Sonic or Mario

Mario by a long way. Just felt that with Sonic you never really got to see much of the levels as you spent so long just bombing through them whereas Mario you had to negotiate pretty much every jump and enemy on each level.

Mario for me as it was more considered and you couldn't just race through every level though I did like the early Sonic games.

Obviously the game Cool Spot based on the red dot thing on bottles of 7up was vastly superior to both games mind.

Sonic for me.
Beautifully crafted levels and great music. There seems to be some misconception on here you could just zoom through all the levels when actually timing was very important part of the gameplay.
Best game was Sonic & Knuckles. Great in its own right but with the cartridge letting you play as Knuckles in other Sonic games makes it stand out.
On a side note, Sonic CD has been released on PSN (don't know about X-box but I imagine it is). Yeah, it was originally a Mega-CD game but don't let that put you off, its actually a great Sonic game.

Best platformer was Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkatron

Remember the cheat for Sonic where you could become anything from the game like the rings and put 1000's of ring everywhere.... Streets of rage awesome game... Have to say the SNES was better though. Mario and Streetfighter

I remember playing Streetfighter II on the SNES for the first time and being blown away that something I'd only ever played and seen in an arcade was there in my friend's living room on his telly.

Voodoo magic I tells ya!

Why is it games were more enjoyable then before they became all realistic and stuff....Or am I just getting old?

Age plays a part because everything appears more magical and awesome when you're young but I also think games were more about simple fun rather than realism then.

That's a close one.. spent many, many hours of my childhood playing Sonic, especially Sonic 2 but I'd have to say Mario. Road Rash 2 was an absolute weapon of a game. I also remember spending hours playing where in the world is carmen sandiego (think that was the title?) Mario Karts was quality too.

The original Sonic games were all fantastic, and to be fair the latest one is a decent game as well in my opinion.

However I can remember being absolutely addicted to Super Mario World whan I used to play it round my Cousin's house. pure gold.

Cool Spot was brilliant, special mention to Earthworm Jim and Dynamite Heady

Jet Set Willy