9 Nintendo Franchises we want to play on mobile

When Nintendo announced a partnership with mobile game developer DeNA to create original games for smartphones and mobile devices, it caught everyone by surprise. Admittedly, many were skeptical, but the possibilities of this partnership and the potential for Nintendo to make an impact in an unexplored territory is also exciting. But when the first game was announced, it didn’t exactly go well for any fan of Nintendo. Nintendo could have chosen to bring any of one of their popular characters to iOS and androids but instead, they announced Miitomo, a social app, disguised as a game, in which players create Mii characters and communicate with their friends. Overall the reaction has been negative until earlier this week when Nintendo announced that their second mobile game will be centered around a “best-known” character. We’ve already discussed many of the characters and popular game series we’d like to make the jump to mobile devices on our podcast, but I’ve decided to invite our writers to chime in and let us know what they would choose.

****

Advance Wars

The Wars series is a franchise Nintendo has not touched in years, eight years to be precise. The chapter-by-chapter formula and simple control scheme used in all of the games would make a transition to mobile rather simple and easy to break up into monthly, weekly, or even daily chunks. The Wars games also offer a spin on multiplayer that Nintendo’s other big strategy franchise, Fire Emblem, does not. In Fire Emblem, the characters are dependent on stat growth, which throws a random number generator into a place where it doesn’t belong for multiplayer. Units in any of the Wars titles will share the same stats no matter what, unless boosted by the player’s commanding officer.

A story for a mobile title does not have to be the selling point, and Wars games offer a great amount of potential in providing quality content with little fluff. The story would be a simple hurdle for a mobile Wars title, and could pull from the last game in the series Days of Ruin. The world has been left torn apart by war and (un)natural disasters. It’s now up to the remaining survivors to choose how they wish to rebuild while quelling the chaos around them. It’s much more a prompt than a story, but it would get the ball rolling.

If the life of a mobile game is dependent on continuous content, then releasing map packs at a consistent pace for a Wars title would be rather simple, Nintendo could even get the player base to do it for them. Several of the last Wars titles had in-game map editors, a tool that could be attached to a mobile title which would let players share their works as well as give Nintendo the opportunity to provide a weekly showcase of the highest rated player-made maps from that week.

While Nintendo is going to start its mobile phone market with established franchises, is this not also the perfect time to re-establish some of those left behind? (Taylor Smith)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9