Sometimes is hard for many people to think about how different the gaming industry would have been like if Mario stayed a villain in Donkey Kong Jr.  Prior to becoming one of the most iconic platform game heroes in the history of gaming Mario was actually a bad guy back in 1982.  In the prequel for Donkey Kong Jr.  Mario was the main protagonist because Donkey Kong had kidnapped his ex-girlfriend Pauline forcing him go through countless obstacles to rescue her.   In the Donkey Kong Jr. game Mario wanted to take revenge on Donkey Kong by capturing him while trying to destroy DK Jr. for trying to rescue him.  While some may argue that Mario was justified in his actions others would probably say that he went a little too far. Either way, if Mario had remained a villain back in the early 80’s then who could have been the face of Nintendo from the mid-80’s forwards?  Since the 80’s we have seen many big names emerge on various Nintendo games including Kirby, Link, Samus Aran, Fox McCloud and Captain Falcon.

Whether any of these Nintendo based characters could have been the face of the company or not is debatable.  But if  Mario stayed a villain during 1982 would there have been a Super Mario Bros series?  Also, if the Super Mario Bros series never existed would there ever have been a Sonic the Hedgehog series during the 90’s ?  When comes down to the platforming genre of gaming Mario is probably the most recognizable name in the industry.  When it comes down to 2D platforming titles the Super Mario Bros series had the best selling games of all-time.  In terms of who could have replaced Mario has the face of Nintendo is highly debatable and even hard to imagine since most of his games have remained excellent since the 80’s.  In terms of popularity the Legend of Zelda series could be considered as  somewhat of a rival to Super Mario.  In fact, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the hottest game in stores around the world shortly after Nintendo released  in March 2017 for newest Switch console.   The amount of names who could have possibly have replaced Mario as the face of Nintendo are endless but many would probably argue that if Mario remained a villain in the 80’s the landscape of Nintendo as we know it would be completely different.