Top 15 Nintendo Franchises of All Time

5. Mario Kart (SNES, N64, GBA, GCN, Arcade, DS, Wii)

Ah, Mario Kart. How you cause so many friends to gnash their teeth in frustration, when they are done in by banana peels and red shells. How you throw us off balance with your wacky and over the top tracks. And most of all, how broken you are, with your goddamn Blue Shell.

The original Super Mario Kart on the SNES was Mario’s first ‘spin off’ game, and as such, it has a legacy, since it spawned literally hundreds of them. However, Super Mario Kart also spawned a franchise of its own, a kart racing franchise which involved wacky racecourses and weapon based racing, along with split screen racing and an addictive battle mode. It continued its run in with quality with the multiplayer focused Mario Kart 64 (which incidentally has aged horribly). The GBA and GCN games might not have been anything special, but the series was back at the top of its game with Mario Kart DS, widely regarded as one of the best racing games of all time. And while the Wii game was highly divisive, it still sold roughly 30 million units, making it the highest selling non pack in game of all time.

The series looks to have a bright future, with the upcoming Mario Kart 3D, which is being developed by the extremely able Retro Studios. And there’s definitely bound to be a Wii U game too. Strap yourselves in folks, cause Mario Kart is going to be a never ending ride.

4. Super Smash Bros. (N64, GCN, Wii)

No matter what you say about Super Smash Bros., it can never be enough.

The mother of all crossovers, Nintendo’s typically unique fighting game series exploded to popularity overnight with the N64 game, which extended the console’s lifespan by another couple of years. Featuring characters from every single popular Nintendo franchise (and some not so popular ones), Super Smash Bros. was a revelation on the N64, only outdone thoroughly in every way possible buy its sequel, the legendary Super Smash Bros. Melee, regarded as one of the greatest fighting games of all time. And while the Wii installment, Brawl, was highly divisive, there can be no doubt that it was one of the most well made games around.

Super Smash Bros. sells. The release of a new game in the franchise is an event that the entire industry sits up and takes notice of. Take a look at how Kojima begged to have Solid Snake included in Brawl, for example. Or how fans were adamant that Sonic be in it. Or how we are all still screaming for the inclusion of Megaman in the next Smash Bros. Take a look at how the only reason Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus saw revivals at all was because of how well their starring characters were received in Super Smash Bros.

It’s one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises. It’s also their most consistent one, and that can only mean good things for the impending 3DS and Wii U game.

3. Super Mario (Arcade, NES, GB, PC, SNES, GBC, N64, Virtual Boy, GBA, GCN, DS, Wii)

Mario. The brand that saved Nintendo, and that saved gaming as we know it. The brand that has consistently been at the forefront of all innovations in video gaming, from D pad controls to the analog stick, to 3D movement and camera control to motion based controls. Mario is known as the face of gaming, and for good reason- his are the most well made, high quality adventures that you can play. And the best part is, anyone can play a Mario game, from the seasoned and jaded hardcore gamer to the five year old kid to the sixty year old grandma. Easy enough to be accessible to everyone, and complex enough to satisfy even the most hardcore gamer’s itches, Mario gamesrock.

They also remain consistently high quality. Whereas the series has seen its fair share of downs (Super Mario Sunshine comes to mind), and whereas the brand has been whored out beyond belief (Nintendo slaps the Mario name onto literally any game they can, to attract sales), the core platforming series has always set the trend for the rest of the industry to follow.

The Super Mario Galaxy games were pure genius. Now we have to see how Mario’s next outing, the 3DS game Super Mario 3D, turns out. Here’s hoping to a game that changes the world yet again. Something that Mario is used to doing on a regular basis, anyway.

2. Pokemon (GB, GBC, N64, PC, GBA, GCN, DS, Wii, 3DS)

Come now, you really aren’t surprised to see this on the list, are you? Surprised, maybe, to see it rank so high, higher than evern Mario, but you can’t possibly have expected this series to not be on this list.

Pokemon remains the only series so far to have started on handhelds, and then to have remained on handhelds. Whereas it has had a plethora of spin offs on consoles, and even the PC, the core gaming franchise has always remained on Nintendo’s handhelds. The series, which began with an unassuming pair of games, Pokemon Red and Blue, back in 1998, exploded to massive popularity overnight, branching out to literally any and everything that it could. There were Pokemon trading cards, Pokemon branded clothes, Pokemon figurines, Pokemon board games, Pokemon cereal, a Pokemon anime, Pokemon movies… and yet, after so much whoring out, the quality of the core games remained consistently high, even as Pokemon Gold and Silver, the sequels to the breakthrough Pokemon Red and Blue, upped the ante and became legendary for being the greatest handheld games of all time.

Throughout all these years, Pokemon has stuck around has a money maker for Nintendo, to the extent that there was a substantial period from 1998-2003 when it was probably the only thing that was sustaining Nintendo and keeping it profitable. And yet, the quality of its core games has never wavered, not even with the much maligned Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, or Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. In fact, its most recent installment, Pokemon Black and White, is the best game in the series yet, upping the ante on Gold and Silver and becoming the greatest handheld game in the process.

It might have a cutesey exterior, but man, underneath all the hype and merchandise, this series of hardcore number crunching role playing games remains one of the best franchises Nintendo has in its stable.

1. The Legend of Zelda (NES, GB, SNES, GBC, N64, GBA, GCN, DS, Wii, 3DS)

The greatest Nintendo franchise of all time is also, quite possibly, the greatest franchise of all time. Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda is just what its name implies- absolutely legendary. The franchise, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year, has basically defined gaming for the last two and a half decades. From giving gamers the first free roaming open world back in 1985 with the original Legend of Zelda to giving us something as simple as the ability to save our progress (also with the first Legend of Zelda game), from adopting a dungeon based progression structure in A Link to the Past that is the blueprint for all RPGs and Action Adventure games even today to defining polygonal 3D gaming with its revolutionary lock on techniques with Ocarina of Time, from the first persistent world ever in Majora’s Mask to the simple idea of sidequests, Zelda has basically been at the forefront of all gaming innvoation, above and over every other franchise, Nintendo or not.

There is literally no way of describing just how high quality every Zelda game is, and how epic its scope is. A list of the greatest games ever created is bound to be infested with Zelda games, with either Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past or the NES original to be found at the top. Every time a new Zelda game releases, the industry stops to see what it has brought to the table. In every way possible and imaginable, gaming as we know it at all exists because of Zelda. Mario may be the face of gaming, but Zelda is gaming.

From its high quality graphics every single time to its memorable music, from its groundbreaking level design to its structure based gameplay, Zelda is at the top of any gaming list. And with good reason. Like every other legend, it grows with every retelling. And so, we can only expect some epic, epic things from the upcoming Wii Motion Plus game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It might even be the game that finally, after five years, justifies motion controls in gaming.

And That’s All!

Tell us which are your favorite Nintendo franchises in your comments below.