2D Mario games or 2D Sonic games?

Mario.

Mario.

Mario

Mario by a mile.

FIXED THAT FOR YOU GUYS.

NO NEED FOR THANKS.

Sonic, no question. Way better controls, music, atmosphere, and speed. Mario rehashes the same tropes and music over and over, and just loves to waste your time with nonsensical crap.

and sonic doesn't? Its always a egg shaped madman with robots kidnapping small animals. Sonic hasn't changed much himself. Just different.

Both are better than your threads.

I'm not talking bout the plot, which also is way more diverse and richer than Mario's. I've been playing both of these franchises for over 20 years, and Sonic knows how to switch it up (and do it well) far better than Mario has in the 2D realm.

Mario.

This^

Sonic is also years younger than Mario. Not only that it didn't get its big break until it was already 16 bit. Naturally its going to be different. 2D Mario on the SNES had Mario World and Yoshi's Island. Neither one was the same. And don't point at the Sega Master System. That Sonic came out in 91.

Both franchises have their classics, but I would put every single 2D Super Mario except for New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Land, and The Lost Levels in my Top 100 Games of All Time. And even the ones I just named are great. Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, and Yoshi's Island are in my top 10 favorite games ever. Sonic 2 for Genesis would almost make my top 20.

Both of these franchises are decades old, so a 5-6 year gap is irrelevant. That, and I don't think you know what I'm getting at. Compare Sonic 1 to Sonic Rush, and the gameplay is significantly different. Hell, compare Sonic 1, 2, CD, and 3 & Knuckles to each other, and the improvements in gameplay, level design, and music is still noticeable. Mario, on the other hand, never changes to such significant degrees, and that includes within the games themselves. I can go through Mario World from start to finish, and I'll still be looking at the same levels and hearing the same music.

Sonic for me, I liked Mario but also gravitated towards Sonic games.

A 5-6 year gap is relevant when it involves a different generation. Sonic was already 16 bit when it got its start. Mario was 8 bit. You can point to the differences in games because 3 Mario games were 8 bit. And even then Mario was doing different things gameplay wise. Certainly at least as much as Sonic did. Mario got different power ups with every game outside of Mario 2. By Mario 3 he was flying through the sky and by Mario World he could skip entire stages with a cape if he so chose. Secret pathways and warping meant you could go and see other things. Sonic never had any of these.

I'll give you credit about the music though. Sonic's music was pretty good.

@Renegade_Fury: Hmm, that's interesting. When I think of Super Mario World, I think of the hidden switch stages, secret exits, water levels in which Mario swims, auto-scrolling cave levels, castle stages, fortresses, riding Yoshi, stages built around falling down a seemingly never-ending pit, timed-puzzles, mazes, bosses that require strategy and good reflexes, roller-coaster lava stages, sky stages with moving platforms, an unconventional map, bizarre bonus levels, in-stage bonus games, etc, etc, etc. Super Mario World was probably the most diverse game of its time; the Super Mario franchise has always excelled in that area, and still does.

mario is on a different level completely. sonic 1-3 are good games but mario is much better, just a lot more complexty and depth

Mario was like jump and walk... Sonic was collecting stuff, boss fighting, better music, better graphics..

So yeah, Sonic.

Again, it's been a long time, and there have been many more games released for both franchises since their inception. Show me a game where Mario, and I'm talking about Mario, where the gameplay has changed as radically as from say Sonic 2 has to something like Colors DS. That's a trick question, because there isn't one. Mario's core has remained the same, and it will never change because it lives off an endless supply of nostalgia.

Going back to the early days though, are you really using level skips and simple power ups as big changes? Mario 1 and 2 are the same game, and the tanooki tail/suit and cape are the same power up, and everyone knows it. Nothing changed or was added to Mario on the scale of things like the spin dash, flying, climbing, elemental shields, the special zones, time warping, super/hyper transformations, etc.

Anyway, Mario isn't even my second favorite platformer franchise. Mega Man, NiGHTS, Rocket Knight, Castlevania, Shinobi, and if you want to count games like Gunstar Heroes or Metroid, I consider to be all better than Mario. It's just a very play it safe franchise, and other than for the 3D games every once in a while, a very stale one in my eyes.

You're also neglecting the Frog Suit, Hammer bro suit, P Wing etc. etc. You also forgot that Mario ended up with a ground pound, spin attack, triple jump, wall jumps etc. Mario himself has evolved far more than you give him credit for. Hell Sonic was the most boring character of the bunch. Tails could fly and Knuckles could climb walls. And both were just as fast.

Sonic. No contest. Mario is like a 2d platform game with training wheels.

No, I'm not forgetting any of that. Actually, I'm very well aware of those, which is why I find the new super mario bros. games to be so boring, because there was nothing added to that core arsenal. Notice how I say core too, because power ups are just that: power ups. It's the same old gameplay as World, as where in Sonic, we've seen game changers like the homing attack and boost implemented.

Sonic is the fastest, has the best transformations, can use the "insta shield" attack to kill spiked enemies, and most significantly in 3 & Knuckles, can use the elemental shields' secondary abilities. Just because of the latter, Sonic is by far my favorite character to play out of the original 3.

Aw TC, you mad that your stealth thread backfired again?

My dude right here. *high fives*