Link and huge respect for MARIO.

hmmmmm......

both equally. I have probably spent more time ... nope... both equally.

Mario, I never pleyed a Zelda game.

As much as I like Mario and Paper Mario, I'll go with Zelda. Had to play all of them.

Epic.

That's the first word that comes to my mind when someone say Zelda. It is the game that really got me into gaming because it is magic, beautiful, epic, great story and characters, items to collect and use different ways, puzzles, amazing temples and huge bosses.

It has everything I want from a gaming experience. Zelda is my favourite game. Forever.

Sonic

Zelda. The gameplay and overall design was tailor made for me.

I'm going to rephrase your question a bit:

If Nintendo followed Sega at some point, i.e., stopped making consoles but started releasing their series on other platforms, and if they decided to place Mario on system A and Zelda on system B, which would I choose (assuming I could only afford one)?

If that were the case, it would definitely be system B for Zelda. I have a burning need to know what happens to each Link.

Zelda because the franchise is quality wise a lot better. Mario has it's ups and downs

Mario

Super Mario Bros. >>>>>>>>>>>>> Every other game