F-Zero director explains that Captain Falcon was almost the ambassador of the SNES

Now he’s a fighting game meme

Oh what may have been. What if Bubsy was the winner of the mascot wars and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft were competing with an Accolade Box One? It sounds absurd, but almost as crazy as Captain Falcon representing the entire SNES brand.

Based on an interview with a designer for F-Zero, Takaya Imamura, it’s come to light that Captain Falcon, future racer extraordinaiire, could have been the mascot of the Super Nintendo. Evidently the entire plan was based on the idea that some character named “Captain something” should be employed for their new system, one that would “match the colors of the Super Famicom controller.”

Over time, Captain Falcon was molded into what became F-Zero, a flagship character for the franchise. Given his clout early on in the prototype process, it’s easy to see how he ended up getting a coveted spot in the Super Smash Bros. roster on the Nintendo 64.

F-Zero Developer Interview [Nintendo]