Okay, before I begin, I would like to state some things.
1. I'm new to this website, this is my first editorial. I don't really know what I'm doing or if I'm doing it right, so I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up getting removed. But I'll try my best.
2. This topic may be controversial, but I stand by my opinions, no matter how crazy they sound.
Okay, now we begin.
So Marvel has been extremely successful at building their cinematic universe over the past six years. DC is beginning to shape theirs, and now I even hear of a cinematic universe of classic movie monsters is in development. But for almost two years, I have envisioned another shared movie universe that could actually be pulled off: a shared video game movie universe.
I know that film adaptations of video games have for the most part been unsuccessful. Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, even a recent film adaptation of the game Need for Speed received a negative reception from critics and fans. But I feel like this could be popular.
I'm not the first one to think of this. I googled "Nintendo Cinematic Universe" and was surprised to see others have thought of this. Some of their ideas have influenced mine.
I first envisioned a Nintendo Cinematic Universe back in 2012. It was after I saw The Avengers, and I was playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl with my brother. We were roleplaying as characters from the game and we came up with this story where some characters form a team named "Super Smash Bros." and ever since then, I've always wanted something like that to happen on the big screen. But because of the failure of movies based on video games, and the many changes that would have to happen to make it work, I didn't think it would ever happen.
So why am I writing this right now?
A couple of months back, a Sonic the Hedgehog film was revealed to be in development. After I found that out, I was like "Oh cool! Hope it doesn't suck." But about a month after that, I once again began thinking of my vision for a Nintendo Cinematic Universe. Once again some thoughts were "It's probably not gonna happen." But then I sat up and realized a Sonic movie was in development, and I immeadietly thought to myself "This is a great opportunity to start a shared video game universe!" And I got excited. But then I realized not a lot of people were even thinking about that even happening. So I'm writing this to tell you how a Nintendo Cinematic Universe could work, and which films could be used to lead up to a team up movie. So I have a few tips for how it could work, let's begin with the first one:
1. Make The Films CGI or Motion Capture
There are many characters I envisioned existing in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU), that would need CGI to make it work on screen. Take Sonic for example. The Sonic movie is slated to be CGI/Live-action. Which would be fine to me, if it were only CGI. The fact that there will be live-action mixed with CGI is just a terrible idea in my opinion. Taking that route, they might end up with another Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, movies I (and many others) personally disliked. I mean just imagine Doctor Robotnik (if they do a movie, he should be called Robotnik, not Eggman) being a live-action human. Not only would he look terrible, but it'd be weird to see live-action Robotnik with CGI Sonic. I think it would actually look kind of campy, I mean that's my opinion, others may think differently. But other films (like Starfox, which I would include in "Phase 1" of the NCU) would need to be CGI because they would look down-right terrible in live-action. So all the films being CGI would be perfect for an NCU. But there's one thing, one major thing that would need to be changed a lot to make an NCU work. Which leads me to my next point:
2. Setting
Major changes to the setting would have to happen in order for these characters to interconnect. Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom would have to exist in the same universe, while somewhere else in the universe, there would be the Pokémon regions. It sounds like that would be hard to make happen, and it would be. But I have one idea that seems like the only way it could work, and I bet this is what is going to be the most controversial topic in this editorial:
It's all in one galaxy.
Let me explain a little more. My vision is that there's a galaxy, and in that galaxy, a bunch of planets, and on those planets, certain landmarks that exist within video games. For example, one of the planets contains both Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom. Another planet, I thought, would be an entire planet containing all the Pokémon regions. And yes, I know there's only six so far, but who knows how many more will be introduced in the future. Other planets include Zebes, anyone whose played Metroid should be familiar with that. Corneria, Venom, all those are from Starfox. And there would be others, I'm sure, I don't know what they could be at the moment. But the whole galaxy would have a name too. In Starfox, that galaxy of planets is called The Lylat System. In the NCU, to tie into Starfox, the entire galaxy containing all these planets would be called Lylat.
Of course, a lot of space travel would be needed to travel from planet to planet. Which I'm sure will also be controversial, at least for certain characters. The Starfox crew is obviously no stranger to space travel, but say the Super Smash Bros. needed to assemble to stop a threat on a certain planet, they'd need to use space travel to get there. So characters like Link would need to use spaceships... I bet I lost a couple readers after saying that. But that's the one main thing that would need to happen to make these worlds connect, at least in my opinion. Well those are some of my main points. I will now talk about which films would have to happen in order to start this franchise.
3. Films That Would Be In "Phase 1" of the NCU
Well the rest of this is gonna be a list, so just hang tight.
The first film in the NCU would obviously be Sonic the Hedgehog.
It's already in development. Everything in this movie and the others would be CGI. I would want the story to be based on Sonic Adventure. Because it and Sonic Adventure 2 have the best stories of all the Sonic games in my opinion. It would be a good start of the franchise and hopefully a way to set up the characters. Oh, and the post-credits scene. Similar to the first Iron Man, Sonic is approached by R.O.B. (who I want to gather the team), who wants to talk about a plan of his called the "Super Smash Bros."
The next movie would be Super Mario Bros.
Once again, it would be CGI. So don't worry that it could end up like the abomination that was the live-action Mario movie. Villain would be Bowser, obviously. Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario and Luigi go to save her. Yoshi and Toad would be there to help Mario and Luigi. Also to help them would be... Donkey Kong? In my opinion, Donkey Kong should be introduced in this movie. Him and Mario have a connection in the games, so I figure him and Mario should be like "old rivals", and Donkey Kong helps him on his quest to save the princess. This movie also contains THREE people who I would put on the Super Smash Bros. team. Mario, Luigi, and Donkey Kong. So R.O.B.'s plan now has four people involved.
Third movie would be The Legend of Zelda.
CGI. Villain is Ganondorf. Link is trying to save Zelda and Hyrule from Ganondorf, who seeks to find the Triforce. Post-credits scene? R.O.B. asking Link to join his team. Oh yeah, and Ganondorf is the villain in Super Smash Bros.
Fourth movie is Metroid.
CGI. Samus Aran volunteers to go to the planet Zebes to stop the evil Mother Brain. R.O.B. asks her to join his team. The usual.
Fifth movie is Starfox.
Obviously CGI. Fox McCloud and his crew, called "Starfox" travel to the planet Venom to stop Andross. Falco, Slippy, Peppy are part of the Starfox crew, of course. Wolf is also in the movie, working with Andross. R.O.B. asks Fox to join the team. Now the entire roster of the Super Smash Bros. team is complete.
Final movie of a Phase 1 is obviously Super Smash Bros.
Did I mention CGI? Ganondorf is the villain. The team consists of Mario, Sonic, Luigi, Link, Samus, Fox, and Donkey Kong. Yeah, that's pretty much that I guess.
Other films I had in mind for the future are:
Sonic the Hedgehog: Project Shadow (Sonic Adventure 2 storyline)
Pokémon (Red is protagonist, NOT ASH! Also instead of being 10, trainers are 16-19 years old)
Kid Icarus (cause Pit is cool)
Kirby (cause people will kill me if Kirby's not involved with this)
F-Zero (cause Captain Falcon has to say "Falcon Punch" on the big screen)
Also I'd want Mewtwo to be the villain of Super Smash Bros. 2
And yes, all the movies I mentioned above would also be CGI.
Well that's my editorial. If you read to this point, then thank you. I just spent the past hour and a half writing this, so thanks to whoever reads this. I think a Nintendo Cinematic Universe could actually happen, maybe if the fans make it clear that it's possible, it could happen. Also reminding you all again this is my first editorial, if I do more they'll probably be better. Thanks so much :)