Nintendo Adaptations We Need

This coming year, following the success of the first film, Nintendo announced the release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. A Legend of Zelda movie is also confirmed to be in the works. While I still find the English voice cast somewhat questionable for these films, I do love how they look visually and am glad that audiences and fans seemed to enjoy them. The film also sparked a question in my mind that I figured would be worth discussing. Why have there been so few Nintendo adaptations and what are the ones that I hope to see in the future?

Given that the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, Pokémon, belongs to Nintendo, you’d think there would have been loads more tv and film adaptations from the studio by now. It seems especially strange to me that we get so few even from Japan itself. Apart from the Pokémon anime, the only other anime series based on Nintendo games is the early 2000s Kirby anime, which I loved as a kid, and an F-Zero series, which aired exclusively in Japan.

The Legend of Zelda has a manga series which tells the storylines of various games in the series, but as to why they haven’t been animated yet is beyond me. I would imagine it is to do with the fact that Nintendo is very protective of its characters. So protective, in fact, to the point that it doesn’t want any studio to take a crack at showcasing its characters without deep involvement and supervision from the company.

If Nintendo does try to release more adaptations in the future, there are quite a few series I think would make for prime candidates. The first being Fire Emblem. The fact that this has yet to receive an anime is criminal.

Given its cinematic battles and fully animated cutscenes in the newer games, there are plenty of opportunities to showcase series mascots and give more detail to the various worlds and timelines that have yet to receive this kind of treatment. I would especially enjoy an adaptation of the GBA games like The Sacred Stones or The Blazing Blade. If desired I could also see anime series based on an original storyline or one showcasing characters from some of the mobile games: Fire Emblem: Heroes or the newly released Fire Emblem: Shadows.

Keeping with the theme of Mario adaptations, a Luigi’s Mansion film would make for a wonderful third entry to Illumination’s movie series. This has always been my personal favorite spin-off Mario game, and given that it was clearly inspired by Ghostbusters, it would certainly attract large audiences.

Seeing as Donkey Kong also received a TV series in the 90s, appears in the Mario film, and recently had a successful new 3D entry with DK Bananza. I could also see a Donkey Kong Country movie being developed in the future.

Moving away from the fantasy genre, I would also love to personally see some of Nintendo’s Sci-Fi series like Star Fox or Metroid get some attention. Metroid is already heavily inspired by the legendary film Alien, so I could see a movie working well. Be it animated or live-action. On the other hand, Star Fox would also make for a great animated film given each game is on the shorter side and it’s storylines work well as one-off narratives with lots of flashy action.

Pretty much all of the most popular Nintendo franchises could make for wonderful adaptations. Most of the things I’ve mentioned seem the most likely to occur at some point in the future. However, I’d also like to suggest a few odd ball picks that I’d like to see. I doubt any of these will happen but I would be ecstatic if they did.

The first suggestion would be the Pikmin series. While it’s popular enough to get new games occasionally, I don’t see it ever receiving the budget for an adaptation given its still relatively niche. Nevertheless, I would enjoy an animated short series based on Pikmin.

Nintendo has released a few animated shorts already for Pikmin, but I’m envisioning something along the lines of the Pokemon Concierge series on Netflix. A claymation style would perfectly fit the characters and setting, with each episode possibly from the perspective of a nature documentary as Olimar and his crew study various Pikmin in the wild. I think it would make for a charming companion piece to the games and might help bring more exposure to the series.

Lastly I would love to see some sort of Earthbound/Mother-related adaptation. I’ve never had the chance to play these games, and my only exposure to the series is through Smash Bros. However, the world and characters have always intrigued me and I think an adaptation could help people to learn more about it in an easily accessible way. I’m not sure what form would be the best for the series, but as long as it preserves the quirky charm of the characters and is faithful to the series’ themes, I would instantly watch it upon release.

I’d be interested to see which of these adaptations could come to light in the next five to ten years. Ideally, I’d like to see all of them, and more, as Nintendo has always held a special place in my heart and I’d love to see more people be exposed to their great games and fun characters. Who knows what the future will bring but here’s hoping for an Avengers: Endgame-style Super Smash Bros. movie in 2050. Now that would be something amazing.