In an article I wrote a long while ago on a video game review site, I talked a lot about Nintendo and the difficulties they were having with their public image (and in a way, still are having). Some of the topics mentioned were how the Wii U has been doing this console generation, the scarcity of Amiibo figures, and their handling of Let’s Plays on YouTube. Towards the end of the article, I mentioned a comparatively minor issue, but one that stands out when you think about it.
Except for the Pokemon series and character cameos in movies like Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels, Nintendo doesn’t really do much with their characters and franchises outside of video games. Movies, TV shows, comics, official merchandise; there was a flood of it in the 80s and 90s and still a little bit in the early 2000s, but now, the flood has slowed down to a trickle. Seeing these franchises and their characters in other ways besides just the games can expand the influence these characters have on pop culture.
For this article, I will try to figure out just how some of Nintendo’s big franchises would work with adaptations to other kinds of media. I’ll be focusing on three main types: movies, TV shows/anime, or comic books/manga, how they would be presented in these mediums, and how likely they may or may not be for certain mediums.
1. Super Mario Bros.
When it comes to Nintendo properties to adapt, this would probably be one of the most obvious. Super Mario is so big that even people who don’t play video games have at least heard of it. This franchise has already had comics, a few animated series, and that one movie from the 80s, but with a new age, people are probably ready for new adaptations. It has a basic story of two heroes (Mario & Luigi) rescuing the princess (Peach) from a monstrous villain (Bowser) in a magical land filled with magical power-up items, a wide variety of landscapes, and crazy creatures.
As long as producers don’t tweak the setting too much, like they did with the 80s movie, an animated Super Mario Brothers movie or show could work in modern times. As far as something like a comic goes, Archie Comics already has comic book series based on Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man. It may not be too much of a stretch to imagine them producing a Super Mario comic series.
2. The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda is another obvious one that we may get from Nintendo if they decide to adapt their properties. The game is a story about a battle between good and evil in a medieval fantasy kingdom and a story like that could easily be adapted to movies or TV, especially in this day and age with works like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones being such big successes and Warcraft being one of the latest video games to get the summer blockbuster treatment.
I won’t say much about comics here since, in a way, it already has some recent comics in the form of the manga adaptations by Viz Media. Not all of the games have been adapted (no Twilight Princess or Wind Waker for example), but some of them have. In those Viz manga though, the writers give Link a bit more of a personality besides the silent protagonist from the games and speaking lines to match beyond his usual grunts and yells. If the producers of a movie or animated show decide to have Link talk, they may want to take some notes from these manga.
3. Metroid
As one of Nintendo’s more mature and action oriented series, the story of intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran seems like a perfect fit for a summer blockbuster or an action-packed comic series. Seeing Samus Aran in live-action exploring a planet and battling monsters with her Power Suit’s various weapons would be a big treat for viewers, whether they’re fans of the Metroid series or they just love action movies. As a TV show, it may not work as well. The Metroid series up to this point has mostly had Samus as its only prominent character, so producers would have to change a lot about it to make it work. Not to say that a Metroid TV series would be a bad idea, but there would be some changes that fans would have to accept.
4. Star Fox
Star Fox would probably be one of the best Nintendo properties to adapt. The game is about the Star Fox team, led by Fox McCloud, piloting their Arwing space jets to fight against the forces of Andross and other forces that threaten the peace of the Lylat System.
As one Internet reviewer pointed out, a Star Fox movie would be an action filled space fight story, like a sci-fi version of Top Gun starring anthro animals. A premise like that would easily work as a TV show or a comic book as well. They could have Andross as the main villain for the first movie or the first season, then bring in other villains or create new ones for the team to fight in subsequent ones.
5. EarthBound
EarthBound, known as Mother 2 in Japan, could make for an interesting animated series. Colorful and lighthearted on the surface, but with a deep story and dark themes underneath, the general story is about a brave kid with psychic powers going on an adventure in the modern world to save it from an alien menace, helping people along the way and meeting up with other kid heroes, meeting up with other kid heroes and helping out people along the way. It could be worked as a sort of cross between Adventure Time and Teen Titans, with focus on both the different environments and action-packed combat.
6. Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing games as they are would probably make an okay slice of life series. You’re a person moving to a quiet forest town inhabited by different animals, and become the mayor of the town if you’re playing New Leaf, but otherwise, there’s no real plot. The games continue with you making friends with the townsfolk, participating in town events, improving the town, and generally enjoying small town life. A manga or comic could even be possible with this kind of premise. This, however, may not make for a very interesting movie unless things were changed or characters are added to create a type of conflict.
7. Kid Icarus
The way Kid Icarus is presented with its recent game Uprising, it seems good for just about any kind of adaptation. With another story pitting the forces of good against the forces of evil, the flights through the sky our angelic hero Pit takes when assigned a task by Palutena followed by his traveling on the ground towards his objective are filled with action and the dialogue between Pit and Palutena or the several other characters in the story has lots of humor and personality. The basic plot is simple enough that kids and younger teens can follow it without a problem and the personalities of the different characters in the plot are complex enough that older teens and adults can still be engaged by them.
8. Fire Emblem
This may actually be one of the tougher series to adapt and still keep original. Focusing on a war between different kingdoms in a medieval fantasy world in its different incarnations, Fire Emblem places focus on the interactions between different characters as they fight through different battles. The problem here may be in how people not familiar with the series may see it. With its setting it can easily be compared to other medieval works, like Game of Thrones or Nintendo’s own Legend of Zelda series. If a producer doesn’t emphasize how it is different from these other works, it may be seen as a copy of these other series. An adaptation of Fire Emblem can still potentially be good, but a studio would have to really work at making it stand out.
9. Xenoblade Chronicles
This is a game series that may be hard to adapt, into a movie anyway. For a TV show or a comic, it might work, but not for a movie. It has a very deep story and engaging characters, but that may be the problem. The Xenoblade games have such long stories that stretch over such a long time period that adapting them to movies would mean cutting out significant portions of it or splitting it up anthology style. An anime series or manga would probably be able to tackle this without sacrificing too much of the story.
10. Splatoon
As Nintendo’s most recent big hit, a lot of people are talking about Splatoon. The game turned shooters upside down with its non-traditional gameplay, eccentric characters, and colorful atmosphere (figuratively and literally). The game is split between two different gameplay compnents: the single-player mode and the online multiplayer mode. In multiplayer, you have two different teams competing against each other in Turf War battles or other game modes. In single-player, you guide your character through several different stages to recover the Great Zapfish stolen from the city of Inkopolis before the city runs out of power. Whether an adaptation focuses on one of these or a cross between both, Splatoon could make for an interesting anime, comic or western animated show.
These are only ten of various Nintendo series that Nintendo has available to work with and there may be a follow-up article here discussing more Nintendo series. What do you think? Which Nintendo series do you think should expand outside of video games? Let me know in the comments and thanks for coming.
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