Sega exec admits Sonic has never been as popular as his biggest rival and wants to change that: "Quite simply, I want to surpass Mario"

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"Because we respect Mario, our goal is to catch up and surpass him"

Sonic
(Image credit: Sega)

Sega exec Osamu Ohashi is reviving Sonic the Hedgehog's decades-old rivalry with Mario, saying he wants the former to "surpass" the latter.

Of course, Sonic was originally conceived as part of Sega's strategy to compete with Nintendo in 1991, right at the height of the two company's 16-bit console war between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Over 30 years later, Ohashi, who joined Sega in 1993, now admits Sonic was never as successful as his rival and says he plans on changing that.

"Simply put, I want to surpass Mario," Ohashi said in an interview with Sega (via Knoebel). "Sonic is a game that was originally developed to compete with Mario, and it still hasn't achieved that goal. Our goal is to catch up and surpass Mario because we respect Mario."

"I want people to play it all over the world, including Japan, like Mario, and 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 of us who love Sonic."

As a fan of both IPs, though admittedly a tiny bit biased toward Mario, I'm just delighted to see this friendly, respectful competition still going in 2023. I remember hearing heated debates in the early '90s about which 16-bit console and associated games were superior, and here we are decades later witnessing a top-level executive at Sega bringing that same debate into the modern age.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.