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| Image credit: Sega |
Sonic Frontiers features a trove of Easter Eggs and references to other Sonic games, but it also appears to include a hilarious call back to the beloved Nintendo 64 game, Super Mario 64.
If you played the 1996 3D platformer, then you'll probably remember it's seventh course Lethal Lava Land, which was an infamous lava level featuring several platforms settled over a pool of lava, surrounding a volcano.
Whenever Mario fell into this deadly basalt, he would hold his bottom in excruciating pain, screaming as he pulpited into the air in hilarious fashion. If he was low on health, then this would result in losing a life or game over.
The life-saving ability would return in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey levels featuring magma, where once again Mario bounced on lava in a comical way until he lost a life.
"Under normal circumstances in Sonic Frontiers, Sonic usually dies instantly on contact with Lava."
Under normal circumstances in Sonic Frontiers, Sonic usually dies instantly on contact with Lava. However in the Mechanical Collectable Mini-game mission while searching for the Green Chaos Emerald, he can tolerate lava damage a bit.
If Sonic falls into the lava he doesn't immediately die and his animation and sound effects are nearly identical to the Italian plumber's.
Like Mario he will hold his smoking bottom in agony as he bounces on lava and screams utter babble. If the player doesn't get to safety in time, it will result Sonic in losing all his lives and failing the mission.
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| Image credit: Sega |
It's a well known fact that Sega and Nintendo had a huge rivalry in the 90s, however once the dust settled, both gaming companies would create a crossover sports game featuring their famed mascots, Mario and Sonic.
Despite Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and the blue hedgehog's playable appearance in Super Smash Bros, this is actually one of the few evident Mario references to appear in a Sonic game.
In fact, the only other Mario reference in a Sonic game exists in the Wii U version of Sonic Lost World as a DLC zone called Yoshi's Island Zone, which is a level that is highly allusive to Yoshi's story on Nintendo 64.
Meanwhile Nintendo's Super Mario bros franchise has referenced the blue blur several times in fact, beginning with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island in 1995, which featured Harry Hedgehog enemies, who were blue and moved very quickly.
That same year in Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy's Quest, Sonic's shoes would make a cameo in Cranky Kong's video game hero challenge results screen next to a garbage can labelled "No hopers". However this was removed in the GBA remake.
More recently Sonic's retro sprite was an unlockable costume in Super Mario Maker, while Mario kart 8 featured a Sonic The Hedgehog Mii costume. Both of these features were only accessible by unlocking them with a Sonic amiibo.
So there you have it, Sonic's call-back to a classic Mario game in Sonic Frontiers is vague yet too identical to only be merely a coincidence.