Wikipedia has a page that lists Nintendo characters- here, as well as a list of franchises invented on the various Nintendo plaforms, and an incomplete (of course) list of games published by Nintendo overall. I’ve been through all these lists, as well as checking Google (no good)-
I’m trying to compile a list of the most famous and beloved and recognizable Nintendo characters of all time. The major ones I have so far are:
Mario, Luigi, Princess, and friends (and variations like Wario or Dr. Mario)
Link, Zelda and friends
Donkey Kong and friends
Kirby
Metroid
Star Fox
Pokemon characters
Earthbound characters
James Bond (Goldeneye)- Perfect Dark was a later version of Goldeneye
Bomberman
The dude from Ghosts 'n Goblins
The dude(s) from Castlevania
According to Wikipedia, Pac Man is on their list of ‘classic Nintendo games’, but the article about him says he was made by Namco and Midway. What gives?
The fighter pilot from Xevious- “one of the earliest vertical scrolling shooters, (that) greatly influenced games in this genre.”
The Final Fantasy characters, at least up until the late 90s, but only the games in which the characters are little people like in the original Zeldas
The Double Dragon guys
Mega Man
Solid Snake and his men in Metal Gear and sequels
The dude in River City Ransom
The farm family in Harvest Moon- by the way, has anyone heard of these series of games? How famous are they?
But let me specify:
minor characters within a game, such as everyone else in Mario or the Zelda games, etc., need not be named, just the famous ones.
All consoles of Nintendo count (from Game boy to Game Cube)
Even if a character wasn’t invented by Nintendo (for instance, James Bond), if he appeared in a popular game by them (as Bond has), then they count
No need to name variations of characters, either, like Dr. Mario or Bomberman in 3D
Don’t bother going to Wikipedia, as I’ve said I’ve already done all they had. This is just to see if you can name any other major ones they or I left out.
I’m not a video game guy, but I do have a reason for this list.
Pac-Man was indeed developed by Namco and distributed in the United States by Midway. Many of the characters you mention also come from Nintendo licensees: Xevious is Namco/Atari, Bomberman is Hudson Soft, Ghosts 'n Goblins and Mega Man are Capcom, Castlevania and Metal Gear are Konami, Final Fantasy is Square, River City Ransom and Double Dragon are American Technos, and Harvest Moon is Natsume. Are you looking for Nintendo created characters, or characters from Nintendo systems?
The Harvest Moon main character’s name is actually Jack, though you name him yourself.
The new female lead in Harvest Moon is Jill.
The Harvest Moon series seems to have a somewhat cultish following. I love them. I don’t know how popular they are, though.
The most popular girls from the “better” versions of the game are Ellen, Anne, Popouri, Karen, and Maria. The new girls are Celia, Nami, and Muffy. The boys are Gustafa, Marlin, and Rock. shudder I love finally being able to be a girl, but at what cost?! :eek:
True, but Marth, the original FE main character, is probably more popular. He and Roy (son of Hector, main character of the 6th game) made the cut for Super Smash Bros. Melee.
In fact I would use the Smash Bros. as a guideline. You can also get names from there (Pikachu and Jigglypuff as pokemon for example).
Okay, well - all of the famous Nintendo characters have been named now. So are you ready to reveal what all of this is about? Naming all the the famous Nintendo characters will help you with you video game idea? Are you making sure that your idea hasn’t been done already?