...A new Mascot?
By: DarkLink24, Master of Darkness
  

 

  

    We all know of Nintendo, the company that gave millions of people around the world hours and hours of entertainmet. But could they do it all by themselves? Of course not! They needed a mascot! That's when Donkey Kong was created, and with him "Jump Man" as well. But who is this "Jump Man"? Jump man was the person Nintendo created to be the hero of the Donkey Kong game, whose objective was to rescue his girlfriend Pauline from DK. But pretty soon, this Jump Man person soon came to be known as one of our most appreciated video game characters: Mario. Mario was everything that every video game addict ever wanted: he could go into hundreds of different worlds, jump higher than anyone else, the strength to defeat even a diabolic turtle, and most of all, he carried with him hours of fun! These attributes and more together made him the top Nintendo mascot, and whenever someone thought of Nintendo, they would think of Mario! With Mario in the lead, there was very little possibility of getting bored of playing Nintendo's games. It could still be that way, but something big has recently struck Nintendo; something so big, it affected Mario's fame dramatically, if not even critically...

    Yes, I'm talking about Pokemon, the new craze that has struck us since about 1998, 1995 in Japan. With it came 150, now recently 250, different and exotic kinds of creatures of all shapes and sizes, all colors and attitudes, both ugly and cute, and so on and so forth. Amongst them all is the one creature that makes you think of it when you think of Pokemon: Pikachu. Sure, everyone (virtually) loves Pikachu. He's cute, cuddly, friendly, while also being powerful, fast, and agile. Most kids adore him, almost as an idol, and keep screaming his name over and over. As for the older fans, they like him for his above stated attributes, and maybe more. He has become so famous, he's the most famous and adored Pokemon of all time, therefore making him the Pokemon mascot. Many people, however, like him so much, they think he should be, or practically already is, the new Nintendo mascot, instead of the original mascot, Mario. I personally don't adore Pikachu, I mean, he's OK, it's just that I think he's too grossely adored, and comparing his fame to Mario's actual fame would be like comparing a 7th grader (namely me) to a Senior (my brother). I think that if this continues, Mario's fame will be reduced to a pulp, and Nintendo will be forced to make Pikachu the officially new Nintendo mascot. Sure, there's lots of loyal Mario fans, Toasty being an example, out there in the world, but even this is nothing compared to the millions of little kids and more mature people loyal to Pokemon, namely Pikachu. I personally can't stand the thought of Pikachu as a mascot, because if that happens, every time I would think of Nintendo, I would think of Pikachu. Ugh, that's just way too much! I believe that Mario should stay as the mascot, and always should, unlike my cousins, who think they'd rather have Pikachu as the mascot rather than Mario (they see him as just a fat plumber that can jump high). But I don't think this'll happen until Nintendo starts supporting Mario again, which they haven't done recently, since they have now pretty much become money-hungry, and now mainly focus on Pokemon, so that way they'll drain money from parents by having their kids adore Pokemon so much, that they should make their parents empty their wallets just on Pokemon games and products, and therefore win big bucks big time. Or else why do you think they haven't gotten any more Mario games out? Because they just keep on focusing only on Pokemon! I bet pretty soon Pokemon is gonna have more games on both the N64 and the GB combined than Mario'll ever have in the N64 alone! Didn't he use to have more games than anything else on the other systems? I am also mainly disappointed that Shigeru Miyamoto is not doing anything about it. I mean, he's practically ditching his own masterpiece creation, Mario! I just hope he hasn't turned as money-hungry as Hiroshi Yamauchy probably did. We cannot afford to lose the Nintendo pride-and-joy, Mario, to a simply-cute electric mouse just like that! Well, however the case turns out to be, Pikachu as the main mascot or not, for me Mario will always be the true Nintendo Idol of all time, no matter what.

Any comments, flames, or death threats, send them at darkmaster14@hotmail.com or at DarkZero24@aol.com or also at DarthLink865@aol.com