For classic games sake I will say Sonic. He was WAY PAST COOL back in the day when I used to eat chili dogs from a little place called "Uncle Chuck's". But those days have fallen away. No one knows about Princess Sally Acorn, Rotor (aka Boomer), Bunnie Rabbot, Robotnic (later quite retardedly renamed EggMan), Snively, or (however gay he may have been) Antoine. Those times will always secure Sonic a high pedestal in my heart. Not to mention how cool it was to hook Sonic 3 into the top of Sonic & (knock knock it's Knux y'all) Knuckles and carry over the gameplay like 10 more levels with the ability to collect the SUPER EMERALDS (gasp!) and get HYPER SONIC and HYPER KNUCKLES and ...hyper tails?!?!? And who doesn't have fond memories of playing Sonic 2 until their eyes were bleeding and then getting a game over in the Metropolis Zone after like 8 hours of gameplay and having no way to save or start at a further point in the game than the beginning?
But alas as ProfAmaretto points out, the greedy and new thinkers who run these behemoth companies now have gotten a hold of Sonic and destroyed everything he once stood for - writing ludacris story lines and not including any of the history that is Sonic the Hedgehog.
However Mario (who's older games didn't quite have the snagging appeal that Sonic's did) has emerged as the modern day game hero. And why is this? For the opposite of the reasons Sonic has taken a dive. The people in charge of writing the chapters of Mario's life haven't forgotten his roots (or his friends, or his world, or his enemies...) and have accommodated them into his games therefore expanding his character and making the games engaging and entertaining. So Mario gets the modern day props.
And here are some other things to look at when considering this poll. Did Mario ever have a comic? NO (well, actually he did, but it was a hardcover book with one edition, not a monthly running thing like Sonic had). Did Sonic ever have a live-action character on TV? NO (but thank God for that one- we all saw how it turned out with Mario). Did Sonic ever take potentially sucky games and make them into well known and famous ones instead of the forgotten flops they were destined to be? NO (talkin about Alex the Kidd and whatever game it was they used to make Mario 2).
So, to wrap it all up I think they are equally awesome, but for different reasons. Peep it sons. Word mutha.
"Here's a couponette for a punch to the face"
