Nintendo Mobile Gaming suggestions

Last March Nintendo announced that they were developing games for mobiles. This was pretty significant news, a notoriously reticent developer indirectly admitting that in order to remain relevant to the gaming marketplace and community they need to expand beyond their own hardware. It was also pretty exciting. There are plenty of games available for smart phones that are obviously influenced by Nintendo games. There are also classics that once appeared on Nintendo consoles available for purchase. But this is the first time actual Nintendo games will be available on anything other than Nintendo consoles. It's exciting to see what a publisher with such a long history of excellence will conjure up.

At the same time as the initial announcement it was confirmed that five games were to be developed and released, all of them original, and with Pokémon Go, the much anticipated Pokémon mobile game, being an entirely separate project (basically, it's a sixth game developed by The Pokémon Company with input from Nintendo, not one of Nintendo's own five). There was, understandably, a lot of speculation about which characters and game genres Nintendo would go with. Things went quiet for a while, as they all too often do with Nintendo. Then, at the end of October, they announced their first game. Miitomo.

According to Nintendo's official website Miitomo will see the user answer questions on currently unspecified topics¹ with answers being "communicated" with people you've added to a friend list. It is dubbed a "friendly communication starter" designed to get people discussing subjects they normally would not. "Deepening friendships" is apparently one of the game's key goals.

It initially sounds boring. It sounds seems like a texting app with typical Nintendo security² and cutesiness attached. Nobody needs more texting and basic communication apps. It's an unspectacular first offering from Nintendo and one that failed to build confidence in their move to mobile gaming.

There is a glimmer of hope with Miitomo though. Nintendo have an established way of doing things: they like to encourage communication and a positive, inclusive atmosphere. That approach is what led them down the Wii Sports route and, more recently, to Street Pass and Miiverse. In case you don't know, Miiverse is the central piece of communication software used on the Wii U. It's used for leaving in-game comments and chatting with people on your friends list. Street Pass is essentially the same thing for the 3DS, only geared more towards carrying the console with you due to its portable nature. None of that sound too dissimilar from the (admittedly broad) Miitomo outline, does it?

I'm currently thinking that Miitomo is intended as some sort of hub app for Nintendo's smart phone offerings. Somewhere to share hints and tips on more traditional and competitive games released later, as well as a tool for checking high scores and related accomplishments. If this turns out to be the case I think it will make sense as a first app. If it's still only a communication tool once other Nintendo games start releasing I can't see how it will be anything but a disappointment³.

Practically nothing is known about the other four games Nintendo have confirmed. They've said that the game that follows Miitomo will feature one of the company's "best known characters" and that's it. It will be interesting to see what they produce because with that comment it's almost certain that the second offering will feature Mario or Link, at a push Donkey Kong, Luigi or Bowser. If it's Mario it seems odd not to confirm it as far ahead of time as possible to get people excited, so I don't think we'll be seeing him in that second game.

Anyway, because I know you've all been wandering what I think Nintendo should produce I've written up a list of the four games I think would work best for Nintendo's initial smart phone line-up. It's been confirmed that the first five offerings will be free-to-play. As such I'm not going to advocate seeing full Mario platformers and Zelda RPGs. They absolutely could and should make those but it's not practical to put them out as free-to-play games. Everything I've gone with would (I think) work as a free download with additional content (or lives or what have you) being offered for purchase.

WarioWare

An obvious choice, this one. This is a series that's appeared on Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, DS, Wii, and Wii U, three of which have non-conventional control setups. Every entry in the series focuses on minigames, many of which are over in a matter of seconds. It's a series that's appeared on Nintendo's own touch screen consoles before and is designed for playing in short bursts. It was basically a game version of Takeshi's Castle as made by Nintendo. It's the ideal free-to-play app from the company's existing IP.

An Advance Wars tower defence game

What's Advance Wars? It's a war simulation series, the most well-received editions of which have made excellent use of the DS touch screen and turn based mechanics. What's a tower defence game? A game in which you have to protect a goal from enemies walking down preset pathways by constructing towers, all of which have different attributes, on a selection of locations. These two things seem like a natural fit. Tower defence games are popular and Advance Wars has enough Nintendo Charm™ to make it an appealing purchase. An added bonus is that if the game failed it wouldn't be tarnishing one of Ninty's bigger franchises.

Donkey Kong

You know the drill with this one: you play as Mario⁴ and have to climb up a tower of scaffolding while leaping over barrels thrown by Donkey Kong. The control system would probably need rejigging because the traditional D-pad and jump button setup would be too clunky on a touch screen. Making it into an autorunner where you tap a button to jump and hold it to duck or pause or slow down or speed up would be a nice idea. In the vein of the Game Boy's Donkey Kong game they could begin with a few levels based on the scaffolding setup from the arcade original before branching out into different sorts of level designs with obstacles that extend beyond barrels thrown by an ape.

Captain Toad

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a Wii U game that has its origins in bonus stages of Super Mario 3D World. In those you guided Captain Toad through cube-shaped, rotatable isometric levels in search of stars, the character's inability to jump being used as the central conceit with regard to puzzle design. The spin-off game saw the controls and graphics brushed up a little and applied to well over fifty entirely new levels. An Android and iOS version would need a graphical downgrade but that wouldn't be a problem for a company that specialises in charm. A tighter camera arrangement could actually benefit the game. The controls would work nicely, Captain Toad has a particularly non-frantic pace and would be well suited to a "touch where you want Toad to go next then wait as he walks there" approach. Monument Valley with Captain Toad and gold stars is what I'm thinking here.

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These are the games I think would hold the most appeal and portray Nintendo in the best light. There are other titles that could be tweaked for mobiles, like Wario's Woods⁵, Mario & Wario⁶, Yoshi's Cookie⁷, and Doctor Mario⁸, but I don't think they're as quintessentially Nintendo as those I've suggested, nor are they especially interesting. And what's the point of Nintendo making mobile games in the first place if they're not going to play on being Nintendo?

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¹ Don't expect anything saucy, this is Nintendo we're dealing with.

² I don't mean this in a technological sense in which personal and private data is kept secure. That's obviously a good thing and something Nintendo is, as a rule, pretty good with. I'm referring to Nintendo's overly cautious and safe approach to online communication amongst strangers. Another good thing, you may be thinking. Well, yes, but Nintendo have a habit of going too far with it. An example? Sure. Despite it being a standard part of online shooters they omitted voice chat from Splatoon because they wanted to ensure a safe online environment in which kids (and calm adults) aren't screamed at by overzealous nutters. Admirable, you may be thinking. Again, yes, but what about the adults who play Splatoon online with friends, people they actually know and know won't scream at them? Should they not have the option of voice chat? There were plenty of ways to create the online environment they wanted without leaving voice chat out all together⁹. It was left out because of their cautious nature¹⁰.

³ That said Nintendo are targeting new people with their smart phone games: people who view their phones, rather than a dedicated console, as their primary gaming device. That's likely a factor in their "go with a texting app before anything else" approach, because texting is pretty darn popular.

⁴ Playing as Mario is a big deal in itself. He's Nintendo's most recognisable character and absolutely needs to be featured in one of their mobile titles.

⁵ A falling block puzzle game that wouldn't look out of place alongside the likes of Candy Crush. Its story, such as it was, focused on Wario trying to blow up some woods with bombs. Because he's a baddie.

⁶ A side-scrolling puzzle game where you played as a fairy guiding Mario, whose head was trapped in a bucket (Wario¹¹ was to blame, obvs), to the safety of the level exit. It was a SNES game and required a mouse accessory to be used, because Nintendo love their mad input methods on home consoles.

⁷ A tile matching game in which you swipe cookies left and right to create matches, earning points and creating space for more cookies. Another game that wouldn't look out of place alongside the likes of Candy Crush. It gets bonus points for featuring the highly recognisable Yoshi and foodstuffs, which Candy Crush has taught us makes games highly addictive.

⁸ Yet another colour match game that would fit nicely alongside the ranks of similar games already out on mobiles. This one saw Mario (dressed as a doctor because why not) throwing red, yellow and blue pills into a jar filled with red, yellow and blue germs, creating colour lines to vanquish the germs.

⁹ Having voice chat turned off as the default setting, adding a function where you can online chat with people on your friends list, and creating a "non-chat" online option are all things Nintendo could have done but didn't.

¹⁰ Just to be clear, I don't care about voice chat and wouldn't use it if it were an option.

¹¹ It's purely coincidence that I've mentioned three potential games starring or prominently featuring Wario. He's tended to wind up in a wide variety of games over the years, Nintendo tending to use him in an experimental fashion to see if new ideas work. If they don't then they've not harmed a more popular character. If they do then the ideas can be refined then reused with a more marketable character.