I bet they can come up with something great if mario wasnt there.

Yes. Mario is one of their top-sellers, but not their only top-seller.

Yes, Nintendo could survive without Mario. Mario's success on the NES precluded Mr. Miyamoto from working on other Platforms. Besides Donkey Kong was pretty popular at one time. Donkey Kong Country anyone?

To be honest remember back during the SNES. People would have asked , could Nintendo survive without Donkey Kong. Today Nintendo is alive and well and Donkey Kong is all but gone. I think if Nintendo lost Mario they would double back and build a replacement franchise. Yes Pokemon would be a big one but Nintendo could easily survive off of the Wii franchise, or Animal Crossing , Pikmin , StarFox, DonkeyKong, Zelda , Metroid.

Sure none of those franchises are the heavy weight Mario is but with Mario gone I'm sure one of them would quickly take his place! Infact I think Nintendo knows it can't fully rely on Mario, just think Mario wasn't even present at the launch of the Wii and won't likely be present at the launch of Nintendo's next console!

Yes.....Nintendo does not rely on Mario to survive. He helps, of course, but he is not necessary. I'd miss him though.....that lovable mustached man.

Could they? Yes. But it wouldn't be the same without Mario. What would I play to satisfy my platformer needs? :P

We would just be playing Super Luigi Kart instead.

if theres no mario theres zelda

Nintendo could exist without Mario but you also can't ignore the history the company has with Mario, meaning that while Nintendo would exist, obviously it wouldn't be nearly the same company. SEGA would have probably had better luck during the earlier console war generations, and Nintendo as we know it today would probably be smaller and may not have survived through the lean times of the Gamecube...but obviously that's all speculation!

Yes.