Nintendo's Crooked Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bowser

Don red overalls, dodge vicious flora, squish goombas, navigate the plumbing system and jump as far up a flag pole as possible in order to reach Bowser's true hideout. This is the well-known format for a number of "Super Mario" games, including the very first instalment "Super Mario Bros."

In a number of games in the franchise, including the original, Princess Peach goes by the name Princess Toadstool.

Picture Clue: A "bow" tie.

Answer: Mewtwo

Mewtwo is one of the more memorable Pokémon from Generation I and the legendary creature features in the iconic "Pokémon Red" and "Pokémon Blue" for Nintendo Game Boy. Towards the very end of the storyline in "Red" and "Blue", Mewtwo can be captured in the depths of Cerulean Cave. Mewtwo features in a number of other games on the Nintendo platform including "Pokémon Stadium" (focus is more on battles than a storyline) and "Pokémon Pinball".

Picture Clue: Cats, two of them. Mewtwo!

Answer: Marx

Platform games are "a dime a dozen" and a large number sink to the depths of obscurity. That said, there is a certain class of platform games that has caught the public's imagination and offer a genuinely exciting gaming experience. Usually the more successful works in this genre revolve around a memorable character such as Mario, Rayman, Sonic or Nintendo's Kirby.

"Kirby Super Star" is effectively a compilation of a number of smaller games including "Milky Way Wishes", a game in which Kirby must protect his home planet of Popstar from being taken over by Marx.

Picture Clue: Stylised Soviet flag, a representation of communism (Karl "Marx" and his manifesto).

Answer: King K. Rool

"Donkey Kong" exploded on to the arcade scene in 1981 and the franchise has since become a household name. By 1988 four titles had been released and the last of these original four games was "Donkey Kong Classics" (1988), a title that celebrated the arcade origins of the franchise. After a six year hiatus, a reboot commenced with the release of "Donkey Kong Country". In this instalment, King K. Rool, with the help of his team of Kremlings, steals Donkey Kong's banana stash and let's just say that Donkey Kong, along with companion Diddy Kong, will do anything to get it back!

Picture Clue: A "king" standing tall on a chessboard.

Answer: Doctor N. Gin

"Crash Bandicoot" was the product of the creative endeavours of the video game development company, Naughty Dog. The company created the initial instalments of the franchise - "Crash Bandicoot" (1996), "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back" (1997) and "Crash Bandicoot: Warped" (1998) - exclusively for Sony PlayStation consoles. With a change of developer and despite some inevitable inter-organisational politics, "Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex" was released for PlayStation 2 in 2001 and Nintendo GameCube in 2002, bringing an end to Sony's platform exclusivity.

Fast forward to 2020 and the franchise demonstrated it could still hold its own in a very competitive gaming market through its release of the moderately successful "Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time". The game remained faithful to elements of gameplay that had made the franchise so successful and retained characters such as Doctor N. Gin (he is really beyond redemption). It was however recognised that new features were required to combat the tendency for long-running series to become stale. The developers, Toys for Bob, sought to achieve this through introducing Quantum Masks that bestowed new powers upon the much-loved protagonists, Crash and Coco.

Picture Clue: An "engine".

Answer: Porky Minch

Porky Minch, what a fantastic name! This impudent character made his first appearance in "EarthBound" ("Mother 2" in Japan), an SNES release of 1994, and reappeared for the enjoyment of Japanese gamers in "Mother 3" (2006, Game Boy Advance). Our friend Porky had a strong belief in his own immortality and states in "Mother 3", "Let me fill you in on something. No matter how much you attack me, I'll never die. Bet you didn't know that, did you?" Perhaps Porky was on to something but what would be the terms of his immortality?

Picture Clue: "Pork" with crispy crackling (yes please).

Answer: Mother Brain

Mother Brain was the final boss of the original "Metroid" game released for NES in 1987. Mother Brain unsurprisingly takes the form of a large brain but perhaps has a thin skin as captured by a quote from the related manga, "Defective product...Me...?! A defective product...You dare claim that I am defective" ("Metroid: Volume 2", 2002).

In "Metroid", Mother Brain is contained within a glass jar, that is until the game's protagonist, Samus, destroys both the glass structure and Mother Brain herself; she explodes, if you really wanted to know!

Picture Clue: A "brain".

Answer: Medusa

"Kid Icarus" follows Pit's journey to retrieve a set of items stolen by the game's primary antagonist Medusa, "Goddess of Darkness". Medusa's appearance, including snakes for hair, aligns with the Gorgon figure from Greek mythology.

Picture Clue: Jellyfish in their well-known "medusa" form.

Answer: Master Kale

Bethany Massimilla, writing for GameSpot, opens a 2006 review of the game with the quote, "'Magical Starsign' is a lighthearted role-playing adventure that partially makes up for a lack of gameplay depth with its quirky, oddball world". This is perhaps a fairly kind review of a rather lacklustre and forgettable entry in the Nintendo DS back catalogue. Gameplay itself centres on the use of elemental magic, with Master Kale taking the opposite element to the protagonist at every turn.

Picture Clue: A close-up shot of "kale".

Answer: Metroid Prime

With the release of "Metroid Prime" in 2002, Nintendo pushed the "Metroid" franchise into a first-person perspective; the decision to make this switch proved to be sound. Samus Aran, known for her encounters with Mother Brain in earlier "Metroid" releases, now has to deal with Metroid Prime and the battle with this beast takes place over two challenging stages: shell removal and core obliteration!

Picture Clue: Seven is a "prime" number.