doing so. And while Sonic was the same towards Robotnic/Dr. Eggman, there was so much more to do. It wasn't so linear. You had multiple paths to take in each level. Not only that, Sonic transversed his world with much more flare. The speed was exciting. Not only that, you could try your best to obtain the exclusive "super" sonic... which will pwnt mario and any ability he has ever had in no time flat. It wasn't a matter of skipping levels... because they were fun to play. And you have to admit... no one really likes the pipe world, world 7 of Mario 3. Sonic also had a better cast. In fact, besides Super Mario Brothers 2, Mario has never really had a 'cast'. Playing with sonic was much different than playing with tales, which was different than playing with Knuckles. And playing two players with tales and sonic was WAY more fun than playing multiplayer on ANY mario platforming game. Sonics stories were always more epic as it didn't consist of the typical just 'save the princess'.

So in all... while Sonic's venture into the 3D world has failed on many accounts, I still hold Sonic higher than Mario. Not to say I don't like Mario, but Sonic is just better, IMHO.

Yeah, I guess that was too low. I was honestly going to edit but I didn't have the time.

I love Mario, but I also love Sonic. I love Mario's simple concepts with great platforming gameplay but I also love Sonic's concept of speed.

So..it's kinda even for me.

I grew during the snes/genesis era, but I never own a Genesis, so my Sonic time was limited to my visists to my cousin's house.
I have to say that I liked Sonic, but I never played it enough to say it I liked it more than Mario.
Ironically, I did play the 3D Sonic games and liked them (at least the Adventure ones) and I haven't bothered to try the 3D Mario games (I like the 2D ones more. I really need to pick up one of those Sonic collection games to catch up

I like Sonic more because I enjoy games where there's actually a challenge. I wasn't challenged by Mario in the later years, especially after SMB3. Sonic has always had an element of challenge and always had something extra to come along with it.

I liked the Sonic Adventure games, but I'm not the biggest fan of Heroes and I don't like Shadow the Hedgehog. However, I liked the recent Next-Gen Sonic, despite the fact that most people despised it. I'm glad they picked a more engaging storyline. Mario kinda died with Sunshine, though I heard picked up with Galaxy.