This story might seem a bit “arrogant” to some, but it is an interesting viewpoint for a company that was once on “top of the world” and is now still trying to get back all it’s lost. To recap, when SEGA entered the console market, they had one goal: beat Nintendo. We’re serious about that. There have even been gaming documentaries from the people who lived in this console war and talked about the goals of SEGA at the time. That’s why they made the “SEGA Does What Nintendon’t” catchphrase. Then, there was Sonic The Hedgehog and what he brought to the table.
Just about everything within his design and gameplay style was meant to counter what Mario did for Nintendo. Mario was slow; Sonic was fast. Mario’s “main color” was red, so Sonic’s was blue. Mario was kind, Sonic was cocky, and on it goes. The two companies battled in console and handheld wars for years before; eventually, SEGA shot themselves in the foot with the Dreamcast and had to bow it. They survived as a software-making company and even collaborated with Nintendo for several collaboration games between Sonic The Hedgehog and Mario. However, in a new interview with the official SEGA website, SEGA executive director Osamu Ohashi had this to say:
“Simply put, we want to surpass Mario. Sonic is a game that was originally developed to compete with Mario, and it still hasn’t achieved that goal. Because we respect Mario, our goal is to catch up and surpass him. I want Sonic to be played by people all over the world, including Japan, just like Mario. I want the movie to be a bigger hit than Mario. I would like Universal Studios Japan to create a Sonic Area as well. That’s our goal for those who love Sonic.”
A bold goal? Yeah, that’s one way of looking at it. Another way to look at it is that the company thinks they’re “on a roll” with Sonic games recently and think they can catch up to Mario and his titles. To an extent, they are right. Between last year’s game and the one that came out two weeks ago, Sonic has had good-to-great titles in the 3D and 2D space in the course of a year. That’s more momentum than the character has had in the gaming space in YEARS.
Will they be able to beat Mario? Not likely, especially given his recent gaming release that was “WONDERFUL!” However, that’s not to say they shouldn’t try!
