Nintendo demanded SEGA to put Mario’s foot in front of Sonic’s for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Ryoichi Hasegawa, who was previously a producer has SEGA, has shared an interesting tidbit about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Back in the day, this was a pretty historic partnership. Mario & Sonic were once seen as rivals, but the two were coming together for the first time in their own game. As it turns out though, Nintendo did have a particular demand.

According to Hasegawa, Nintendo wanted to ensure that Mario’s foot was always in front of Sonic’s for various official art. There was actually an error and SEGA was forced to change it to meet this demand.

Hasegawa said in an interview with Arcade Attack Retro Gaming Network:

“There was artwork of Mario and Sonic and other characters standing on the field, and those artworks were used for the package, instruction manual, cover, the cartridge label, and things like that.

There was one small error and Sonic’s foot was in front of Mario’s foot, and Nintendo demanded us to change the priority. I still remember that. We were like ‘Oh my God, we have to change it or there will be no deal.'”

Mario & Sonic had a few different entries, but it now looks like the series is finished. At one point, the 2020 game was intended to be a big crossover with Zelda, Dragon Ball, and more.