Super Mario Bros Wonder vs Sonic Superstars

Mario and Sonic. There are few rivalries in gaming as big as that. In the 90’s the console war with Sega and Nintendo hit into high gear as Nintendo was set to release it’s 16-bit behemoth, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in August of 1991.

Sega themselves had already released their 16-bit Mega Drive, or Genesis if you’re a Yank, just a few years prior and had carved out a decent chunk of the gaming market for themselves. Being the only company to actually match and even surpass Nintendo at that time.

But that was when they were dealing with the 8-bit NES, the SNES was significantly more powerful than both that and the Mega Drive. And to make matters worse, it was launching with a new Mario game, Super Mario World.

So Sega decided they needed an answer to Mario. Their own mascot to rival Nintendo’s “plumber”. Thus, Sonic the Hedgehog was born. If Mario is gaming’s Mickey Mouse, then Sonic is its Bugs Bunny. Still a fun-loving character, but with a bit more of an attitude and an edge to him that matched Mario’s more wholesome family friendly appeal.

The first Sonic came out in June of 1991 in America, only 2 months prior to the release of Super Mario World. Which was intentional given the whole point of Sonic was to beat Mario. Leave it to the fastest thing alive to get there early.

In Europe he had a bigger advantage since Mario World wouldn’t release until a year later. And it paid off. Not only was Sonic the Hedgehog the game a big hit, but the character became such a household name that in some ways surpassed Mario in popularity.

But the funny thing is, that was the only time Mario and Sonic had a game that directly competed on release. While Sonic would see sequels that took him to greater heights, Mario only had the one platformer. The rest of his games in that generation were spin-offs. Even the sequel to World, Yoshi’s Island, was more a spin-off than a true sequel that even started a sub-series of its own.

Mario and Sonic would never directly compete with each other after that. And after Sega went third party the idea of the two going against each other fizzled out. Except when they went to the Olympics together.

Until now. Over 30 years after the rivalry kicked off, we now have a Mario and Sonic game released within days of each other. And both just so happen to be 2D platformers. Super Mario Bros Wonder and Sonic it’s Sonic Superstars.

So, to commemorate this, I thought it would be fun to look at both games and compare the two. We're going to look at them in different categories and see which areas they succeed or falter at and see which one came out the better game.

Mario and Sonic may not be fierce rivals today, but that doesn’t mean we can’ t still celebrate it. So let’s take a look at both games and see which 2D platforming mascot came out on top.

Graphics

Before I talk about the graphics, I need to mention that I played Sonic Superstars on the Nintendo Switch. This is important because the graphical fidelity of that version isn’t as good as the other versions. Though thankfully performance wasn’t hampered at all, which is more important.

That said, the Switch version doesn’t look bad at all and I think I can safely judge the overall visual presentation and art style. Which are both very good.

The art style attempts to take the classic Sonic style of the Mega Drive and translate it into 3D. Not the first game to try this as Sonic 4 did the exact same thing, albeit with poor results. There was also Generations, which I think looks better, but that was also trying to be more in line with the modern graphical style of Sonic.

Sonic Superstars is the best attempt at trying to bring the Classic Sonic art style into 3D. The levels backdrops have a good amount of detail to them and do feel like level themes you would see in a Classic Sonic game.

The characters are well animated with a lot of the classic animations translated to 3D quite well. There are also some small details like characters appearing in the backgrounds occasionally that give the game some added charm.

And in keeping with most modern Classic Sonic games, there are some animated cutscenes that are very well done. I wish there was more of these honestly, but what we got is still nice. There are also some in game cutscenes that show the transitions between levels that is always a nice touch.

So I think Sonic Superstars looks good, but not great. Nothing in the game looks bad, but nothing wowed me either. I think the big issue with Sonic Superstars is that, while it successfully translates the Classic Sonic art style into 3D, those old games pixel graphics still look better.

Maybe it’s because they were on weaker hardware, but the stuff those old Mega Drive could do in terms of the sprite word and parallax scrolling still visually impresses even today. The visuals in those games were a lot more striking and memorable, whereas Sonic Superstars is a little safer and more forgettable overall.

Super Mario Wonder is the complete opposite. This game moves Mario away from the bland art style of the New Super Mario series and takes it in a more stylised direction. This is easily the best looking 2D Mario game in years.

It’s still a bright and colourful game that you would expect from the series, but the colours are more vibrant with an almost dreamlike quality to the palette. It helps make Mario’s world feel more fantastical, far more than it’s felt in the past 5-10 years.

But it’s in the characters where the visuals really come alive. The models look great, but it’s in the animations where they truly come alive. They have so much more personality than they did in the New series, with little animations added in almost everything they do.

I was actually impressed in how many little animations they added. Some are obvious like Mario reaching for his hat when he enters a Warp Pipe, or the flourishes that happen when a power up is grabbed, but others are much more subtle. For example, characters will often do small hops when moving on the floor underwater now, rather than just walk on it or float above it like in past games.

Stuff like that really shows the love and care that went into the visuals in this. Even Mario’s run animation is so much more visually interesting in this. The characters themselves are also animated at ¾ angles which make them far more expressive while also allowing them to emulate the sprites of classic games quite well.

I can’t praise the visuals of Mario Wonder enough. I was constantly impressed at all the small details in the animations, the vibrant levels, and the special effects that happen whenever you pick up a Wonder Flower.

So it’s pretty clear that Mario takes this category. Sonic Superstars is a good-looking game for what it is, but it doesn’t live up to the visuals of the older pixel art games. Ironically it suffers the same problems New Super Mario Bros did. Just making things 3D without adding much of its own visual flair to anything. Mario Wonder moved away from that and it’s much better for it.

Winner: Mario

Music

You know, I thought for sure Sonic would win this. Mainly because Sonic games usually have really good soundtracks. Even bad Sonic games like Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog had banger soundtracks.

Which is why it pains me to say that Sonic Superstars soundtrack is pretty weak. It isn’t completely awful, there are some good tracks here, but it mostly falls flat. What’s funny is you can usually tell which tracks are going to be good or not is to just look at the composer. If Tee Lopes did it chances are it’ll be good, if Jun Senoe did it it’ll probably suck.

And it’s not because Jun Senoe is a bad composer. He has done Sonic music for years even way back in the Mega Drive days and his output has been consistently excellent. Sonic Adventure is one of the best videogame OST’s of all time for God’s sake.

But here it just doesn’t work and part of that is because he doesn’t really do Classic Sonic music well. He just can’t quite get the unique sound those games had down right. Back in the Mega Drive era he would write and compose the music separate from the Mega Drive architecture and then hand it off to someone who compressed it down for the hardware.

So I don’t think he ever got the Mega Drive sound Superstars is trying to emulate. When the games went 3D and he could use real instruments the dude went ham, but when it comes to creating heavily synthesised soundtracks akin to the Mega Drive games he doesn’t do nearly as well.

Sonic 4 had the exact same problem. Jun Senoe and synthesisers just do not mix. Which results in a lot of Superstars soundtrack sound like a bad approximation of a Classic Sonic soundtrack.

Mario Wonder kind of wins this by default, but that isn’t to underscore the music. It is quite good as far as 2D Mario soundtracks go. It’s fittingly upbeat and has a slight quirky edge to it which helps give it a bit more personality.

That said I don’t think it’s quite as good as some other Mario soundtracks. Games like 3D World, Odyssey and especially Galaxy 1+2 are better overall. It’s still good, it just doesn’t have any tracks that are a definite bop.

Though I will credit Wonder for having great musical sections. There are certain levels that are built entirely around the music and rhythm of the stage and I’ll always like a game that does that. There are also levels or sections of levels that are built around the music and those are some of the best moments in the game.

Even without all that Mario would still win. I know Sonic Superstars was trying to capture the feeling of those classic Mega Drive soundtracks, but they needed to have someone who could do that sound right. Which they did, but only some of the time.

Mario Wonder on the other hand feels like a Mario soundtrack but with modern instrumentation. I really don’t know why Sega didn’t do the same with Superstars, especially since that’s where Senoe shines. I mean they were already moving away from the pixel art, why not do the same for the music?

Winner: Mario

Powerups and Abilities

Like previous Mario and Sonic games, both Wonder and Superstars have power-ups that can help players through the levels. But they also add something new in the form of special abilities you can use on top of the regular move set.

In Mario’s case it’s the badges, equippable abilities that either give Mario a new move or a special boost like more coins when defeating an enemy or saving him from a pit. Sonic has the Chaos Emeralds, which now give him a unique ability for every emerald collected ranging from a fireball that can fly him through the air, turning into water to ride waterfalls or swim, and being able to see hidden platformers.

I like the addition of both of these, though I have issues with the execution. In general Mario might seem to be the winner as there are far more badges than there are emerald powers. There are over a dozen badges compared to the seven emerald powers, eight if you count super forms.

However, Sonic can access any of the seven powers at any time once unlocked. With the only caveat being you lose that power until the next checkpoint. Mario can only use one badge at a time which limits what you can do with them.

On top of that I feel like the emerald powers allowed for more experimentation with how you handled levels than the badges did. Having access to them all probably helped with that, though it could also be due to Sonics level design allowing for alternate routes.

Though even with that I still found a lot of the emerald powers to be situational at best, and useless at worst. The water powerup has very few instances where it can be used, and the purple emerald that lets you see hidden platforms is only useful in specific spots. Then there’s the white emerald which gives every character a unique attack which is just useless no matter who uses it.

The badges are a little better in this regard as a lot of them are extremely useful is multiple levels, but even those have some that are situational. Stuff like the dolphin kick and vine grab are fun, but very few levels where they’re actually useful. And some of the rarer rainbow ones are very clearly meant to be challenge badges that make the game harder, which most players won’t bother with.

Mario Wonder does at least provide challenge stages that at least gives each badge a chance to shine. Though the fact these are clearly meant to be tutorials on how to use each badge does diminish their impact somewhat.

I also think some of these badges should have just been part of Mario’s core move set. Stuff like the hat glide I can understand since it’s very good at salvaging a missed jump and would be broken if you always had access to it.

But stuff like the timed high jump or the dolphin kick really feel like things Mario should have by default. Also, one of the badges is literally just Luigi’s high jump from Mario 3D World and that just feels unfair to Luigi. It was the one thing unique to him and now everyone can do it. Why do you have to do him dirty like that.

I don’t hate either ability set. I think both are fine additions to both series, I just think the execution for both could have been better. I don’t find either to be the superior set as both have their own unique advantages.

But then you have the power-ups. Sonic Superstars has all the traditional power-ups. Speed Shoes, Invincibility and the Shield. No elemental shields sadly, though the new magnetic power up serves a similar purpose to the electric shield by drawing in rings.

Mario Wonder, on the other hand, not only has the standard Mushroom, Fire Flower and Super Star, but three brand new power ups. Elephant Mario which turns Mario into an elephant, allowing him to attack with his trunk that also lets him store and discharge water. Bubble Mario which lets him fire bubbles that can defeat enemies or be used as makeshift platforms. And finally Drill Mario which lets him dig underground or embed him in the ceiling, while also protecting him from anything falling on top of him.

All three of these are excellent. Some of the most fun and creative new power-ups Mario has seen in a long time. And as should be obvious from the last paragraph, each power-up has some depth to it. Not just doing one thing but having multiple functions that make them more enjoyable to use like the best Mario power-ups should do.

Ironically, despite the elephant form being the one on all the ads and the cover, it’s the least interesting mechanically. I find the bubble and drill forms far more engaging from a gameplay perspective, but I still ended up loving the elephant regardless. It’s Mario, as an elephant. How can you not love that.

So, to absolutely no one’s surprise, Mario takes this one. Mario has always been better with power-ups admittedly, but the fact that Sonic Superstars removes power-ups while Wonder adds new ones, ironically three for both sides, makes this choice very easy.

Winner: Mario

Playable Characters

This one is very straightforward. Sonic Superstars has five playable characters, four at the star and one unlockable after finishing the game, while Mario Wonder has 12. So good game right, Mario clearly wins. Well, not quite.

While Mario Wonder has more playable characters, they all play exactly the same. While Super Mario 3D World had characters with different attributes, here they’re all just different skins. Toad plays exactly like Peach, who plays exactly like Luigi, who plays exactly like Mario.

I will give them credit for finally having Daisy as a playable character. Outside of the spin offs she’s been royally ignored in this series, and there are characters that do play differently with the Yoshi’s and Nabbit. But those are meant to be the equivalent of an easy mode, so experienced players, or those looking to play the game as intended won’t bother with them.

Sonic Superstars may have fewer characters, but they all play differently with their own unique moves. Sonic has the Drop Dash, Tails has his flight, Knuckles can glide, Amy can double jump and has a dash with her hammer, and newcomer Trip can latch onto and move across walls and ceilings. These not only make each character unique, but also gives the game more replay value in going back to previous stages with different characters.

Each character is also very fun to play as. Sonic is the standard but still fun character for purists, Knuckles shorter jump makes him slightly harder but still enjoyable to play, and Tails and Amy are both newcomer friendly without it being insulting, with Trip somewhere between Sonic and Knuckles.

And while having a playable Daisy after so long is great, having an official way to play as Amy in a Classic Sonic game is just as nice. More so since they actually gave her a unique move set. Yes I know Sonic Origin Plus added Amy to the old games, but it’s still cool to get a new game with her in. Hell, that’s not getting into Trip, who is a brand-new character made for this game.

It also helps that Superstars gives each character their own levels that gives them a chance to shine. Allowing you to test each character out even if you aren’t playing as them primarily. Though outside of Amy’s level these are entirely optional. So if you don’t want to play as them you can just skip their levels.

I appreciate Mario Wonder having so many characters, but at the end of the day I’ll always prefer fewer characters with different playstyles over more characters that play the same.

Winner: Sonic

Game Feel

Since both Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars are both games built in the classic mould of both series, each of them tries to recapture the same feel as those classic games. And they both succeeded at this.

Sonic Superstars was built on the same engine as Sonic Mania, so it feels almost identical to that. Sonic has the same sense of weight and momentum-based control expected from a Classic Sonic game. He does feel a bit slower than those, but not to such a degree where it ruins the overall feel of the game. Plus, it excusable given the larger multiplayer element in Superstars.

Mario Wonder feels closer to Super Mario World than the New series. New Super Mario Bros always felt a bit looser to control to me, though it still played perfectly fine. Wonder brings back the weightier feeling you got in games like Mario 3 and World while keeping the same move set additions the New series introduced, and just feels much better as a result.

Neither game is perfect in this regard. Mario Wonder’s wall jumping can be a little off at times, and Sonic Superstars can have issues with its physics in certain areas. Neither of these ruin the feel of each game though, and can be adjusted to fairly easily.

Because of that this section really comes down to personal preference. Do you like how Mario controls more or Sonic? For me it’s always going to be Sonic.

While Mario is arguably the gold standard when it comes to platformers, I find other platformers overall more fun to control. I prefer the bounciness of Donkey Kong Country, or the smoothness of Rayman Origins, and yes, the momentum of Sonic.

Sonic does have a bit more of a learning curve than Mario, but that leads to a better satisfaction when it clicks. The sense of speed you can get from Sonic always feels good to pull off and isn’t something you get from most other 2D platformers. Despite many attempts at replicating it.

Of all the sections in this comparison, this is the most subjective. Both games feel great to play and objectively I can’t say one is better than the other. If you prefer Mario, that’s perfectly fine, but for me I’ll always prefer Sonic in his classic incarnation.

Winner: Sonic

Level Design

We now get to the most important part of any platformer, the level design. Both Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars have a variety of levels to play through and for the most part they’re pretty solid. But Sonic Superstars has a major issue holding it back.

Early levels in Sonic Superstars are fantastic. Capturing the same design as Classic Sonic levels with multiple paths and tons of secrets. The Sonic games it reminded me the most of in terms of it’s level design was a mix of Sonic 3 and the Sonic Game Gear titles.

In terms of overall structure, they’re very similar to Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Same kind of branching paths and hidden secrets, but the levels also introduce a variety of gimmicks similar to the Game Gear games like Triple Trouble.

One level has wind you can ride, another has you changing into different digital forms, and one has you go through a level you just did backwards as time rewinds around you. These gimmicks do add a bit of variety to the levels, but they aren’t created equal.

While some of the gimmicks are integrated pretty well into the level design, others are annoying and go against the core game design of the Sonic series. And sadly, the latter is far more prevalent in the later half of the game.

See Sonic Superstars has a noticeable decline in quality in the level design as the game goes on. Early levels are a lot of fun, but later levels become increasingly frustrating. To the point where the final stretch of the game can be a chore to get through.

Now, in Superstars defence, a lot of Sonic games have this issue. Even the Mega Drive games suffered from this, and if you don’t believe I have 6 words for you, Metropolis Zone Metropolis Zone Metropolis Zone.

But Superstars has it particularly bad. And while later levels aren’t entirely awful, there are still some highlights and it never got so bad I wanted to stop playing, it does take a noticeable drop in the quality of the levels that does affect the overall enjoyment of the game.

Mario Wonder does not suffer from this. If anything, the levels only improve as the game progresses. Every level in Mario Wonder introduces new ideas that are constantly engaging. New enemies, new obstacles, new types of platforms, it’s constantly shaking things up and it’s always a fun time.

And that’s not even counting the Wonder Flowers. These are special flowers found in every level that change the levels in weird and wonderful ways. That’s not a pun by the way, they called it Wonder for a reason.

These Wonder Flowers effects can get pretty damn wild. One of them has a bunch of Piranha Plants break out in a song and dance routine and that’s just for the second level. Later on, you get Mario’s body becoming super long, traveling in outer space, jumping to the beat of the music to raise platforms, and changing into various forms like Slimes, Hoppycats and Goomba’s.

You never know what you’re going to get, but they’re so much fun that there’s a sense of excitement whenever you see one because you just want to see what will happen. That’s not all though, every level has collectibles like big purple coins and Wonder Seeds to find that reward exploration.

There are also secret exits in some levels that can unlock new pathways in the overworld that can lead to secret levels, and even the Special World that provides the games most challenging levels. So, there’s reason to replay levels to see what you can find.

Now are all of Wonder’s levels created equal? No, there are certain levels that are just kind of there and some of the Special World levels are frustratingly hard, World 2’s special level can fuck right off as far as I’m concerned, but it is consistently enjoyable throughout. And credit where it’s due, the final Special World level isn’t nearly as bad as other final Mario levels in more recent games. I actually managed to 100% this one.

Sonic Superstars isn’t nearly as consistent. It’s still good overall, it doesn’t get really bad until the last stretch of the game, but when it drops off, it drops off hard.

I will give Superstars this, at least the bosses are done better. I know a lot of people have been complaining about these, but honestly, they aren’t that bad. They’re a little long and some of the late game bosses are rage inducing, but at least they’re all different. Wonder just reuses Bowser Jr over and over only with a new gimmick each time which is just lazy.

Sonic Superstars bosses are also decently challenging and more satisfying to beat. Even if the late game bosses made me want to break my Switch in half, I still felt good once I beat them. Mario Wonders were so easy I didn’t feel anything after they were over.

But aside from that, Mario Wonder has the better levels. More consistent overall and does a better job of integrating its new ideas into Mario’s core gameplay. Weak bosses aside, Mario takes this easily.

Winner: Mario

Content

Now we come to the final section, the content. What does each game offer in terms of game modes and how long does it take to finish them.

Let’s start with the length of each game. Mario Wonder is a longer game overall. Even just beating the main story, Sonic Superstars should take you 5 hours to finish, while Mario Wonder should take 9 hours. With it taking longer if you want to go for 100% completion.

So longer, but not to an insane degree, and it should be noted that Sonic Superstars does offer more replay value in playing the levels as different characters. However, it should also be noted that Sonic Superstars length is somewhat artificial.

While Wonder only has the one story mode to play through, Superstars has a second unlockable story mode where you play as Trip. It’s essentially the exact same mode as the main story, but with slightly altered levels to fit Trips move set, on top of a new final boss.

It’s essentially the Knuckles mode of the game. A slightly harder version of the main story that takes place shortly after the main one.

Unfortunately, it’s also the worst part of the game. Trips story is really where the level design takes an absolute nosedive in quality. The final stretch of the main story was annoying, but nothing too egregious. Trip’s story made me want to pull my hair out. It took the basic levels and just added more bullshit on top of it.

It felt artificially difficult, which in turn made the added length feel artificial. It honestly felt like Trip’s story was just there to pad out the game. If she had brand new levels I could maybe understand it’s inclusion, but as is I’d rather just play as Trip in the main story mode, which you can already do anyway.

As for what each game has to offer, there’s the multiplayer. Both games have 4-player local co-op, though sadly no online co-op. Mario Wonder does have an online mode, but it’s not what you think.

Basically, it’s just you playing the game normally alongside a bunch of ghosts representing other players. There’s some cool stuff you can do like drop standee’s that can help people out, but it’s just not the same as actually playing with other people.

Sonic Superstars also has an online mode, but it’s not co-op. It’s a vs mode where you build your own robot with medals found in the main game and fight other players. I didn’t really try this out though. I had no interest in it and from what I can gather the mode isn’t exactly great.

I did briefly try out the co-op in both games, key word being briefly. I only got to play for a few levels with another person, but even in that brief time I could tell Mario Wonder was the superior co-op experience.

And it’s for one simple reason, Sonic just doesn’t work with co-op. The fast-paced nature of Sonic’s gameplay means that you always get situations where other players get left far behind. Even additions like being able to teleport to another player when that happens doesn’t fix this underlying issue.

Sonic Superstars big focus on co-op seems misplaced as it just doesn’t gel with the underlying design of the series. I mean does anyone remember the co-op in the Mega-Drive games where a second player could play as Tails? Probably not because it sucked and nobody played it.

I won’t lie and say Mario Wonder has great co-op. It’s perfectly fine, I just don’t think 2D platformers work all that well as co-op experiences. But at least it works much better here than it does in Sonic Superstars.

At the end of the day, when it comes to the content of both games, I can best sum it up like this, Mario Wonder doesn’t need to justify its price point while Sonic Superstars desperately tries to. Both games are full price at launch, but while Mario Wonder feels like a full adventure worth the price, Sonic tries to justify its price by artificially padding the game with side modes that feel tacked on and underbaked.

In terms of a robust package, Mario Wonder is the better game. Sonic Superstars replay value does help it, but the awful alternate game modes dampen the experience rather than help it.

Winner: Mario

I think it’s clear who the overall winner of this is. I want to make it clear that I do not think Sonic Superstars is a bad game. Outside of some frustration in the late game it is a solid 2D platformer, but compared to Super Mario Wonder it just doesn’t match up.

Super Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario game in years. Honestly, I would put it above games like Mario 3 and World, that’s how good it is. Sonic Superstars is a fine game, but it doesn’t quite live up to the best of Sonic’s 2D output.

Games like Sonic 2, 3 & Knuckles and especially Mania are all better games that still rank among the best of Sonic’s output. And with Mania being on the same platforms, and a cheaper cost, it makes it hard to recommend Sonic Superstars at full price. At a discount? Then yeah I’d say it’s worth it.

But at full price there’s only one game I can fully recommend, Super Mario Wonder. Once again Nintendo prevails in the battle of mascots.

But regardless of who the winner is, I’m just glad we have a 2D Sonic and a 2D Mario game competing against each other again. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another 30 years for that to happen again. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a resurrection of the mascot platformer craze again and see characters like Sparkster and Aero get new titles. Hell, if fucking Bubsy can come back anything can happen.