It's hard to say, my first game that i've ever played is Super Mario World, it got me into gaming, but to give in answer would depend on if everything happens to have stayed unaffected, then yes I would still be a Nintendo fan.

I would ask the question, if Mario never existed, where would Nintendo have gone, and would that have prevented them from saving the Video Game market, where would everyone be without Mario!

I actually liked because it is a lot easier then the first one which I can't beat but 2 is pretty easy a lot easier then most NES games.  IV is still my favorite its the second one I beat since the 3rd one is even harder then the first one.

I might not have been into gaming, never mind Nintendo games, if Mario didn't exist. Furthermore, Mario drove Nintendo to success. Their success led to them negotiating with Sony about a joint venture. That went sour and the Playstation was born. Microsoft then entered the industry to challenge Sony.

Logically, without Mario, the gaming world as it exists today, would not be the same. And that's why all the Sony and Microsoft fans need to bow down and pay homage to that fat Italian plumber.

Sorry, but I pay homage to these two guys. Probably the ones that grabbed me into the videogames world:

Though I agree with you that Mario totally deserves credit. He and his brother, of course! Don't forget Luigi e_e

Assuming that Nintendo without Mario still had most of the non Mario related properties (I am including Donkey Kong as separate from Mario spin offs since technically he came first) then yes, I'd still be a Nintendo fan.

Although as I am sure others have mentioned, without Mario the console industry as it is probably doesn't exist in its current form. So without Mario, I'd probably be a PC gamer or more involved with some other diversion. Heck, without Mario maybe high quality non racing or simple sports genre arcades machines like the fighting games and action beat'em ups found in the 80s and 90s might still around (or at least games based on them).

It was Pokemon rather than Mario that really got me into Nintendo

I'm not sure it would of fallen flat on it's face so much as... just not existed.

Donkey Kong was sort of the genisis of their entire empire.

Now if we're saying Donkey kong exists... but Jumpman looks different and never gets the arcade/atari game Mario Bros.

Yeah probably.  Mario Brothers probably would be very similar gameplay wise and instead featured Donkey Kong Jr or said new protaganist vs Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong 4.  Or Super Donkey Kong I suppose.

So biggest change would of been Donkey Kong being Bowser.

Mario wasn't important, I mean, Super Mario brothers story is ridiculious.

It's the gameplay mechanics that spawned the empire, and no matter what kind of skins they used in the mario brotehrs games.  It'd of still been as huge playing off the relative non-story.

My first game was Wario Blast 10, so......

Yeah probably, i like Donkey Kong. Who knows where Nintendo would be without Mario though