I grew up with Sonic, and still have the most fun playing Sonic games, but as of where they stand today, you just gotta give it to Mario. He's had this "battle" in the bag since the N64 era. Crash was way too late to the party and 3-D hasn't served Sonic very well. Sonic 4 is a step (back) in the right direction (as I will explain in my upcoming user review - coming soon!), but he's gotta play a considerable amount of catch-up to get to the level of sales and sheer recognizability Mario has.