Which 2D platformer has better boss battles overall? Mario or Sonic?

[AppleKid]

After replaying Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which probably has my favorite lineup of mini-bosses and bosses in any 2D platformer, I feel like this is an easy win for the hedgehog over 2D Mario's frequent re-use of the Koopalings. The amount of bosses in that game alone is insane, with most having unique patterns and vulnerabilities.

For 2D Sonic I've only played through 3&K, Advance 1, and Mania so maybe some other 2D titles have low enough boss quality to drag those down. Curious what y'all think and if this is even a contest.

 

[Noppie]

Both about equal and both relatively mediocre at that.

Based on the games I've played of course.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Sonic for sure.
Sonic Superstars act 1 bosses are all absolutely awful, but even they clear basically every 2D Mario boss lol.

 

[Bizkit Krueger]

real easy win for sonic here

 

[Soap]

Both about equal and both relatively mediocre at that.

Based on the games I've played of course.

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Yeah. Both games have bosses with predictable attack patterns, which is fine for me but neither are really remarkable.

I suppose you could say the presentation of the boss fights in 2D Sonic were quite good and fighting Metal Sonic and Robotnik are famous in their own right.

 

[Lilification]

If we're not counting Sonic Superstars then I'll say Sonic. Superstars bosses really are THAT BAD.

 

[Windu]

Mario because I enjoy it enough to get to the boss battles.

 

[Lord Vatek]

This isn't much of a competition.

Bosses were never 2D Mario's strong suit.

 

[LewieP]

Easy win for Sonic.

 

[AuthenticM]

Mario has never had good bosses. It's the one weakness of the franchise. At least for the mainline games. Yoshi's island's bosses were pretty good.

 

[Doskoi Panda]

Only one has you go fucking super saiyan chasing your mech-equipped mortal foe through space throwing his own missile bombardments back at him with a hard af background track blaring thru it all

 

[Mr. President]

Kirby

 

[Jimnymebob]

If we're not counting Sonic Superstars then I'll say Sonic. Superstars bosses really are THAT BAD.

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I really liked all of the Robotnik fights on Superstars, and the standard last boss is possibly my favourite 2D Sonic final boss, but all the act 1 rubbish stops me from even wanting to replay the game. I need a Superstars Plus update to have a mode that drops those (and that goddamn like 10 minute Nack fight) from the game

I've never enjoyed having act 1 fights in Sonic, but at least in say S3 they could be as good if not better than the act 2 fight.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I like the IDEA of Sonic's boss battles better but the execution is almost always janky and frustrating due to Sonic's physics being kind of bad at precision control.

Whereas Mario tends to have much less conceptually interesting boss battles that mechanically control far better.

 

[Berordn]

it probably says a lot on its own that wonder didn't even have boss battles for every world

not every sonic boss is a winner, but they're at least all mechanically interesting and unique

 

[Mesoian]

Sonic.

2d Mario bosses are all pretty terrible save for the final bosses.

 

[.exe]

I have a strong dislike of Sonic boss battles. Especially final bosses. So Mario wins by default, I guess.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Sonic, not even close.

 

[BlueStarEXSF]

Sonic wins here because of aesthetics, music and narrative relevance of the boss battles. There's nothing in Mario like the Metal Sonic race or the Doomsday Climax. In terms of gameplay, there's no use comparing trash with trash when they're both trash.

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

These series both have really bad boss battles. The boss stages are always the worst part of these games tbh

 

[Kneefoil]

Boss battles aren't a strong suit for either, but at least Sonic tries with almost every boss fight while 2D Mario usually only does anything different with the final boss.

 

[alphacat]

Sonic for sure.

 

[AppleKid]

Mario has never had good bosses. It's the one weakness of the franchise. At least for the mainline games. Yoshi's island's bosses were pretty good.

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Yeah, I feel like Yoshi's Island was the team learning how to make better boss battles which carried onto the 3D series and peaked with Galaxy 1&2. Not sure why when they brought the 2D series back they decided to also bring back safe/boring boss battles.

If we're not counting Sonic Superstars then I'll say Sonic. Superstars bosses really are THAT BAD.

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Sonic Superstars should definitely be considered in this poll choice.

I like the IDEA of Sonic's boss battles better but the execution is almost always janky and frustrating due to Sonic's physics being kind of bad at precision control.

Whereas Mario tends to have much less conceptually interesting boss battles that mechanically control far better.

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I'd agree with this as a general rule but still give Sonic the edge as for some entries like S3&K I find the hitboxes large enough that precision isn't as important. It's more about learning which area of the arena is "safe" and when to leave it for a quick hit (e.g. Death Egg Act 1 boss).

I also love the bosses that kill themselves and all you have to do is dodge. Gets a laugh from me every time lol.

 

[mopinks]

Sonic has both better boss fights and significantly more annoying boss fights so it evens out

 

[AppleKid]

For folks who feel both series have bad bosses, what 2D platformers do you think have good bosses? These should be comparable to Mario & Sonic in being stage-based and more about platforming challenges than action (e.g. no Metroidvanias). I saw Yoshi's Island mentioned which I'd agree with but feel like my standard for 2D platformer bosses is generally lower than other genres.

 

[Otakunofuji]

Both have equal boss quality - bad.

I could just, like, not fight a boss in either one and be 100% OK with it.

 

[SupersonicHypertonic]

Eh they're both pretty bad and generic. Id give it to sonic as there's usually a bit more to it than just jump on a bosses head a few times.

 

[BlueStarEXSF]

Thinking about it, if we're counting all 2D Sonic then we should count Sonic Rush Adventure which has surprisingly actually good bosses.

 

[Host Samurai]

Sonic Mania had the best of th bunch imo.

Maybe the Sonic Advance games too. I forgot

I do think some Mario Rom Hacks do some interesting things with bosses though

 

[Grain Silo]

Freedom Planet. :)

In good faith, Sonic but only slightly. 2D Mario bosses are a special kind of ass IMO.

 

[Darkstorne]

Sonic Mania had the best of th bunch imo.

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Genuinely one of my favourite aspects of that game. It absolutely nailed what made 2D Sonic so special. But S3&K still holds such a special place in my heart that it remains my favourite entry.

 

[Tsumami]

For folks who feel both series have bad bosses, what 2D platformers do you think have good bosses? These should be comparable to Mario & Sonic in being stage-based and more about platforming challenges than action (e.g. no Metroidvanias). I saw Yoshi's Island mentioned which I'd agree with but feel like my standard for 2D platformer bosses is generally lower than other genres.

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Pizza Tower has the best bosses in a staight 2D Platformer ever imo

Boss fights in Spark The Electric Jester 1 are also quite fun

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

The boss battles in 2d mario suck, and most of the time they're just the koopalings because they're such an afterthought.

 

[mrmickfran]

Sonic clears

Only 2D Mario with good bosses was Yoshi's Island

 

[The Mango Sentinel]

For folks who feel both series have bad bosses, what 2D platformers do you think have good bosses? These should be comparable to Mario & Sonic in being stage-based and more about platforming challenges than action (e.g. no Metroidvanias). I saw Yoshi's Island mentioned which I'd agree with but feel like my standard for 2D platformer bosses is generally lower than other genres.

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I'd say Cuphead, but that definitely feels like cheating and not in the spirit of what you're asking.

I guess a non cheating answer would be Rayman Legends.

 

[Shade Vortex]

Sonic Superstars has some of the worst bosses in the series' history, but even ignoring that outlier, most Sonic bosses come down to one of two things. Being so easy that all you do is damage boost through to beat it, or being so tedious that it's not fun.

Mario's bosses at least usually have some creativity or intrigue...

 

[KillstealWolf]

If we're not counting Sonic Superstars then I'll say Sonic. Superstars bosses really are THAT BAD.

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They really aren't, I feel like they hate they get are vastly overrated, you can beat them real fast once you've mastered the emarald powers, Amy and Tails can stomp them even faster with their higher jumping skills as well.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

For folks who feel both series have bad bosses, what 2D platformers do you think have good bosses?

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Tropical Freeze imo. Fun, challenging bosses.

Though I wouldn't say Sonic and Mario have bad bosses, just mostly unremarkable ones. I like Yoshi's Island's bosses quite a bit though.

 

[Platy]

mario have 2 specially good bosses: NSMBWii and Mario 3D World
Since they are ACTUALLY bosses that uses the skill you perfected the entire game: platforming

Sonic has 0 bosses that uses good momentum to defeat

but the actuall boss to mario games are the post game hard levels, like grandmaster galaxy, star road and the likes =P

 

[Phendrift]

I still can't believe how focused Wonder was on reinventing and modernizing 2D Mario and the bosses ended up worse and more underwhelming than NSMBU. And those were already underwhelming as fuck.

The 3D Mario team nailing it (with Galaxy especially) makes 2D Mario's bosses so much worse.

 

[JimLink]

2D Mario games are recycling the Koopalings, only SMW2 (Yoshi's Island) has variety in boss battles. Dr. Robotnik's mechanical vehicles are unique in their battles.

 

[GDGF]

Gotta give this win to the hedgehog.

 

[yap]

For folks who feel both series have bad bosses, what 2D platformers do you think have good bosses? These should be comparable to Mario & Sonic in being stage-based and more about platforming challenges than action (e.g. no Metroidvanias). I saw Yoshi's Island mentioned which I'd agree with but feel like my standard for 2D platformer bosses is generally lower than other genres.

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Do we consider Mega Man / X to be similar? You do shoot alot but it can be argued those games place such a greater focus on platforming challenges that the enemy placement becomes the platforming challenge. Both classic and X have way better bosses.

If not then I agree with DK Tropical Freeze and Yoshi's Island from above.

 

[Nali]

There's a handful of worthwhile boss fights littered across the NSMB games, but Mario's track record with the concept is otherwise awful and tends to come off like an afterthought to a degree that's downright weird for Nintendo's game design standards.

 

[Marmoka]

2D Mario bosses are always the same and repetitive. The bosses in 2D Sonic are a lot more imaginative and always pretty different, and some of them might be awful but still better than 2D Mario bosses.

 

[OneThirtyEight]

Sonic for sure.
Though the Sonic 4 games and Sonic Superstars has the worst bossfights.

 

[Twohearts]

Mario bosses are at least unobtrusive, most 2D sonic bosses are bullshit and go on way to long

 

[Why would you do that?]

I think 2D Mario doesn't have a lot of bosses, but what they do have are fine. In Mario, 1 hit means you lose your weapon and 2 hits means death, so bosses can't be very long and they can't rely on you having a weapon -- this limits the amount of cool things you can do with Mario bosses. But at least they don't overstay their welcome.

The Mario game with my favorite bosses is by far Yoshi's Island -- its bosses are all pretty incredible, culminating in one of my favorite final bosses of all time. The next best would probably be New Super Mario Bros. Wii.


2D Sonic has a LOT of bosses, and as such, they have hits and misses. But the hits can be really fun. To be honest, I don't really care for most 2D Sonic games, but I spent a lot of time playing the boss rush on my friend's 100% complete copy of Sonic Advance 2 -- it was just so fun.


Of each individual game, I'd say Yoshi's Island has the best bosses. It might even have my all-time favorite bosses in a 2D platformer. (I know, Yoshi's Island's "mainline" status is debatable, but I'm definitely not arguing this now, lol.)

But overall, the Sonic series wins.

 

[Tailzo]

Only one has you go fucking super saiyan chasing your mech-equipped mortal foe through space throwing his own missile bombardments back at him with a hard af background track blaring thru it all

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I love that

Sonic is way ahead of Mario

 

[Nocturnowl]

Inoffensive but bland vs more ambitious but with massively lower lows

Hmmm, sonic really is trying so much more, but after superstars especially, a game where the bosses were actively dragging down the entire game, it's hard for me to not take the path of least resistance with Mario.

I suppose I could add in Mario's favour that from Galaxy onwards, a lot of the final bosses in both 2D and 3D have been legitimately good fun set pieces and better than any super sonic scenario to actually play so yeah, while I wouldn't champion your standard Mario mid boss by any stretch (especially in 2D), I think the bigger bosses have come a long way, while sonic leaves me incredibly mixed because I remember horrors from every possible angle, egg emperor! Time eater! Biolizard! Entire swaths of tedious sonic 4 episode 2 and Superstars bosses!

Worst in Mario by comparison is like, the rehashed koopalings in new super Luigi u taking as long as the actual castle stages

Edit: whoops this was specifically 2D huh
Well, nobody wins then, they all smell