Persuading a work colleague or good friend that the pint-sized burger-loving miniature is more worthy of praise than Mario or Sonic is what most would compare to a rather large hole. One I dig for myself.
Those brave enough to challenge my choice of videogame crush can be guaranteed a lengthy fight, more often than not culminating in derogatory insults, and possibly a tea and biscuit. In fact when confronted over my less than best-chums relationship with Mario, I never tire of justifying myself.
For a start, I would much rather be serenaded by Mr. Kidd than an obese plumber; but that goes without saying. You see, Alex is no manual labourer. He is a prince, sent to rescue his brother (and the rest of the population whilst he’s at it) from the clutches of an evil robot named Janken the Great. His seemingly altruistic devotion toward his family is touching, to say the least. No rescuing ditzy princess I’m afraid – in fact, if Alex happened to bump into Mario at the local Tesco or similar, I’m not entirely doubtful that he would advise him to go on a diet and stop chasing after Princess Plums or whatever she’s known as nowadays, because from what I gather she is always in another castle with another bloke (presumably Luigi). Failing that, maybe a TomTom GPS would do him some good. In addition, I have a love for all (well, most) creatures great and small, thus my negative opinions of Sonic in comparison to Mario remain minimal. Of course I am disappointed that Sonic happened to take over Alex as Sega’s official mascot, when clearly he has no redeeming heroic qualities. I do admit to harbouring a painful pang of jealousy every time I see plush Sonic stares mocking me from store shelves, reminding me of how different things could have been.
However, my opinion stands; unless you count frenzied travelling speeds achieved by performing what I can only liken to a self-fellatio stance as a tangible superhero marvel, I fail to see the appeal in a cute but badly vocalised (if you’ve played Sonic and the Secret Rings you’ll know) woodland creature.