NES Mario Vs. Genesis Sonic (Nintendo vs SEGA)
"In the early '90s, no bigger rivalry existed in the video game industry."
- Brian Shea
Mario, Nintendo's Kingdom saving heroic plumber
Sonic, SEGA's freedom fighting blue hedgehog
Two of gaming’s biggest all stars, and certainly gaming’s biggest rivals, duke it out but this time we're winding the clock back a bit to where it all began using just their first few appearances from explicitly the NES and Genesis era of their existence, excluding anything outside these respective consoles except for previous appearances for histories sake so no Sonic CD or Mario Land or any other media like advertisements as they don't add anything significant.
Spin-offs:
Dr. Mario
Yoshi
Yoshi's cookie
Golf
Mario Is Missing!
Mario's Time Machine
Wario's Woods
Spin-offs: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Sonic Spinball Sonic 3D Blast Any previous appearance Manuals
Background
Mario
Mario made his first appearance in the arcade game Donkey Kong when he was known as just the carpenter Jumpman. In this game his then girlfriend Pauline got kidnapped by the titular big ape(who in most sources was mistreated by Jumpman), so he had to jump over barrels, among other things, to save her and defeat DK. After this fiasco Jumpman captured DK only for the ape's son, Donkey Kong Jr., to rescue his father after going through a bunch of obstacles thrown his way from Jumpman. Somewhere along the way, Mario went from a carpenter to a plumber and with his younger brother Luigi went to work on New York's sewers, repairing pipes when strange creatures begin emerging from the sewer system. They then have to fend off against Shellcreepers, Sidesteppers, Fighter Flies and other pests by knocking them onto their backs and kicking them away.
What the fuck goes on in New York-
Mario also becomes a demolition worker, so naturally he destroys buildings while avoiding hazards and constantly trying not to get hit off the beams by Foreman Spike. Its never really made clear why Spike wants to murder stop Mario from completing his work. He also plays golf, watches a boxing match in the original arcade version of Punch-Out! and saves Pauline again in... Pinball?
However his real adventures would start in the infamous Super Mario Bros! The peaceful Mushroom Kingdom has been invaded by the evil King Koopa! Using his clan's dark magic, he transforms the kingdom's inhabitants, the Mushroom People into bricks, stones among other objects. Only Princess Toadstool has the power to reverse the spell however the King kidnapped the princess before she can save her people. So Mario, after hearing the Kingdom's plight, journeys across eight worlds, battling against many of Koopa's sizable army and defeats King Koopa himself via outsmarting him. In the end our hero(maybe) rescues Princess Toadstool and restores peace upon the land. Then he does it yet again in The Lost Levels/Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 with more difficulty.
He's also a referee in Punch-Out! for the NES whose pretty blatantly not exactly fair.
Then in Doki Doki Panic: Mario Mix, our plumber has an odd dream in which he climbs up a long staircase and finds a mysterious door which leads to a new world called Subcon. A mysterious voice greets and informs the hero that evil frog king, Wart, has Subcon completely under his evil spell and that they need saving. Awakening from this odd dream, Mario proceeds to in one way or another enter a cave alongside Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad which leads straight into the world from his dream which needs saving. They plow through Wart's army and eventually defeat him too, restoring peace once more upon the land. Mario then wakes up before falling back asleep again.
Returning to the NES with the biggest game yet, Super Mario Bros 3 is by far Mario's grandest adventure yet as Bowser invades again, this time with his seven children, the Koopalings. Each Koopaling conquers one of the seven neighboring kingdoms and steals the magical wand belonging to that kingdom's king, transforming each ruler into various animals. Mario traveled from kingdom to kingdom, fighting everything from your everyday goombas to Bowser's elite troop to THE FUCKING SUN and successfully defeats every Koopaling, restores each king to normal, then storms Bowser's castle to rescue Princess Toadstool once again.
He then becomes a doctor in Doctor Mario, treating viruses named Viruses. Oh yea he also goes back to golfing again, this time in a competition.
His next adventures from this moment both feature Yoshi due to the NES and SNES overlapping at the time. These adventures included saving Yoshi's eggs and making Yoshi some tasty cookies. Oh and he gets kidnapped by Bowser so Luigi has to save him via K N O W L E D G E.
Mario's very last adventure from this era however is a bit of a doozy, being Mario's Time Machine. In the year prior to this game's release, Bowser uses a time machine called a "Timulator," traveling backwards to different points in human history and stealing significant artifacts to place in his personal museum inside his castle. With his collection nearly completed, Bowser foolishly gloats that not even Mario can stop him now. Mario, realizing that history will change forever if he does nothing, uses Bowser's own device against him by returning the artifacts to their proper places in time. But Bowser has the backup plan of destroying his time machine, deliberately planning to irreversibly damage history and send the world back to the Dark Ages. When Bowser's Museum had been fully built and already established itself with history's greatest artifacts, Yoshi joins Mario in his quest to stop Bowser's plot, but instead gets captured when he scouts ahead like a dumbass. But the hero manages to save both Yoshi and the timeline, defeating Bowser for the last time in this era.
Sonic
Sonic made his first appearance as a cameo in Rad Mobile, Sega's arcade racing game. He's visible as a small air freshener or ornament or whatever you'd call it hanging inside the player's car.
The actual story begins on South Island, a mysterious drifting island containing six Chaos Emeralds. The Emeralds are immensely powerful energy sources and legends say they can be used not only to give energy to living beings but also to power devastating weapons. Dr. Robotnik discovers the Emeralds and invades the island, capturing its animals and placing them inside his Badnik robots so that he can use them as power sources. He establishes Scrap Brain as his main base and begins searching for the Emeralds. This is where Sonic, a resident of South Island and the island's fastest animal, comes into the picture and sets out to stop him. Sonic frees animal after animal by defeating Badniks and even Robotnik himself in several fights, eventually beating him at Scrap Brain and saving all the animals. Oh and Sonic finds all 6(as of now) Chaos Emeralds to make the island more bloomful.
Then in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic travels to West Side Island where Robotnik is once again after the Chaos Emeralds, this time to power his comically gigantic space station, the Death Egg. Along the way Sonic meets Miles “Tails” Prower, a young two-tailed fox who starts following him around and eventually becomes his partner. The two fight through Robotnik's machines, collect the Emeralds and storm the Death Egg, defeating Robotnik and destroying his massive Death Egg Robot, I genuinely don't have much to say... yet.
Sonic also gets into some completely unrelated shit in Sonic Spinball, where Robotnik builds the Veg-O-Fortress on a volcano and uses Chaos Emeralds to power the place. Sonic gets launched into the fortress and proceeds to do some pinballing as the ball so he can rescue the animals and destroy the fortress before beating Robotnik yet again.
After this, in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the damaged Death Egg from Sonic 2 crashes onto Angel Island, a mysterious floating island containing the powerful Master Emerald. Its guardian, Knuckles the Echidna, discovers that the Chaos Emeralds have been stolen and encounters Robotnik, who lies to him and convinces him that Sonic is the thief. Meanwhile Sonic and Tails arrive on the island to stop Robotnik, leading to Sonic repeatedly getting his shit rocked by Knuckles and vice versa while Robotnik prepares to repair the Death Egg. Sonic and Tails eventually destroy Robotnik's base and cause the Death Egg to crash into Angel Island's volcano, however the tale ain't over!
Sonic & Knuckles continues directly from this, with Robotnik attempting to steal the Master Emerald so he can finally restore the probably rather expensive Death Egg. Sonic travels across Angel Island while Knuckles keeps trying to stop him, until the shocking truth about Robotnik's nasty intentions becomes clear when he flies off with the Master Emerald, leaving Knuckles. Robotnik eventually gets the Master Emerald and uses it to power the Death Egg but Sonic defeats him and recovers it in his brand new shinier form, this makes Knuckles finally realize that Sonic isn't the enemy(wow really) and continues protecting Angel Island and the Master Emerald.
Then, very much lastly in both sense of the word for this blog, there's Sonic 3D Blast where Robotnik discovers the Flickies, strange birds capable of traveling through dimensions and naturally captures them so he can use them to find the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic travels to the Flicky Island, frees them from Robotnik's machines, yadi yadi yada and eventually defeats Robotnik one last time in this era.
Skills and Experience
Mario
Mario is somewhat surprisingly rather cracked when it comes to his intelligence even this early into his existence, having worked as a carpenter, plumber, demolition worker, plumber, boxing referee, seasoned golfer, questionable but effective doctor and of course his most prominent role as any kingdom being captured's hero. He is knowledgeable on history too.
Mario is a clever foe in combat, outsmarting King Koopa in battles such as running underneath him as he jumps or tricking him into defeating himself by goading him into breaking the blocks underneath him. He's also fought and beat each of Bowser's children as they were sending magical attacks his way and actually had a read on him according to the manual. Mario is very effective at getting a read on and using his foe's traits against them such as kicking a koopa shell to defeat other enemies, jumping on and chucking Birdo's eggs back at her, throwing Mouser's bombs back at him, defeating a Lakitu and then stealing his cloud, doing the exact same thing with a goomba in its kuribo shoe, timing and predicting his enemies behaviour in his pre Super adventures to defeat them accordingly and also knowing whether to be close range or long range against certain foes.
Mario even in his earlier days was already good at adapting and improvising such as his fight against Donkey Kong Senior and Junior. Mario is likely in his mid 20s to early 30s from what we know and his adventures started when he was in said 20s which makes his improvision and adaptability shown in later entries pretty reasonable.
Sonic
Sonic however is rather impressive when it comes to combat intelligence. He constantly adapts to whatever new machine, trap or mech the bad doctor throws at him, learning the patterns of his machines and exploiting their weak points rather than just blindly attacking them. He's a master of using his attacks and techniques depending on the situation and foes. His fights with Robotnik's mechs, especially the Death Egg Robot and the numerous bosses across South Island, West Side Island and Angel Island, show that he can quickly figure out how an unfamiliar opponent works and capitalize on openings rather slickly.
While he may not be the oldest, he has faced off against and adapted to ALL of Robotnik's creations including the wildly different bossfights Robotnick has fights him with anywhere from swinging a big ass ball, a machine designed to take him inside a whirlpool, having him trapped in an enclosed trap, a robot clone of himself or even B A L L S which send out mini hims.
Abilities
Mario
Duplication
Mario can seemingly make an exact duplicate of him in the original Donkey Kong Jr. arcade game.
Non-Physical Interaction
Mario can walk on clouds and even ride one rather easily. Also his pluckables should all be able to harm fire guy whose made of fire.
Underwater Breathing and Self Sustenance
Mario never runs out of oxygen while swimming in water or being completely submerged in sand.
Limited Power Nullification?(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
Its implied in the manual that certain enemies can't jump if Mario is looking at them, however paratroopers, hammer bros, podoboos and Bowser can blatantly jump while he's looking at them in the same game.
Fourth Wall Awareness
Mario, being a nice fellow, greets us with a letter in the Super Mario Bros 3 manual and even in The Lost Levels congratulates us alongside the Nintendo staff if we die in world 9 for getting that far.
Hammerspace
Mario can store up to 28 items in his inventory to use when convenient.
Resistances:
Sleep Manipulation: Mario isn't affected at all by the music box which puts foes to sleep
Possibly Transmutation: The wands from the Koopalings turned all the kings into animals and Mario only takes normal damage from them, however its unclear if they actually were trying to transmute him
Extreme heat: Mario can traverse extremely hot environments and being in close range to hot stuff, including lava-filled areas and the fucking Sun
Extreme cold: He can traverse through ice and snowy environments perfectly fine which are stated to be sub zero in temperature
Electricity: Can survive attacks from Jelectros
Sonic
Spin Jump
Rolling
The Spin Dash
Insta Shield
Sonic can briefly create a shield to protect him for a split second.
Limited Self Sustenance
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Sonic can hold all of his rings and the Chaos Emeralds onto himself.
Resistances: Chemicals and Poisons: Can traverse and swim in the heavily polluted zones courtesy of Eggman Extreme Heat: Is fine being very near to lava and other hot machines Extreme Cold: In Ice Cap Zone he is unbothered by the cold
Equipment
Mario
Hammer(Donkey Kong)
This unassuming hammer is the first power up ever used by Jumpman. It grants the current carpenter brief invincibility and the ability to destroy all obstacles in his path. However he can't jump while its active.
Whip
It sure is a whip... wait wha- Used by Jumpman to seemingly summon some of his minions, speaking of which...
Minions
As odd as it is, our not yet plumber has some fierce backup he can summon when facing a young ape whose father he kidnapped and mistreated. First and foremost are the Snapjaws which hunt down or patrol wherever Jumpman needs them to, with the red variant patrolling and blue ones hunting. Next up are the Nitpickers, vulture looking birds which fly straight at foes and drop eggs on any foe underneath them. Their raven looking variant divebomb enemies in a zigzag pattern but lack the egg bombing. Lastly are the sparks, little electric balls of energy just lying around in Mario's Hideout. The red ones will continuously loop around a platform while the blue ones will use whichever path they can find to go down.
POW Blocks(Mario Bros)
The first recurring item to my knowledge. A three time use block which can flip over all grounded foes in the whole screen
Pinball platform
The perfect thing to bounce a ball with, or maybe block off attacks from deadly balls.
Hammer(Wrecking Crew)
Golden Hammer
A wand belonging to a king which was stolen by a Koopaling. It seemingly can send magical ranged attacks such as magic blasts, bouncy balls and bouncing rings aswell as the ability to turn foes into a variety of forms.
Pills
Mysterious pills Mario uses to cure Viruses.
Magnifying Glass
A magnifying glass used to view the Viruses.
Plates
Used by Mario to switch around enemies and Yoshi's eggshells to make a whole egg, which somehow grows into a baby Yoshi despite already being cracked in half.
Hammer(Yoshi's Cookie)
This is the last hammer of this blog, good grief. This is used by Mario to chase down Yoshi who stole all his cookies.
Cookie Machine
It sure is a plane, used for pursuing Eggman and as a plane.
Feats
Mario
Overall
Strength
-Swung his hammer really fast(0.00259 tons of TNT and 618,612.33755 kg)[Wall+ and Class K] -Can shatter bricks with his bare hands(330079.459J to 1818673.1 J)[Wall] -Can lift and throw a variety of things including lifting a rocket(5770 kg)[Class 10] -Could destroy walls casually with his hammer(0.001127 tons of TNT)[Wall] -Can tank the KE of and completely stop the momentum of bullet bills and cannonballs(0.02120 to 0.1568 tons of TNT)[Small Building to Building] -Could punt a shell which defeated the fucking Sun(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
Speed
-Can run pretty fast(11.7 m/s)[Peak Human]
-Swung his hammer really quickly(mach 0.31)[Subsonic]
-Climbed a vine and reached cloud level quickly(60 to 200 m/s to debatably Mach 5.10204)[Subsonic to Subsonic+ to debatably Hypersonic]
-Dodged and weaved cannonballs freshly shot from their cannons(365 m/s)[Transonic]
-Moved in tandem with Bowser statue's laser(0.10c to 0.31175c)[Relativistic]
Durability
Sonic
Overall
Strength
-Sonic spins through Hydrocity blocks(0.025 Tons of TNT)[Small Building]
-Sonic dashes through Marble Garden Pillars(0.035 Tons of TNT)[Small Building]
-Sonic pushes a small boulder, I can't find footage but can confirm it is a thing(1,582.2 kg)[Class 5]
-Sonic pushes four Marble Zone blocks(2,516.4 kg)[Class 5]
Speed
-Can complete this loop(9.46 m/s)[Athlete]
-Spindash is really fast(14.62 m/s)[Superhuman]
-Can run inside a tree which is even faster(30.23 m/s)[Superhuman]
-Dodged electricity(Mach 3.08)[Supersonic+]
-Also dodged electricity in the Death Egg(Mach 264.80)[Massively Hypersonic]
Durability
-Was maybe caught in this explosion(See Before The Verdict)
-Has to be physically tough enough to withstand all his feats mentioned prior
-Uhhhh, ok so there's not much here...
Scaling
Mario
-Bob-Ombs explode(0.0445 to 0.384 tons of TNT)[Small Building to Building]
-Lakitu can control the clouds(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
-Sledge Bros can cause an Earthquake(15.084 tons to 15.10204 kilotons of TNT)[City Block to Town]
-Snifits can shoot down dreams(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
-The Angry Sun(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
-Donkey Kong Junior can keep up with electricity(Mach 260 to 2598)[MHS to MHS+]
-Bowser can break blocks by jumping(0.0018228 to 0.0297402 tons TNT)[Small Building]
-Roy shakes his airship(28.064 tons of TNT)[Large Building]
-Mouser can blow up dreams(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
-Wart can put a curse on the land of dreams(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
Sonic
-Grounder breaks through a rock wall(0.002 tons of TNT)[Wall]
-Knuckles punches the Hidden Palace door(0.0055 Tons of TNT) [Small Building]
-Knuckles punches through Angel Island blocks(0.016 Tons of TNT)[Small Building]
-Robotnik apparently survived this(Debatable, See Before The Verdict)
Weaknesses
Mario
Sonic
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Despite seeming like an unstoppable force of nature, Sonic is very much stoppable. He loses all his rings upon being hit with him not having the chance of getting them all back and nearly all of his power ups can be disposed of by a single hit. The Electric shield isn't combat applicable and the Flame shield gets deactivated in water. Also his transformations both drain his rings and both need a minimum of 50 to activate in the first place. And lastly, his Super form is vulnerable to surprise attacks or really fatal blows which will force him to return back to normal although its unclear if this con is also present in his Hyper form.
Before The Verdict
Why are you using Super Mario Bros 2?
Short Answer: Why not
Long Answer: It'd be boring to not include lol, also since Bob-Ombs return for Super Mario Bros 3 and the manual implies that certain enemies appear in certain people's dreams
Mario has Powernull?
Long Answer: Its only merely implied in the first Super Mario Bros manual and is then contradicted in the same game, however if you really believe it then it means that only certain enemies can resist Mario's ability to prevent jumping upon sight
City level Lakitu?
Long Answer: So another interesting excerpt from the SMB manual states that Lakitu can control the clouds, is this legit? Well the only feat we have of Lakitu controlling a cloud is his small cloud which he rides and no other feats to support it. But even if this was an actual feat it wouldn't be scaled to Mario's physicals due to it being hax based.
Super Mario Bros 3 and its odd feats
1. Is Mario 3 real?: Yes it is, the stage play aspects are just there for vibes.
2. Sledge Bros small earthquake: As stated in the Nintendo Power, these fat Koopas do in fact cause small earthquakes whenever they jump which I actually found two ends for. The City Block end from my friend, PlatinumTurtleman, estimates it as a magnitude 4 earthquake while a different blog I checked out WAY too late estimated it as a magnitude 6 with both actually being useable in their own right.
3. Roy our Boy!: The only Koopaling of note in terms of AP is the coolest of em all too! His feat of shaking entire ship it would get to Large Building accounting for hollowness. Now this may seem way higher than where it should be, however its accounting for a factor in scale of the airship which will be discussed in the next point.
4. Hammer lmao, oh and the Anchor as a bonus: A feat I had been hiding this entire time and only brought up now, heheheheheheh- So you know the hammer from SMB3 right? Well its main function is to open up new shortcuts by breaking things, including this boulder which, accounting for the world map, would be comparable in size to a FUCKING PYRAMID! Now this may seem insane however it really isn't. The world map simply shows us a little diagram of where Mario is going and its safe to say that the pyramid comparisons should be fine to use. If your wondering: While some characters may appear to be big in the world map, keep in mind the pyramids and airships in levels are actual pyramids and airships not to mention that Mario himself cannot pass through the boulders meaning that they are too big for him to pass by platforming so yes, the scaling is valid. But where does this hammering scale? Well again thanks to PlatinumTurtleman, this should scale to anywhere from 12.18 to 325.74 kilotons of TNT!
But I also mentioned anchors so as a bonus the anchor can hold down airships so lets do my own calc here:
Comparing the airship to the 230 m pyramid
Length is 1,125.84 m
Radius is 202.17 m
Using an ellipsoid:
96,375,363.75 m³
= 96,375,363,750,000 cm³
Its 90% hollowness
9,637,536,375,000 cm³
Using a wood-like density of 700 kg/m³:
9,637,536.375 m³ × 700 kg/m³
= 6,746,275,462.5 kg
So the airship is approximately:
6,746,275,462.5 kg [Class M]
5. The Angry Sun: You knew this was coming so lets just get it over with. Is the Angry Sun THE Sun or an actual star or neither?
Arguments against: It is obviously not the size of a normal sun or star and when it is defeated, the level doesn’t go dark or anything.
Arguments for: This genuinely jumpscared me but there are a surprising amount of external stuff that actually refer it as being a real sun. In the official Nintendo Power Strategy Guide, its referred to as THE Sun TWICE, and another guide called the Game Atlus, all three do blatantly call it a sun. But more importantly: Takashi Tezuka, a VERY important person in the development of SMB3 said in an interview for Mario Maker 2 that yes, that was the actual fucking Sun and that was the intention.
Conclusion: So with all the evidence, I am on the side of this being the actual fucking Sun which naturally gets to Star level. But for those who are still skeptical, the Angry Sun's AP accounting for it being really small would generate upwards of 1.5274 Megatons of TNT!
Should Mario get the wand or shoe?
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Long Answer: Mario just returns the wands to each respective king, what more can I say? Well I guess I can say that Mario likely knows how to use these things since he undid the curse each king had. The Kuribo's Shoe as iconic as it is in its own right appears for a single level and cannot be taken into the world map.
The highest calcs for Sonic
Long Answer: So in the end of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic defeats the Death Egg Robot and has to book it right after the fight to escape the explosion of the Death Egg. This is easily the highest calc here for Sonic with the explosion itself getting to 5.62 Megatons of TNT and the part which Sonic tanked gets to 40 tons of TNT as calculated in SPRITE FIGHT's Needlemouse vs Herobrine video... If I had a nickel for every time Needlemouse in a vs context which she loses helped this blog then I'd still have basically nothing because of how worthless nickels are. Getting back on track, I personally don't think Sonic actually tanked it at all from what we see in the scene but we will still use it for the blog as its probably just a me issue... However we still have an uncooked egg to address.
Dr. Robotnik, unlike Sonic, didn't escape the massive explosion and from what we know from the manuals, he is heavily implied to be there for the crash on Angel Island as well. So does Sonic scale? Well yes but Robotnik himself? Not really. We have very little context on what happened to Eggman other than he was in his Death Egg Robot which had been beaten by Sonic first... and that's it. Its more likely that the Death Egg Robot's shell(get it?) is what protected him from the explosion than him literally tanking it.
The Emerald issues and Hyper form
Long Answer: While Sonic himself shouldn't get the Master and Super Emeralds as standard equipment due to them being stationary and not something he can easily just, bring with him like the Chaos Emeralds, it ultimately wouldn't prevent Sonic from going Hyper on his own since he should have the amount of rings needed for it.
No FTL Sonic?
Long Answer: Now it may come off as a surprise since I gave the big M a seemingly big pass on speed and now am not giving Sonic equal leniency but... Sonic kinda, maybe, sorta, perhaps lacks a reliable laser feat to begin with? As pointed out in the blog used for Sonic's correct height, the lasers in the games function too differently to actual lasers and more damningly: are never referred to as lasers in any piece of media with the only thing supporting it being their appearances which could just be simple energy attacks, unlike Mario's feat which is from a confirmed laser based attack which in itself acts more like a laser.
Should Sonic get the Tornado?
Short Answer: This for now is still making me cackle like a hyena for such a specific reference.
Long Answer: Look man I needed something for Sonic's arsenal after his spinoffs disappointed me with nothing for feats, powers and equipment. Also since he uses it just as Tails does in the Tails good ending so no reason not to remove fun.
Universal?!?!
Long Answer: Okay so we're going to be REALLY generous for both here to warrant anything.
For Mario: Now obviously to anyone knowledgable on Mario powerscaling would know, the game of interest for this argument is Super Mario Bros 2 USA due to dreams. Subcon is said to be the world of dreams which in this context would most logically mean universe, however more conservative ends for it would be Multi Solar System+ level due to it containing many stars in the background. Mario has a shocking amount of ways to scale to dreams whether it be tanking bullets of evil dreams from Snifits, Pidgets being able to bring bad dreams, Mouser's bombs being able to blow up good dreams and Wart himself placing a curse over Subcon itself.
For Sonic: Uhhhh, ok so this is difficult but I'll bite. In the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 manual, glitches are infamously explained in universe as REALLY diabolical traps created by Robotnik and from what we can see, they affect the entire game getting to universal or more conservatively Multi Solar System+ due to containing many stars in the backgrou- HEY WAITAMINUTE! While its questionable if Sonic can even remotely scale considering he needs outside help from us, the players, to bail him out, the manual also explicitly states that Robotnik takes advantage of Sonic's own inherit ultra-fast speed to use them so maybe.
Now I should mention that both MSS+ to Universal ends aren't exactly reliable due to both relying on assumptions and Sonic's in particular being from NOT the original text and kinda just made up in translation. Both arguments are also vague(I came up with the Sonic one lmao) but no shit Mario's were better considering everything surrounding the in universe glitches for Sonic vs Mario's more direct scaling and statements even if Mario's also had issues.
Lives in general
Long Answer: Mario and Sonic both simply lack any arguments AGAINST having extra lives as of now due to manuals heavily implying them to be actually real. But I need this section to be longer so lets get counting some extra lives:
For Mario: 10 in SMB, 16 in Lost Levels(I have no idea...), 4 in SMB2 and a whopping 87 in SMB3!
For Sonic: 12 for STH1, 10 for STTH2, 10 for STH3, 7 for S&K, S3&K is just the combination of the last two and 7 for 3D Blast
Idk if you would want them to keep all these lives instead of just giving both 3 lives but in total Mario has 117 lives and Sonic has 46. Now of course coins and rings could always bump up that number however Mario in particular has a guide which ENCOURAGES you to farm lives by exploiting the system and the coins from SMB2 could give a WAYYY bigger number.
Verdict
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Stats
Even in just their first few titles, both Mario and Sonic have accumulated some rather impressive feats in their adventures which would put most other characters from this era in video games to shame. But when put up against one another, which one will be superior?
Starting off simple with Strength and Durability, using low ends, Mario can shatter bricks with his bare hands yielding 330079.459 to 1818673.1 J and he can casually destroy walls with his hammer for 0.001127 tons of TNT. His comically fast hammer swing itself reaches 0.00259 tons of TNT and he can also take and completely stop the momentum of Bullet Bills and cannonballs, giving him 0.02120 to 0.1568 tons of TNT but his most impressive direct feat is tanking Bob-Ombs and bombs which gets us 0.0445 to 0.384 tons of TNT. Sonic's basic strength is clearly in the same general tier if not more consistent since ALL his feats scale to the same tier. He can dash through Green Hill walls for 0.022 tons of TNT, spin through Hydrocity blocks for 0.025 tons of TNT, and destroy Marble Garden pillars for 0.035 tons of TNT, all landing on Small Building level. So at their basic showings, Mario and Sonic are actually fairly close in power however with best direct feats, its 0.035 tons of TNT vs 0.384 tons of TNT respectively, giving Mario a more than 10 times power edge using low ends.
But this is far from where these two can scale which brings us to mid ends... Yeah you know this is kind of a complete and utter massacre. Sonic's only higher feat which I could find gets him to 40 tons of TNT which while definitely impressive, isn't enough to beat out Mario's similar ends in most cases. Mario can scale to Roy shaking his airship which gets to 28.064 tons of TNT but the Sledge Bros small earthquake was certainly much more useable and powerful. The lower interpretation gives 15.084 tons of TNT while the higher interpretation reaches 15.10204 kilotons of TNT with both being fair in their own regard. However if you only buy the lower end then Sonic had a 2.5 times power advantage... If this was the only feat reaching kilotons. Mario's hammering of a pyramid sized boulder obviously made him comically more powerful than Sonic regardless of the end you use with even the lowest being thousands of times higher than Sonic's feat.
However in terms of high ends, Mario likely has a notable edge with both feats and statements. While I didn't mention it since it was such a great argument that I didn't even bother adding it to Before The Verdict, The Death Egg is referred to as a "Doomsday Machine" which obviously means it should be planetary and Sonic 100% scales to it via defeating the Death Egg Robot. However Mario can tank blows from and defeat the Sun which is star level so for fairness sake we're gonna use more conservative ends for both. Which gets the comparison between the two feats is 5.62 vs 1.5274 megatons of TNT. But while the Death Egg explosion may be higher than The Angry Sun, even if you buy Robotnik being able to tank the explosion, his durability would be likely less than the Sun's power anyways factoring in surface area meaning Mario takes high ends in spades.
And lastly, while both have wank ends which are sketchy, Mario's has the advantage of not being dubious canon and being actually viable for scaling. His MSS+ end is much more concrete than anything glitch related for Sonic via several statements for dream scaling even if they are less than concrete on their own however both would tie if you are fucking insane.
Lifting Strength, while not as big a gap like power, was far more straightforward. Mario lifting a rocket gets to 5770 kg which is more than double Sonic's best of pushing four blocks getting to 2516.4 kg, giving him a pretty decisive edge in lifting strength even if we don't acknowledge the Class K feat.
However the most fun part about both characters move sets is of course their acceleration! While you would expect Sonic to finally catch a break in stats, he shockingly REALLY doesn't. Using just their most basic movements, Mario's running would be 11.7 m/s, making it ironically faster than Sonic's running speed of 6.93 m/s and even Sonic's looping getting to 9.46 m/s would be slightly lesser.
Using actual feats, Sonic's spindash would get to 14.62 m/s and him running inside of a tree gets to 30.23 m/s which while impressive, would still be slower than Mario climbing a vine to cloud level getting 60 to 200 m/s and dodging cannonballs at 365 m/s.
Things don't get better for the hedgehog at high ends because he peaks at dodging electricity which gets to Mach 264.80 while Mario can scale to Donkey Kong Jr. moving in tandem with electricity at either an insignificantly slower end of Mach 260 or a very significantly faster end of Mach 2598. It doesn't matter if you think he scales or not because Mario moving in tandem with LASERS getting to at worst 0.10c is far higher than anything for Sonic.
So with all the stats covered, while it is surprising to some, Mario washes Sonic on almost all ends for their POW and is consistently faster to an unfair degree.
Abilities & Arsenal
Both video game sensations of course have plenty of power ups and tricks at their disposal to defeat their enemies, but how effective will they be at beating their rival? Since this is a bit more irritating to compare than general arsenal, we're gonna be listing em off here because I have no idea how to add tables. This is regarding exclusively their power ups for this context:
Mario: Magic Mushroom: Lets Mario tank an extra hit Sonic's Counter: Just hit him to revert him back into his more vulnerable small form
Fire Flower: Lets Mario fire off decently fast grounded projectiles Sonic's Counter: Just jump over the fireballs or become immune to them via Flame Shield and start pressuring Mario in close range if he's trying to keep a distance
Starman: Lets Mario become temporarily invincible and one shot even bosses Sonic's Counter: Just avoid him or use his own invincibility as both last around the same
Super Leaf: Lets Mario attack via his tail and also flight if he gets a running start Sonic's Counter: Try his best to stop Mario's running
Frog Suit: Lets Mario swim better Sonic's Counter: Don't go in any water, which he probably shouldn't even consider
Tanooki Suit: Super Leaf plus a statue transformation Sonic's Counter: Again, try to prevent Mario from filling the Power meter
Hammer Suit: Lets Mario throw hammers Sonic's Counter: Try not to get hit
Sonic: 10 Rings: Grants Sonic 10 rings which could resupply his rings storage in case he loses too many Mario's Counter: Nothing funnily enough other than just hit him
Barrier: Lets Sonic tank an extra hit without sacrificing any rings Mario's Counter: Nothing in particular
Speed Shoes: Makes Sonic significantly faster Mario's Counter: Ignoring the statgap, genuinely another nothing
Invincibility: Makes Sonic temporarily invincible Mario's Counter: Counter via the Starman or just avoid getting touched
Flame Shield: Makes Sonic be immune to fire attacks and gain an extra attack Mario's Counter: Make him eat shit on the ground via hitting his flame attack at the right time with the tail attack which can hit beings like Fire snakes or just use the Hammer Suit's shell to block it
Lightning Shield: Attracts rings towards Sonic and grants a double jump Mario's Counter: Just spam Hammers with the Hammer Suit to hit him in the air
Water Shield: Lets Sonic breathe underwater and grants a ground pound attack Mario's Counter: Nothing shockingly enough other than hammers again
Overall: So its pretty clear that Sonic had more counters to Mario's power ups while Mario surprisingly lacked any major counters to Sonic's, but Mario's were much more combat orientated and versatile with the only power up in Sonic's arsenal which granted him an attack worth mentioning was the Fire Shield. But this is to be expected I suppose as most of Sonic's power ups merely enhance his already present move set while Mario's gives him something completely unique. But that was just a separate section for power ups as full arsenal and abilities is below.
Mario easily had better melee options with his many, MANY hammers which could mitigate Sonic's natural spikes potentially mitigating his main form of attack like its Paper Mario, helped with his many golf clubs to break Sonic's legs and his whip for more range. Speaking of the whip, Mario could summon his minions to gain a numbers advantage alongside duplication. Mario's hammerspace was the only one of the two which actually matters due to him having his items and power ups on hand and in any case Mario simply dominated in water if the fight ever takes place there due to being an already great swimmer and his fireballs not being extinguished in water, the same water which would remove Sonic's only decent power up. Mario's pinball platform, as stupid as it is, would actually be a really solid counter to Sonic's main form of attack. But one of the bigger ones were the POW blocks which would allow Mario to damage or stun Sonic with massive AOE AND multiple uses. Mario certainly had better ranged options with his pluckables all providing him with a consistent supply of projectiles and most importantly: The Stop Watch to stop time for a bit. Mario of course had his many items in SMB3 to count on, including two separate ways to fly without restriction and some not too important stuff too.
Sonic's general arsenal includes a vehicle in the form of the Tornado which would give Sonic a good option of flight and killing Sonic was an excruciating task thanks to his rings ensuring that he could always tank a deadly hit if he had as little as a single one. The rings also go into fueling his biggest advantage: The Super and Hyper forms. These forms provide Sonic with complete invincibility as long as he has rings to activate and sustain them as well as underwater breathing and true flight, letting him control the battlefield better. Speaking of controlling the battlefield, the Hyper Flash gave him overwhelming AOE which he could spam with no repercussions. Sonic also had many useful techniques to aid him here with his main form of attack as well as rolling and spindashing letting him be a spiky ball which historically is effective against Mario. The spindash also builds up some power for better hits, but potentially the most important ability of his is the Insta Shield, protecting him from any attacks if he times it right.
When comparing both, it was abysmally clear that Mario had quantity in the bag no contest, but Sonic had some rather impressive quality. First and foremost: Sonic's Tornado was pretty much worthless here, Mario had less vulnerable(and probably quicker by feats) methods of flight and Sonic himself had better with his higher forms, the only use it seemingly had was giving Mario's anchor actual relevancy since if that thing could hold down and lock a massive airship then Sonic's small ass plane isn't resisting its weight at all. Both could lose their power ups upon a significant blow but only Mario would have some of them on hand, not to mention him having several ways to defend himself at close range to preserve them and them being a lot more useful offensively. Sonic's rings certainly made things irritating to damage him and it gave him a potentially unlimited amount of extra chances to prolong the fight and 10 rings monitors only adding onto that number. His other monitors while not as useful as Mario's power ups still provided him with extra defenses to protect the rings for reasons which will be discussed more openly later. Mario's power ups also provided him with the ability to replenish any harm and all except the mushrooms gave him 2 layers of protection. Both could also deny any hits the other could get via Mario's Tanooki Suit's statue form and Sonic's Insta Shield. While the Insta Shield was inherit and not from a power up, the Tanooki Suit's statue gave Mario more leeway with its larger and more flexible up time. Both had invincibility which canceled out however Starman can one shot bosses too and both also had more truly uncounterable abilities like Mario's Hammer Suit's shell providing extra defense against Sonic's attacks and Sonic's power sneakers giving a major speed boost. Sonic's spindash could make short work of Mario's Snapjaws but the Nitpickers would be harder to hit and Sparks could only be taken out via the Electric Shield. However we still have a couple of elephants in the room that need addressing, with the core of these elephants being Super and Hyper Sonic. We can shove Super out of the debate entirely since its outclassed badly by Hyper, also because Mario's POW Blocks could actually force Sonic out of it like Knuckles which was pretty dangerous since Sonic seemingly loses all the rings he had prior as well when this happened and its a drowning victim. Hyper Sonic provided some important advantages such as the obvious invulnerability protecting Sonic from getting damaged in the first place which allowed Sonic to bulldoze through nearly all of Mario's options. This form also provided a speed boost and more significantly: pure unrestricted flight. Mario' P-Wing and Jugem's cloud also gave these advantages but unlike Sonic, they could be removed by a single good hit and a good hit is something Sonic can certainly land via Hyper Flash. This spammable AOE attack would be quick enough to the point where Mario couldn't reliably avoid it without being too far away to do anything himself and could make quick work of any minions Mario summons.
Now this transformation may seem completely and utterly unbeatable but there are still several notable flaws which Mario could exploit. Starting off with the flaw present within the form itself is of course that it won't last forever and relies on rings to stay active and activate which is pretty problematic since it means Mario only needs a single good hit on base Sonic to scatter his rings enough to the point where he won't be able to recollect enough to have the 50 needed to transform in the first place. However the brief invulnerability Sonic gets after getting hit meant he could reasonably recollect enough so that a couple of 10 rings monitors could get him the needed number to go Hyper if he got cut off before. While Sonic can recover if his transformation gets interrupted, the real issue was sustaining the thing in the first place. Sonic only has a finite number of rings which he loses by the SECOND and if it runs out then he's completely vulnerable to Mario actually getting long term damage in, or short term to be more accurate. However Mario himself would need to have ways of stalling Hyper which he had plenty of options for. As mentioned earlier, he could keep his distance to avoid the Hyper Flash and play keep away for the entire fight until Sonic burns through his rings and had several more defensive options in the form of his power ups and items... Speaking of which, the not too important items and obviously screw Sonic over. Not including the Stop Watch shockingly enough since the time stop would only give Mario time to gain distance or collect his thoughts as it would stop not only Sonic in time, but also the ring counter making it NOT a stalling tool, not to mention its simply not as reliable as his other items due to the steps needed to pull it out in the first place although it was another way for Mario to potentially intercept Sonic transforming if timed right. But getting back on track, the Music Boxes sleep inducement was something Sonic had no resistance to meaning that if it landed, Mario could just wait it out until Sonic reverts back to base and just kills him. Mario's other options likely wouldn't wake Sonic up as Hyper's enhanced invincibility ironically bites Sonic in the ass due to negating Mario's options. Also if POW Bocks actually DID work to wake him, its more likely we'd get another Super Sonic and Knuckles moment. Another option Mario had was... The Warp Whistle? The Warp Whistle's tornado could actually BFR Sonic regardless of his forms to the Warp Zone where he'd have no way of getting back into the fight making Mario's Warp Whistle a shockingly decent wincon.
Also Sonic's spindash wouldn't counter Mario's power nullification because Mario could just spam his main projectiles and could jump over Sonic. But Hyper's flight would likely counter it.
So with all that covered, this category was way harder to decide than expected however overall Sonic's Power Ups were harder to get around but Mario's were more versatile and Sonic ultimately had the better inherit Abilities while Mario took Arsenal not quite in spades, but pretty damn close.
Tertiary Factors
In terms of general intelligence, while you could say Sonic can fly a plane while Mario cannot... Mario presumably went and got a formal education to become a carpenter, plumber and doctor which is more impressive than anything that hedgehog could boast in terms of IQ.
Skill and Experience were more difficult to pick a winner for since both are respectably skilled in their own right. However overall Sonic simply has faced more unique boss fights while Mario only faced slightly wilder basic enemies. Sonic's boss fights also are a lot more based on dodging attacks and hitting em when you can whereas Mario's were just simpler in comparison. Both of the enemies they faced obviously paralleled the other's tricks which granted them equal if not slight edge to Mario for Battle IQ as Mario is more different from Sonic's foes than vice versa. Mario was also obviously older and has been doing stuff more and for longer.
Stamina and Endurance was also difficult to choose however overall Mario's journeys simply take place in multiple days and nights while Sonic's longest adventure lasted a day or two. However since Sonic has to endure all of his attacks due to method, he likely takes endurance.
And lastly- JUST KIDDING ITS RATHER VERY IMPORTANT! is their lives of course. Yeah Mario obviously had more than double Sonic's highest on a BAD day without considering his much higher peaks and if Sonic dies then he becomes simply too vulnerable for lives to fully hold their weight here due to no more rings after a while whereas Mario had several power ups in Hammerspace to immediately refresh if he happened to die. Mario definitely had the better extra lives.
So all in all for tertiaries, Mario takes Stamina, Lives, Intelligence and likely would benefit more from his experience while Sonic takes Endurance, overall Experience and Skill.
Summary
Mario
+Ironically either slightly faster on lower ends or outright blitzes
+Hyper Sonic's invincibility also kept him in the game...
+Hyper Flash provided more spammable AOE and could clear out Mario's minions
+Slightly better powers overall which were meant for combat
+Fighting style was a direct counter to Mario's
+Has fought more unique bosses
Conclusion
Well that was more unfair that I imagined lol. Mario completely statstomps to the point where he could avoid pretty much everything Sonic could do and tank it too without much difficulty. Sonic's Hyper form did let him stay in the game but with a statgap that bad meant that nothing he could do would matter as the Hyper Flash doesn't insta kill bosses and Mario's own Starman being able to one shot bosses didn't make it better. If stats was even remotely close then the Insta Shield and Hyper Flash could give Sonic advantages but Mario's lives made him too hard to kill. Sonic overtime WILL lose all his rings making him a sitting duck regardless of his lives and to add the cherry on top, even if you give Sonic the slight power edge and equalize speed, Mario had sleep hax and several other ways to stay in the fight to the point where he could overcome the small power gap as he's not unseasoned at facing foes stronger than him.
Sonic was an impressive rival in his own right with his forms, rings, powers and experience being respectable, however Mario's overwhelming stats, arsenal and survivability was too much for SEGA's iconic hedgehog. Mario really hammered home the win, while Sonic just ran out of options.
The winner is Super Mario!
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