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Mario Soundtracks v. Sonic Soundtracks

Something I've always wanted to talk about:

Which franchise has the better soundtracks:
Mario or Sonic?

I'm more biased towards Sonic soundtracks (My favorite VGM is Lava Reef Act 1 from Sonic & Knuckles) and am more biased against Mario soundtracks (except world, nsmb ds, and odyssey), but everyone has their own opinion.

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There's no definitive better, it's all up to personal opinion.

I like a lot of Sonic music, but just old stuff which is what I actually played. The vocal songs in modern games aren't my kind of thing.
But I like the music in Sonic Mania, though that's just because it's in 90s style too.

About Mario though, while I like a lot Mario songs, I feel like from the main series, it's most of the time too simple and basic, and while nice, it tends to not be something I listen often outside the games. But when it's one of the spinoffs and stuff, then I really like them a lot, especially the RPGs and Mario Kart!
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My opinions toward Mario music is mostly the same as the way I feel toward Pokémon soundtracks; each game always has at least a few really good and memorable tracks (especially in the case of SMG and Paper Mario), but most of the time the rest of the music just feels forgettable and sometimes just white noise that I wouldn't listen to outside of in-game (especially with the Mario Kart games, even if I always look forward to the Rainbow Road songs). I haven't listened to Odyssey's soundtrack in its entirety yet, but from what I have heard I'm pretty optimistic about that one at least.


Sonic on the other hand, seems to have consistently outstanding music. I could take most Sonic soundtracks and have a hard time finding even a few songs from an individual game that didn't stick with me. Also, Sonic Rush/Sonic Rush Adventure > all.


So yeah, as much as I dislike Sonic as a franchise, they definitely get the point for this. ... Then again, most of my favourite VGM songs are ones that I didn't enjoy much on the first few listens, so maybe I'll change my mind one day.
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As a fan of both Mario and Sonic, to me they both have great soundtracks and sometimes horrible ones!

Here's an example

Good Mario Tracks

1.Bowser's Road (SM64/SMG/SMG2)
2.Underground Themes (SMB2Prototype/SMG/Beat Block Galaxy SMG2/Super Mario Oddysey.)
3.The above-water beach theme (SM3DL)
4.A good chunk of Super Mario 3D World's Soundtrack
5.The Final Boss theme (SMW2 Yoshi's Island)

Bad Mario Tracks

1.Most of M&L Dream Team's Soundtrack (Most of It just sounds like a really bad MIDI!)
2.Mushroom Forest/Geno's Maze (SMRPG) This crap song is WAY TOO OVERRATED!!!
3.The Underwater Theme(NSMB DS)
4.The Mid Fortress Theme(Also NSMB DS/NSMB Wii)
5.The Soundtrack to Yoshi's """"NEW"""" Island.

Good Sonic Tracks

1.Metropolis Zone (Sonic 2)
2.Mid Boss Theme (Sonic 3)
3.Midnight Greenhouse (Knuckles Chaotix) The only thing people liked about that game was it's Soundtrack. That's all there is even for me.
4.Flying Battery Zone Act 1 (Sonic & Knuckles)
5.Collision Chaos JAP/EUR (Sonic CD)

Bad Sonic Tracks

1.The entirety of the horribly strung mismatched excuse of a soundtrack that is Sonic and the Dark Chronicles.
2.The Soundtrack from Sonic and the Secret Rings, I swear to god... There's a song that goes "Have you ever seen an elephant with wings". If those aren't the stupidest lyrics ever then I don't know what is.
3.Ice Cap Zone (Sonic 3) The 1st Mushroom Forest/Geno's Maze of the series!
4.Sunset Park Zone Act 3 (Sonic Triple Trouble)The 2nd Mushroom Forest/Geno's Maze of the series!
5.Flying Battery Zone Act 1&2 (Sonic Mania)
6.Collision Chaos US (Sonic CD)

There's my list for ya! With both of these series it's a mixed bag I mean... The Sonic series is just as guilty of bad song/soundtracks as the Mario series is. So yeah...
As good as the Sonic franchise's soundtracks are, I much prefer to listen to Mario franchise's songs. Maybe this is because I don't like heavy metal songs as much as more atmospheric/wacky ones. Or maybe it's because the Sonic franchise has been run straight into the ground (with the exception of Sonic Mania).

But, that's not to say I still enjoy some classic Sonic game songs, like Sandopolis Zone and Angel Island Zone. However, in Sonic Mania, I really hated the Act 2 song of Lava Reef Zone. I felt like it ruined the whole atmosphere of the stage compared to the original.

Rambling aside, in my opinion, Mario soundtracks > Sonic soundtracks. However, this does not mean I entirely dislike the entire Sonic soundtrack.
Just so you know, I'm very active on the site anymore like I was before; I'm mainly on Discord now.
how am I even supposed to compare the two

I definitely listen to the music of the Mario franchise (+ the extended franchise) more than of Sonic's, but there's great tracks in both. They also have different music styles for the most part so...yeah.

I also feel like Mario games have a higher amount of memorable songs, but they also have many more games and many more spin-offs. Even if we were to compare just the core series, there's still plenty more Mario tracks than Sonic tracks.