Top 10 Nintendo Characters Not Introduced On the NES

The NES saved gaming and introduced Mario, Link, Samus, Kirby and many more of Nintendo's most famous characters. However, today we are looking at the characters who weren't introduced on the NES. For this list, arcade games don't count as the debut, leaving out Donkey Kong and Little Mac as candidates. Also, the characters count if Nintendo owns them. This means that although GameFreak made Pokemon, Pokemon characters are still eligible for the list because Nintendo owns him. Also, if you are still reading this, please do your research before adding to this list.
The Top Ten
1 Yoshi Yoshi, once romanized as Yossy, is a fictional anthropomorphic dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Often appearing as a sidekick and helper to Mario, Yoshi is most known for his appearances in the Yoshi's Island and the Super Mario franchises.
2 Pikachu Pikachu (Japanese: ピカチュウ) are a species of Pokémon, fictional creatures that appear in an assortment of video games, animated television shows and movies, trading card games, and comic books licensed by The Pokémon Company, a Japanese corporation. A mascot of the Pokemon franchise, it's considered to be the most iconic character of all Pokemon species, as well as a major character in Japanese pop culture, due to its companionship with Ash Ketchum in the anime series. Pikachu has been featured in movies such as Pokemon Detective Pikachu as well as music videos - most notably Katy Perry's "Electric" in 2021.

I knew I wanted a Pokemon at number 1. I just decided to choose the one that everybody knows.

3 Fox McCloud Fox McCLoud is an anthropomorphic fox who first appeared in Star Fox for the Super NES in 1993, the son of James McCloud who perished during a mission and the leader of the new Star Fox team along with Peppy Hare former member of the original Star Fox team, Falco Lombardi and Slippy Toad as they the ...read more.
4 Wario Wario is a character in Nintendo's Mario series who was originally designed as an antagonist to Mario. His motives are driven by greed and he will take the side of whoever will give him the most pay. Although he may seem like just a mean man with no heart, he does have a very tragic past.
5 Diddy Kong Diddy Kong is a fictional character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, first appearing in the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country.
6 Krystal
7 Captain Falcon Douglas Jay Falcon, known commonly as Captain Falcon, is a playable character in the racing video game series F-Zero.
8 Olimar Olimar is a fictional character from Nintendo's Pikmin video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
9 Marth Marth is a fictional character from the Fire Emblem series, developed by Intelligent Systems and owned by Nintendo. He is the protagonist and Lord class character in the first and the third games in the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, ...read more.
10 Mr. Game & Watch Mr. Game & Watch is a 2D generic stick figure-styled silhouette character, created by Nintendo and an amalgamation of the Game & Watch handheld consoles.

OK, so he was technically before the NES. Still, he's not from the arcades, so he's fair game.

The Contenders
11 Ile

My bad. This should say Ike.

12 Shulk Shulk is a fictional character and the protagonist from Monolith Soft's 2010 role-playing video game Xenoblade Chronicles, part of their overarching Xeno series of video games.
13 Fawful Fawful, known in Japan as Gerakobits, is a fictional character appearing in the Mario & Luigi series of role-playing video games developed by AlphaDream.
14 Waluigi Waluigi is a lanky self-centered, brusque young lad as he is considered evil and the main rival of Luigi. Waluigi is shown causing local havoc in most games he appears in alongside his partner Wario. Waluigi is not instinctively evil or the antagonist (not counting DDR), as a matter of fact, he shows ...read more.
15 Falco Lombardi Falco Lombardi is an anthropomorphic bird character from the Star Fox series of video games. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. Falco acts as the wingman and friend of title character Fox McCloud for the majority of the series.
16 Wolf O' Donnell
17 Chrom
18 Saki Amaniya
19 Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr., or sometimes simply Jr., is a video game character who appears in Nintendo's Mario franchise as the secondary antagonist. He is the youngest son of the series' primary antagonist, Bowser.
20 King K Rool King K. Rool is a fictional anthropomorphic crocodile and the main antagonist of Nintendo's Donkey Kong video game franchise, as well as the archenemy of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.
21 Quote
22 Ness
23 Lucas
24 Flint
25 Duster
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