Key players at Nintendo/SEGA look back on their rivalry, with some still feeling hurt

Coming from former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske

"They (Nintendo) were absolutely ruthless. I've got to hand it to them. I respected how strongly they tried to control the business, but in my opinion, a lot of the stuff they were doing was illegal. It was really monopolistic practices."

Coming from SEGA's Takashi Iizuka

"In that time Super Mario Bros. and the whole Mario franchise was the best game out there in a lot of people's eyes – especially when you get into action and platforming. There were so many fans of the Mario series and then we came out with Sonic, who was this character that was cooler, had this visual style where he was bright blue, he played faster, the controls were better – it was a tighter game."

Coming from Yuji Naka

"It's very sad that Sega's hardware business was canceled, but this allowed Sonic to run over a variety of different platforms. This made it so more people were able to play and enjoy Sonic games than ever."

Coming from Iizuka

"From my perspective, yeah, the companies may have been at war from a promotional standpoint – there was a lot of rivalry being created. As hardware manufacturers, you're always out there competing against everyone else in the marketplace, but for me, I was just out there to make the greatest games possible, and bring them to as many people as possible."

Coming from Shigeru Miyamoto

"I always thought it would be great to have Sonic and Mario in the same game, but if you put them in an action game, the feeling of speed is very different, so it wouldn't have worked."

Coming from Iizuka

"I started this conversation with Nintendo, and then later when Sega picked up the license for the Olympic Games video games, we had that foundation with Nintendo to say 'We want to bring Sonic and Mario together and have them appear in the same world and have them compete against each other, and we're going to use the premise of it being the Olympic Games and these characters are participating in the Olympic Games together to make that happen.' It was the first great conversation about getting these characters together to compete and have fun together."

Coming from chief brand officer of Sonic the Hedgehog Ivo Gerscovich

"That relationship (with Nintendo) greatly benefited both Nintendo and ourselves, but now we're coming up to the end of that exclusivity and we're excited about being on all platforms. They've been great partners of ours and there's a great respect between both companies."

Coming from Kalinske

"I about fell over to tell you the truth (the first time I saw Sonic on a Nintendo platform). I still have trouble with this concept of this company that was our enemy that we fought tooth and nail against, and now they're buddies! They're very close and have a very close relationship."

Coming from former director of marketing at Sega of America Al Nilsen

"It just goes back to our relationships with Nintendo from the early days. We have battle scars from those days. Personally, I just don't see a world where Sonic and Mario are best buddies."