Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog were once positioned as bitter rivals, but the two characters have appeared in several games together over the last two decades. It all started in 2007 with the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The Wii game spawned a crossover series that ran for several years across many different platforms, most recently on Nintendo Switch. After years of competing with one another in Olympic events, it seems the developers at Sega wanted to expand beyond the two mascots and their respective character families for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
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In a series of posts on X/Twitter, Mario & Sonic series producer Lee Cocker revealed that the developers had a vision to bring in some of the biggest names in gaming and even anime. The move would have seen the company partnering with developers like Capcom, Bandai Namco, Konami, and more to fill out the overall roster. The idea unfortunately fell through, as deals could not be struck with different companies. At that point, the decision was made to stick with the familiar Mario and Sonic characters that had appeared in so many other entries. Cocker revealed some of the franchises that Sega pursued, and it sounds pretty ambitious!
“Pokemon, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Dragonball, Metal Gear Solid, Sonic Family, Mario Family, Zelda some Sony and Microsoft properties / characters. It was a very big idea that didn’t happen. Certain characters could only be used for certain events,” Cocker wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
It’s interesting to think about what might have been! At the very least, bringing in so many other major video game characters might have led to interest among those that had skipped out on past Mario & Sonic games. Who wouldn’t want to see Link and Ponyta competing in the equestrian event, or Solid Snake going up against Mega Man in shooting? Unfortunately, it’s not hard to imagine the big hurdles the developers would have had to clear (pun intended) to make it happen. The fact that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was exclusive to Nintendo platforms also likely made it difficult to get other companies on board, most notably Sony and Microsoft.
Unfortunately, the odds of such a game ever happening are less likely now than they were back then. Last year, Cocker revealed that the Mario & Sonic series is effectively dead, as the International Olympic Committee apparently decided to go in a very different direction for future video games. It’s possible the series could make a comeback if those endeavors aren’t successful, but it might be a very long time before we see Mario and Sonic competing again for Olympic glory. If it ever does happen again, hopefully they’ll get a chance to go up against some other big icons.
Would you have liked a Mario & Sonic game that also featured other video game characters? Are you surprised this idea fell through? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
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