I always liked Sonic as a mascot more to the point it was my second-earliest childhood obsession after Barney the Dinosaur, but Mario games were more enjoyable and I played them far more. Sonic was tough for me because of the physics and back then the lack of save files; Mario's controls were tight and the pacing was just right from game to game. Sonic has by far the better television series and movie around him than Mario. Both franchises are vibrant and engaging, with stellar soundtracks to listen to after the fact.

Nowadays, the Sonic fan community puts out far cooler ROM hacks than the Sonic Team's games for the most part and it's very nice how close Sega is to the fans. Sometimes there's an awesome Sonic game out, but usually it's a throwback-style one like Generations. Nintendo is still on the ball with quality Mario games with classic 2D and modern 3D gameplay, though they are much more distant from their fan base than Sega and more controlling of their intellectual property use.