If Nintendo didn't own Mario...

The 'Shroom wouldn't be the 'Shroom, it'd be the Spinach.
 
I never watched Popeye, but I just had a horrifying though: What if Mario was a poster boy for morals?
He would eat Apples.
His enemy would be King Diabetes.
And his Yoshi would be fighting for animal rights.
 
I'm gald nintendo lost rights to the Popeye world. I would be sick of his games by now.
 
I would not mind if Nintendo let a few non-main-series games be developed and published by third parties (as long as they didn't appear on the PS3 or 360). But once you start pushing that, things get hairy, IMO. I would hate to see a bloody Mario FPS, or a T-rated RPG.
 
Why does everyone assume that every video company out there is an FPS whore? People always assume that when "what if Mario is not owned by Nintendo?" His games would be basically anything. It all depends on what company owns him, but even then, I really wouldn't think his games would end up mature.
 
Baby Luigi said:
Why does everyone assume that every video company out there is an FPS whore? People always assume that when "what if Mario is not owned by Nintendo?" His games would be basically anything. It all depends on what company owns him, but even then, I really wouldn't think his games would end up mature.
But what if Sega owned him.
 
I don't know exactly. Anyone could do anything with Mario.
 
Baby Luigi said:
I don't know exactly. Anyone could do anything with Mario.
Mario would be very fast and be friends with sonic.
 
New Super Yoshi said:
Baby Luigi said:
I don't know exactly. Anyone could do anything with Mario.
Mario would be very fast and be friends with sonic.

I would like to point out that Sega already makes games with Mario in them. I personally dislike this, it's soley so they can sell more games. Remember the No Hopers bin? With Sonic's shoes next to it?

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There's a reason for that.
 
New Super Yoshi said:
Baby Luigi said:
I don't know exactly. Anyone could do anything with Mario.
Mario would be very fast and be friends with sonic.
If Sega owned Mario, then Sonic wouldn't exist. Sonic was made for the sole purpose to rival Mario. If Sega had Mario, Sonic would have no purpose
 
Sega wanted to take over Gaming and make Sonic the gaming mascot. Sega would be really happy if nintendo still had rights to Popeye.
 
New Super Yoshi said:
Sega wanted to take over Gaming and make Sonic the gaming mascot. Sega would be really happy if nintendo still had rights to Popeye.
Doesn't every gaming company? Sega would not have made Sonic if Nintendo had made Super Popeye Bros. In fact, without Mario to pilot the NES out of the Video Game Crash of 1983, it's likely that we would still be in it; never getting past the 4-bit era.
 
Doofenshmirtz Evil said:
New Super Yoshi said:
Sega wanted to take over Gaming and make Sonic the gaming mascot. Sega would be really happy if nintendo still had rights to Popeye.
Doesn't every gaming company? Sega would not have made Sonic if Nintendo had made Super Popeye Bros. In fact, without Mario to pilot the NES out of the Video Game Crash of 1983, it's likely that we would still be in it; never getting past the 4-bit era.

I don't know if I'd take it that far, as there would be someone who would make an extremely popular game as Nintendo did (it could be Nintendo, actually, with another IP). If that didn't happen, video games would have probably been outdated long ago, or at least really unpopular.
 
If Nintendo didn't own Mario, Mario would look very... very... VERY differently. God bless Nintendo for keeping Mario to his roots, that is, family friendly, and NOT copping out and revamping him to appeal to the violent, "manly", tough guy types.

Particularly with Hudson and Capcom, I'd be especially worried...

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OK, I've tried to ignore all these ignorant comments about Nintendo apparently being the only company that makes kid-friendly games, but I'm really just sick of it now. I'm a bit drunk right now and I'll most definitely regret this tomorrow morning, but I feel the need to rant about this insufferable attitude towards non-Nintendo gaming.

I want to put away quality and difficulty of games, although I'll try to mostly use well-received games. This is merely about the premise of games to show that, NEWSFLASH: Nintendo are not the only video game development company that makes family friendly games. They may be the most well-known, but certainly not the only one. And I'm going to assume that by 'realistic' and 'violent', all ye people mean Medal of Honor-styled games based on actual events or at least strongly grounded in realism, with varying degrees of blood and 'gore' depending on the seriousness of the game, so I'll use those definitions as the boundaries for me rant.

Back in the early days of gaming, there were joyful titles like Dig Dug, Valkyrie no Densetsu and of course Pac-Man from Namco; Adventure Island and Bomberman (oh wow, one dark and edgy spin-off, the series is RUINED FOREVER) from Hudson; Q*Bert from Taito; and Alex Kidd from Sega. Now if Mario were hypothetically owned by any company aside from Nintendo, the series may have fallen victim to the same fate as most of the aforementioned series in that they pretty much died after a few popular titles. See? No violence or realism or offensive content whatsoever, just a sad end.

Let's look at the 90s: Right off the bat, ye had The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (although the videos are from the recently revamped special editions) from LucasArts, and two of the best games ever made. There are some vulgar jokes here and there, yes, but nothing really 'realistic', 'violent' or 'offensive', and while the series has stagnated in terms of quality ever since the second title, it's always been fairly family friendly. Other non-Nintendo series from this time include Bonk's Adventure from Hudson; Ecco the Dolphin (which was sorta realistic, I suppose) from Sega (although I'd consider the game absolute terror due to me phobias...) - which eventually even got an even less realistic or violent sequel in the form of Ecco Jr.; Rayman from Ubisoft; Harvest Moon from Natsume; and Klonoa from Namco, the last two being about as kid-friendly as they come (to me knowledge, anyway). Now if Mario were hypothetically owned by any company aside from Nintendo, then perhaps like many of the aforementioned series, the fanbase may feel - and many do feel it already has under Nintendo ownership - that it has stagnated over the years, maintaining the same formula over and over again with each new installment without really pushing the envelope much. But see? No realism or violence or offensive content, just a dull end result.

2000s gaming: Psychonauts from Double Fine was the first example that came to mind. Many critics and gamers feel it's one of the greatest and most original platformers of all-time, and it was released on every sixth-generation platform except the Nintendo GameCube. Being from Tim Schafer, the genius behind the aforementioned Monkey Island games, there are some vulgar jokes and, being based on traveling into the minds of other characters, there is a bit of 'dark' psychological observations, but it's generally light-hearted, silly and surreal, with little that's extravagant or insensitive. There's Okami from Capcom - which was the PlayStation 2's unique and extremely beautiful answer to The Wind Waker (and one of me favourite games); Beyond Good & Evil from Ubisoft, which feels sort of like a Disney film in game form; Katamari Damacy from Namco, which is just weird but also really charming at the same time; Sly Cooper from Sucker Punch - a company owned by Sony - which has a rather cute take on stealth gameplay; World of Goo, an adorable indie title from 2D Boy; and one of the best examples I can think of is LittleBigPlanet from Media Molecule - a subsidiary of Sony - and one of the most adorable and charming games released in the last five years. Now if Mario were hypothetically owned by any company aside from Nintendo, the series, like a few of the examples here, could've been a one-off game that failed to sell well, and thus either only gets a sequel six years later due to popular demand, or never gets one. But again, see? No realism or violence or offensive content has been shown, just a bittersweet fate.

Oh, and last I checked, Mario went relatively 'dark and edgy' with the Strikers series, and last I checked, everyone loved those games. So uhh yeah, what.

I am so tired and airheaded and butthurt right now, and I just know I'll regret this. But if any of ye want to say "Mario can only ever be family friendly under Nintendo ownership!" again, then just know that ye look as closed-minded and foolish as I do right now. Ugh...
 
You came up with all that while drunk and tired? Impressive. You are right though. Nintendo is not the only one who makes "kid-friendly" games. They don't only make those kind of games either. The Metroid series has always been a darker game, and Zelda has started to become much more mature.
 
That's what I have been trying to say earlier :-\; anyone could do anything with Mario if they hypothetically owned him.
 
Leonyx said:
You came up with all that while drunk and tired? Impressive. You are right though. Nintendo is not the only one who makes "kid-friendly" games. They don't only make those kind of games either. The Metroid series has always been a darker game, and Zelda has started to become much more mature.
Well I was just a bit tipsy, not completely drunk. I was going to cite some examples of "mature" Nintendo titles (as well as some examples of 'violent' games from other companies being as unrealistic and silly as possible, like Team Fortress 2, Serious Sam and Magicka), but worried I'd be getting a bit off-topic there.

Still, I'd also point out the F-Zero series as another relatively 'mature' series from Nintendo, despite being completely batshit insane.
 
Mario was designed for everyone, not for young ones. The aim is for everyone both young and old to enjoy them.
 
There is a massive difference between 'kids game' and 'games that are fun for all the family'. Mario and all the games I listed are squarely in the latter category.

I'm aware I mixed up the terms, but I mostly used 'family friendly' regardless, and even so, ye damn well knew what I meant.

How about coming up with a more valid retort rather than nitpicking terminology?
 
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