Nintendo has amassed a great assortment of memorable character throughout its time making video games. These characters are known for their great acts of courage, amazing acrobatic abilities, feats of strength, and diabolical deeds of villainy. However, there are a few who are known for utilizing their great intellect.
Such characters might utilize their intelligence in different ways; some might innovate and create great machines, others might use it to improve the lives of others, and yet still others might bend their minds to the domination and destruction of other living things. These are the Nintendo characters who make the best use of the gray matter between their ears whether for good or ill.
10 Byleth
The main player character from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Byleth might not have received a traditional education, but they more than make up for it through sheer natural intelligence. From the start Byleth proves to be a brilliant military commander, despite never having actually let troops before. They also prove to be an excellent teacher, despite not having any kind of teaching degree.
Ultimately they help to inspire their students and help them reach their full potential. In spite of continually being thrust into situations that they are completely unqualified for, and yet every time Byleth is able to excel to an unprecedented degree.
9 Dr. Mario
Mario is the ultimate Renaissance man, he has worked in dozens of professions throughout his life and has excelled at all of them. Some of these include but are not limited to; race car driver, professional athlete, plumber carpenter, and royal bodyguard. His most illustrious position was that of medical doctor.
While it is a common meme to say that Dr. Mario is pill-pushing quack, it is important to remember that at least within the context of the games he has appeared in, his treatments are ultimately effective. Dr. Mario has repeatedly proven that he can combat the vile diseases of the Mushroom Kingdom and has no doubt saved countless lives.
8 Princess Zelda
As the chosen holder of the Triforce of Wisdom it makes sense that Princess Zelda is extremely intelligent. While there exist many versions of the eponymous princess, virtually all of them show a great deal of brain power which they use for the betterment of the Hylian people.
The most recent incarnation seen in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is shown to be very learned in lore and history, as well as being something of an archeologist and a machinist.
7 Apple Kid
Appearing in Earthbound, Apple Kid is one of two inventors from the town of Twoson, Apple Kid regularly provides invaluable help to Ness and his companions on their quest to stop Gaigas. This includes inventing both a pencil eraser, and eraser to remove obstacles in Ness' way, stopping a zombie outbreak by inventing zombie paper, and creating a trout flavored Yogurt dispenser.
Likely his greatest technological feat was when he collaborated with Dr. Andonuts to create the phase distorters, vehicles which allow their users to travel through time and space.
6 Professor E. Gadd
Players first encountered this quirky inventor in 2001's Luigi's Mansion for the Nintendo Gamecube. In that game he was presented as the Mushroom Kingdom's foremost expert on ghosts as well as the inventor of the Pultergust 3000 and the many other useful gadgets that Luigi makes use of in his specter hunting escapades. He would continue on as a major character throughout the Luigi's Mansion series, as well as making infrequent appearances in the Mario series.
Most notably, he is the inventor of Mario's water pack F.L.U.D.D. and Bowser Jr's magical pollution-causing paintbrush in Super Mario Sunshine. He also invented a time machine in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. While he can be a bit goofy at times, there can be no doubt that Professor E. Gadd is a scientific genius without peer in the Mario Universe.
5 Dr. Wright
First appearing as the mayor's assistant in the Super Nintendo version of SimCity, Dr. Wright provided invaluable advice for players. He is an expert in all aspects of urban planning and development who always seems to know exactly what is wrong in a player's city and what can be done to improve it. No matter how badly players mess up their city, they can always count on Dr. Wright to help set things right. If only cities in the real world had someone like that.
4 Navi
First appearing in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Navi was a character that could often rub players the wrong way with her constant cries of "hey, listen". Nonetheless, it is impossible to deny just how smart Navi is. She possesses knowledge about almost everything in the world, including the weaknesses of bosses that she should know nothing about. She can even lend hints to puzzle solutions throughout the game. This slot could have gone to any of the helper characters from the Zelda series, but Navi's seemingly endless encyclopedic knowledge made her stand out above the rest.
3 Mother Brain
The diabolical mastermind behind many of the Space Pirates schemes in the Metroid series, Mother Brain is undoubtedly one of Nintendo's smartest characters. Originally created by the Chozo as an organic super computer to maintain the environment on planet Zebes, she was able to utilize trickery and cunning to both rebel against her creators as well seize control of the Space Pirates.
She then proceeded to turn the planet into a fortress and hatched a plan to mass produce Metroids and use them to destroy galactic civilization.
2 Andross
The primary antagonist of the Star Fox series, Andross is a brilliant scientist who's unethical experiments ended up causing him to get banished to the toxic planet of Venom. Despite these setbacks he then managed to create a massive military force to invade and conquer the Lylat system basically from scratch.
On top of all that he also somehow figured out how to survive as nothing more than a giant disembodied head with a set of hands, a sure sign of genius if there ever was one.
1 Mewtwo
Canonically all psychic Pokémon are said to be extremely intelligent, for example Alakazam has an IQ of over 5000. However, the smartest and most powerful of these by far is Mewtwo. Created as a genetically modified clone of Mew, Mewtwo is one of only a few Pokémon capable of communicating with human speech through the use of telepathy.
In the Pokémon anime, Mewtwo not only rebelled against his creator but also created an elaborate cloning facility and enacted a complex plan to destroy the world. Mewtwo has definitely proven himself to be a lot smarter than the average Pokémon.