Translating Nintendo IP to modern settings

I sort of sparked this conversation in General Discussion when everybody was talking about the possibility of a Legend of Zelda series on Netflix. Essentially, I want to discuss how the settings of various signature Nintendo worlds would be different if someone were to rationalize the fantastic elements.

The core example of this is the Super Mario Brothers movie. I'm not saying any of these ideas have to be executed as that movie was, and I'm not pushing people OUT of the discussion by dislike of the movie (I liked it, but it's a controversial stance to have on the movie). If you want to discuss that, though, there are other threads in which to do so. My goal here is to explore how setting is a flexible component of genre rather than a concrete one.



So I'll start with the ones I've considered already. Feel free to elaborate on these or pitch alternatives. Who knows what we'll come up with.

The Legend of Zelda
I talked about this one in that Netflix thread and Xyvol elaborated on the premise, but here is the gist:
The Triforce is actually a three-pronged computer virus designed by Mister Dragmire to crash defense computers (Power code), steal important government information (Wisdom code), and scramble encrypt any system that attempts to counteract it (Courage code). The cyber criminal was unable to deploy his virus before his arrest, but the agents who took him in found only one piece in his personal effects (the Power code). One pair of agents were successfully able to counteract the Wisdom code, but Dragmire escaped during a prison transport and kidnapped one of them [Zelda] with half of the fix to keep it from destroying his work. The other agent [Impa] is forced to turn to a young hacker [Link, Xyvol's idea] to fill in the missing half of the code by extrapolating defenses from Dragmire's personal servers.
The problem is Dragmire's also a talented engineer and he's booby-trapped each of his caches with dangerous automatic defenses [Robotic Gleeok anybody?].

Metroid
Samus Aran works for the New York Police Department and she's been sent to investigate and shut down a dog fighting ring run by some unknown entity (Codename Mother Brain). On her way home from work she's abducted and dumped into an abandoned warehouse that the ring has been using to raise the dogs. Unarmed and injured she's forced to fight her way out, but there's something off about the fight dogs; they've been altered in some way to increase their thirst for violence. In the course of her escape she finds a pup that takes to her and she brings it back to the precinct to have it examined. It turns out the dogs have been subjected to intensive steroid exposure to accelerate their growth, and each has had a chip injected into their brain to induce painful shocks at the push of a button. When Samus tracks the source of these chips to one Melissa Bergman, the "Mother Brain" uses the chip implanted in the baby pup but it resists attacking its rescuer. It dies in the process, driving Samus to discharge her firearm and kill Bergman. She is subsequently suspended from the force.

Mario
A world-class plumber dating a UN interpreter (Pauline), Mario had it pretty sweet until his little brother (Luigi) started dating an environmentalist and paleontology student (Daisy). The girl talks Luigi into helping her break a gorilla out of the zoo (Donkey Kong Senior) and the thing abducts Pauline, carrying her up a construction site. Mario, in a fit of adrenaline, rescues his girlfriend and captures the beast, becoming an icon for the city. To repay him for his service the mayor hooks him up with an important contract with the city sewers. But when Mario goes down there he spots a girl running off into the darkness... a girl who looks a lot like Daisy. When he follows her he stumbled upon an underground society that runs on hallucinogenic mushrooms and chocolate coins and they take him prisoner. He tries to escape but finds out they've been abducting young women from the streets above. And the longer he stays with them, the more their world starts to make sense.


That's all I've got for now. Thoughts?