Which game is better, Super Mario World or Sonic 1 (Genesis)

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javi741 said:

It's a bit surprising that back in the 90s, Sega went to retail stores all across the U.S with Sonic 1 & SMW play booths and asked gamers across the country which game they liked better, and 80% of gamers actually said Sonic 1 was better than SMW.

But tbh, I felt like gamers at the time preferred Sonic cause of the presentation, he was a new platformer, looked and played faster than SMW, had better graphics, and had a character with a cool personality, plus these kids probably only played a few minutes of each game so they couldn't really have the time to see that Mario World had so much more depth and exploration than Sonic. Nowadays I'm sure if those same gamers fully played through both games they'll say SMw was definitely better.

Yeah the gaming landscape at the time also gave Sonic a considerable leg up; in the early 4th generation, the Megadrive had a head start over the SNES and hence a bigger install base at the time both games were new. IIRC there was a brief period in which more American kids recognized Sonic than Mario because of this.

Of course, the SNES ultimately proved to have better legs than the Megadrive and eventually caught up and surpassed it, leading Mario World to sell better by the end of the generation.