It may be lagging a bit behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the same point in its run, but The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is regardless undoubtedly a big hit. Its popcorn buckets certainly sold like hotcakes. However, it’s a controversial one. It is very much being associated with Iron Man 2, meaning it’s a movie that is more concerned with blowing the doors off a larger cinematic universe than it is being an individual effective narrative. Joining Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and Toad (as well as Donkey and Cranky Kong, who are sitting out this one), are Yoshi, Bowser Jr., Princess Rosalina, Super Mario Bros. 2‘s Wart, and Fox McCloud.
Emphasis on Fox, there, because he’s an important one. Here we have a character who did not, in fact, debut in a Mario game. He’s the protagonist of his own series, Star Fox. This begs the question, what other Nintendo IPs could excel on the big screen? Fox certainly could (as could Yoshi), and there’s little doubt that part of the reason behind his establishment here is to set him up for his own movie. Who else? Let’s see.
5) Pikmin
Yes, the Pikmin do pop up for a few seconds in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. But, again, it’s just for a few seconds, and we don’t even see Captain Olimar.
If anything, the fact that they’re in Galaxy establishes these Gamecube-era legends as part of the Nintendo cinematic universe. Let’s get a full movie for them, with Olimar running through the CGI fauna of PNF-404. The Pikmin could even be the Nintendo universe’s Minions.
4) Kid Icarus
There have only been three Kid Icarus games. The first one on the NES in 1986, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Game Boy in 1991, and Kid Icarus: Uprising (pictured above) for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. But the angel protagonist, Pit, has been featured in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4, and the fantastic Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
So, in short, Pit isn’t so niche as to not be worthy of a film. He’s even popped up in a few games outside his mainline series and Super Smash Bros. The character arc is even right there in front of us: Pit learning to defend his world even though he can, at best, fly for a few minutes.
3) F-Zero
The F-Zero futuristic racing franchise is still going, with the online retro racer F-Zero 99 hitting the Switch back in 2023. It’s a series that has always been going at taking the cartoonish racer subgenre and making it highly intense.
At the very least, there should be an F-Zero sequence in an inevitable third Mario movie. And, should there ever be a Super Smash Bros. movie, there need to be at least 20 minutes devoted to Captain Falcon screaming “Falcon punch!” and sending an adversary careening a thousand miles an hour off to a different space-time continuum.
2) Kirby
If there’s a Nintendo character that is as beloved as Mario, it’s Kirby, the puffball with shoes. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a masterpiece, full stop.
The luminescent world of Kirby’s Dream Land would look great on the big screen just as it would be fun to see Kirby inhale enemies and gain their powers (and combine them). Both of those things have already worked for the Mario movies, with Mario and Luigi putting on costumes and gaining abilities e.g. with the Cape Feather and the Frog Suit. There would also absolutely have to be an Air Ride sequence. It would be the Kirby movie’s Podrace.
1) Metroid
Metroid is the ultimate when it comes to Nintendo IPs that would be amazing as movies. It would be a PG Aliens if Ripley wore an orange suit with a cannon on her arm.
This could end up being a starter horror movie for kids. There isn’t much chance they would make it intense enough to earn a PG-13 rating (they would want it to have at least a chance of being as popular as the Mario movies), but it could very much work as a darker corner of this brightly lit video game cinematic universe.