For many many years Nintendo have been known for its characters which really is quite odd when you think about it. I mean it’s not like the character development is deep or meaningful. Yet there is something that Nintendo do that makes them far more interesting than any other. We have seen many characters over the years, Donkey Kong, Wario, Peach, Yoshi and those damn Pokemon. Yet there are two that really shine and when you say there is a new game coming out that features either of these two then you can guarantee two things, the game will be great and it will sell lots and lots. There is one question though, who is the best?

Mario is probably the second most famous cartoon character in the world behind Mickey Mouse and all his games have been legends (all his platform ones anyway) and they have sold by the bucket load. There are three camps in the argument as to the best Mario game and they are as follows. 1) Super Mario World (SNES, GBA) 2) Super Mario 64 (N64) and 3) Super Mario Bros 3 (NES, SNES). My personal favourite is Super Mario World. It’s probably not the best game of the three but man there are memories of younger days there. Mario is a very simple man who we really have no idea about except that he is/was a plumber who saves Princess peach a lot who gets kidnapped by Bowser all the time. In fact this is the same story that is used in every single Mario game bar one and that is Mario RPG when the mighty Square decided to change the story a little bit and actually had you working with Bowser (ohh please grant a license Nintendo). Mario Sunshine is the new Mario game coming out for the Gamecube and no doubt it will be great but we actually know little or in fact nothing about this.

Link is another Nintendo Legend and he appeared in arguably the best game on both the SNES and N64 (Links Awakening and Ocarina of Time respectively). OOT is perhaps one of THE greatest games of all time and even now it is a fantastic game to play. While not an RPG in the Final Fantasy mould it is a hell of an epic adventure. Yet again however Link is not a really deep character and yet he is far more enduring and likeable for it. Just like Mickey mouse the fact they are set apart from human weakness is a plus point.

At the end of the day it is hard to actually pick a winner. Both Mario and Link have helped Nintendo both become kings and later helped them survive. I will be bold though and say that it is Mario who needs the greatest gaming makeover. While Link could get away with a copy of the N64 games Mario can’t and yet the great irony is that we all know that Link is now Cell shaded and Mario will no doubt be full of surprises. This perhaps however gives us the greatest insight as to why Mario, Link and perhaps most importantly Nintendo as a whole has done so very very well, it’s because it will always change, always dare do something new. Yet Mario World gets a re-release 10 years later and sells like hotcakes it just shows that both Mario and Link will go down as gaming legends. My final opinion is that Link games are better but Mario is the best character. Many will disagree but go and discuss it in the forums.

Gary Samaden