Sega exec wants Sonic "to surpass Mario"

Sega executive Osamu Ohasi has expressed his desire for Sonic "to surpass Mario".

Ohasi is currently division manager for the 2nd Business Department, in charge of both the Sonic series and rebooting past IPs to create a "second Sonic". He was interviewed internally by Sega Japan for recruitment purposes (translated by NoisyPixel).

When asked how he plans for Sonic to grow in future, Ohasi replied: "Simply put, I want to surpass Mario."

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"Sonic was a game originally developed to compete with Mario, and we have yet to achieve that. Because we respect Mario, my goal is to catch up to and surpass him."

Sonic was indeed created as a Sega mascot to compete with Nintendo's Mario, but while the character has certainly been a global success in both games and films, he's surpassed by Mario financially and in critical acclaim.

And so the battle has raged since the release of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991, with Sonic never quite living up to the "Genesis does what Nintendon't" marketing line of Sega of America.

Ohasi continued: "We want Sonic to be played all over the world, including Japan, just like Mario, and we want the movie to be a bigger hit than Mario. We also want to build a Sonic attraction in Universal Studios Japan. That is my goal as a Sonic lover."

The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 film got off to a great start, but was soon eclipsed by the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which broke the record for the largest-ever opening weekend of any animated film and has since crossed $1bn at the worldwide box office.

As for a Sonic theme park, I would pay a lot of money to visit a real life Green Hill Zone and ride a high speed blue blur roller coaster.

Still, Ohasi's comments do feel like lofty ambitions for the company, considering the current legacy of both series. In the interview he also admits Sonic is more popular overseas than in Japan.

Yesterday Sega announced a new 3D Sonic platformer called Sonic Dream Team, releasing exclusively for Apple Arcade.

That follows on from Sonic Superstars, which released in the same week as Super Mario Wonder and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and lagged far behind in terms of sales.