Topic: Nintendo IPs that would work on a mobile phone.

What do we know of Miitomo?
1. It is a trying to be a new social app (definitely a red ocean, to use Nintendos own words).
2. You will answer some predefined questions.
3. The answers may end up at others Miitomo app. Probably more info (like I played Mario on my Wii U!) will be transferred.
4. It is aimed at introverts.
5. You need to already have befriended people before information is shared. (this excludes street pass functionality)
6. It is based on Miis. Mii are not as well-established brand as you seem to think, they are the "nintendo generic theme".
7. It will have IAPs (costumes or what not)

Does this sound like a safe bet? Nintendo isn't exactly known for their good online functionality and community building, rather the opposite.

If Nintendo wanted to do the safe bet and earn money, they would have released a Mario game (not a platformer obviously).

There are really 2 things we can look at, that could wok on mobile. The first is IPs and the second is game mechanics.

IPs that can work are themes that are well-known or have a general appeal.
Well-known IPs are things like Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mr G&W. And of them, Mario is far ahead of the pack.

IPs that have a general appeal are things like nintendogs, animal crossing, fantasy (zelda again btw) and war. Dogs because everyone can relate to animals, crossing because it is a cutesy theme. Fantasy and war, well, there is a reason they are often used in games.

And then we have game mechanics. Phones have microphones, touch screens, gyros and gps. And not much more. Touch screens are quite fast, and it is easy to find some patterns, such as swiping over the screen, pinching and pushing buttons. But it does not give you tactile feedback, that is why game pads doesn't really work on the screen, because your hand keeps sliding over the screen and make you miss important jumps or what not.

Puzzle games like Mario vs Donkey Kong (which I still feel could give the big N big bucks) are not that hard to implement, you don't really do anything complex in it, just drawing new bridges and moving objects. In fact the later entries are touch based already. If it would be to hectic, you could always have a pause button.

Nintendogs can also be pretty easily implemented. Stroke the dog, flick balls or what not. And you also have a microphone to use for name calling etc. It is really just a more advanced version of a tamagotchi.

WarioWare is a bunch of micro games that utilize the control options as much as possible. It is pretty hard to fail with a game like that. The one thing that might turn people of are the theme.

TBS games such as AW and FE are basically just a bunch of clicks, it is super simple to implement on a phone. You click on a unit, and click on the spot you want it to move to or you click on an enemy unit to attack. If you want more complexity, you can always have some screen buttons to chose weapon or what not. Drag around the map to see more of it.

I think advance wars actually can do better on mobile than it would on Nintendo consoles. It has an accessible theme and game mechanically it would work. It isn't exactly a system seller for Nintendo and it might find a bigger audience on mobile. There are games like it on android that has sold more then the entire combined advance wars series. On top of that, it isn't exactly the most expensive game to make.

@Therad: Miitomo is a game. The problem is that Nintendo hasn't said much about it. And like I said, consumers like you me and everyone just can't understand the business side of things. You don't seem to realize that there are apps like talking Tom that aren't really games but more like other forms of interaction and maybe that's where Miitomo is focusing on. Or it is again something that they are doing it which doesn't cost a lot to build again playing it safe.

It is? You better tell that to Kimishima, he seems to think it is a "Communication application".
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/151029qa/inde...

Also, see these slides: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/151029/slide/...

@Artwark:
You're making the assumption that quality, casual-ness, complexity, cost, risk and business sense are all one and the same. That for mobile a simple, casual, low quality and low cost game is the only thing that makes business sense because it's the only thing that's low risk and low cost. That's a false assumption.

The only thing that all of the successful mobile games have in common is that they work with the controls. They're games that are built for mobile. Some are high cost, some are low cost. Some are "casual" and some are "core". Some are risky and some are safe bets. There are some that do everything right and fail and others which shouldn't do well and get lucky. We've already explained how Advance Wars could work so how is it a bad idea?

I'd also add that you should reverse everything you said about Advance Wars. Because we've now conclusively shown you were wrong in saying the game wouldn't work. All you had left was this "well it's a bad move because business". You've also dropped that now so there's no reason why you should continue this argument.

@Therad: @skywake: Whatever, my point is the same. Consumers don't know the business side of things. So if Advance wars is an idea that you want, fine. Low budget games that are ripoffs of other games sell well and that's the best thing for mobile? Fine. Just realize the business part of it and observe what happens when they do announce it. End of story.

You do realise you're one of those consumers who doesn't know the business side of things right so why do you keep bringing up buisiness?

I just know that Rhythm Heaven would definitely work on mobile.

Appearantly they will release their more famous IPs in mobiles. Which just seems like good business sense. https://twitter.com/serkantoto/status/688018344516173825

@Therad: Why do you think its a good business sense to just slap IP on mobile? Keep in mind that these games will remain exclusive to mobile only which can be a good or a bad thing. Think about someone who wants a dedicated advance wars game on a console than on a phone. If its released on phone, it remains exclusive on phone and that's bad for those who wanted a dedicated advance wars game on consoles.

The same goes for Fire Emblem and this.....this can be done in so many ways that can easily scare the hell out of not just me but to many as well.

^They said famous IP so it's probably less Fire Emblem & Advance Wars and more likely Mario & Donkey Kong.

Most likely Mario, and quite frankly, Mario can work in most settings.

i could see a Mario spinoff title for Mobile. it would be interesting to see something like Pikmin and Animal Crossing be on Mobile as well.

It would be a gas for mobile

My biggest fear if they put Fire Emblem on phone isn't because of the gameplay. Its because of a few reasons.

• Will Nintendo offer game reset? : If Nintendo won't do that, DeNa will and can easily make it so that you have to pay for each dead character to revive them and that is the worst thing to ever happen to the series because why do this and why is it even a smart move for Nintendo?
• How is the game played on phone? Many games on phone requre the player to play online inorder to access them like Pokemon Shuffle for example. If its online, that means that I can't reset the game which is my previous point.
• Its easy to slap microtransactions in Fire Emblem. If you know the series, you can easily find out that it has the most potential to slap in game items in exchange of real money which is something that I really am very scared off. Because its less tactical, it breaks the game content and its an easy cash grab.

These are some reasons why I'm scared of Fire Emblem on phones. Its already scary enough that Awakening would have been the last game in the series if the game didn't sell well enough so why make it worse when the series itself is in near jeopardy?

You know....that Detective Pikachu game sounds like it can work on phone since it sounds like its a point and click game and phones do make sense for that.

@Socar: Sounds like you have a lot of fears on something that you have zero information on. Don't freak out until they actually announce something, then talk about what they have announced. There is a right way and a wrong way of making certain games. I don't see any reason to really worry about Nintendo, they have done a good job at making games in the past, why would things change for this?

Global tagging style pokemon.

To be honest, I don't even want to play Nintendo games on a phone.

Link's Crossbow Training.

And as free-to-play.

I would like to see a motion controlled Mario Kart, Wario Ware, Animal Crossing, and a Mario game. If Rayman Fiesta can work well on the iPhone then so can Mario!