[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']Again with the Frank thing.
Nintendo games have never been about character development or story. Miyamoto in particular has those elements removed whenever possible. The story elements had to be snuck into Mario Galaxy by Koizumi.
What makes the characters compelling are nothing to do with the characters themselves, but with the history of the games involved, and your involvement with them.
They are a blank slate. Their struggle is YOUR struggle with the game elements, the level design, the boss and enemy design: Your experience with the game.
Link's struggle is your struggle with dungeons and figuring out bosses, like bombing a dodongo.
Samus' struggle is your struggle getting lost as hell in those caverns and finding the way forward and doing what you need to do.
Mario's struggle is your struggle with generally well designed platforming games.
The story of Nintendo characters is the story of GAMEPLAY. Being alongside them for so many years in particular, builds a bond to the character, even though the character has NO character. It can happen to a smaller extent in an individual game, because the games are what might be called EPICS.
The characters are looked kindly upon because of your memories of great games.[/quote]
