Series question, if Pokemon had come out on NES the same time as Super Mario Bros who would be Nintendo's mascot?  The plumber Mario or the rodent Pikachu?

One of the reasons Pokemon became popular was due to the ability play portability. Mario would have been more popular

Imo:
Outside Japan: Mario
Japan: Pikachu

Assuming Gamefreak was still the developer and The Pokemon Company was formed...it'd be the Pokemon Company's mascot. Unless Nintendo owned more of the Pokemon Company during this timeline. If those conditions are met, I dunno. Would anime have been a popular enough catalyst for Pokemon in '85? And above all, would JRPGs be as accepted in the US as they became post NES era. I just think the market would have had to mature up to that point to accept the Pokemon that released in 96 and 98.

Still Mario. Game Boy was the first platform that could house Pokemon's concept. Without the social aspect of trading and battling, Red and Blue wouldn't have had such explosive popularity.

Still would be Mario. I think Pikachu is a second-party character

Pokemon wouldn't have been the same on consoles back then as the draw to the games were the portability and trading, the game was literally designed for the GB link cable.

I would have to go with Mario as well for reasons people above already stated. Pokemon wouldn't be in the place it needed to be like it was with portability with a home console like NES.

/thread

Mario. Super Mario Bros revived gaming from the dead. Pokemon was impressive because it saved the Gameboy. Mario saved all of gaming.