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

@VeeFlamesNL: How would it be too complicated for mobiles?

@Therad: it's a strategy game where you have to do a fair bit of thinking. A game like Advance Wars is not a game I'd like to play on phones just yet.

@VeeFlamesNL: The game is literally:
1. Select unit/base
2. Make move
3. repeat for all units/bases
4. End turn

I've played other strategy games on mobile that are virtually identical. Had no issue with them at all.

I find one of the strengths of Advance Wars is that it's simple to pick up for a turn based strategy game, so I wouldn't consider it 'too complicated'.

I'll say it again. You can play games like Xcom pretty easily on a phone, so games like Advance Wars would be easier to play.

@skywake You forgot the strategy part. Plus the variation of missions.
Either way, I just don't believe Advance Wars is something I'd like to play on mobile. Or any turn-based strategy game for that matter. Heck, @DarthNortunal I never even knew FF Tactics was on mobile. And even then, does it play and control well as it does in dedicated console versions?
I think Nintendo should do go ahead and place Nintendogs on mobile. It's pretty much straight to the point and even has content to keep players hooked — perfect for a mobile game.

I pretty much want to see an Advance Wars game on home console first before anything else (mobile), though.

@DarthNocturnal: Huh. That's good. Awesome, in fact.
If Nintendo were to release an Advance Wars on mobile (I'll still stress it: I hope not), I hope they do a cross release on handheld or console.

Wario Ware series could work really well on mobile phones. You have a touch screen and motion controls and it would be perfect for short play sessions.

And what of it? The only major difference between mobile and portable gaming is the control input. You could also argue that the time you spend playing it would also count but I don't think even that "limit" matters for something like Advance Wars. There's no rule that says mobile games have to be "casual games".

@DarthNocturnal: @skywake: It may be suitable but at what cost? If they use microtransactions in them, it devalues the brand and not the sales. Why should microtransactions be in the way to get your dead units in FE?

Again, do you honestly see these games lasting about five minutes per chapter? They could make it so but that only hurts the brand more than it hurts the actual game (Seriously, the hate that Federation Force is getting is absurd!). I don't know about advance wars but I do know that again, this is something that Intelligent Systems should be involved in and not Nintendo. And since you guys claim that FE and Advance wars are more of a niche market, how can those fit into mobile selling huge?

@Artwark: Not all mobile games have to have micro-transactions. They certainly don't have to use it for things like unit revival and so on. I could see a game like Advance Wars easily going for $5-10 or so. I'd more than be happy paying that much for a mobile version of Advance Wars.

Now personally I don't know much about Fire Emblem but with Advance Wars I really don't see what the issue would be. Typically a match would last about an hour or so but each turn would take maybe a minute. Ideally the game would be between two players but when I played it was usually against AI because of how long the matches went. On mobile you could be matched against a random opponent and get a notification when its your turn. If anything I'd argue that Advance Wars would work better on mobile than it ever did on the GBA or DS.

Nintendo needs to come up with new ideas. They could make a Mario Runner/Tap/Tilt whatever but those have been tried by other companies like Ubisoft, Sega etc, and weren't huge successes. That's not the thing. They need to come up with the new Angry Birds or Candy Crush and I hope they someday do.

I was thinking a great game would be the donkey kong level in which you ride on a mine cart or flying barrel. I always enjoyed those levels and wouldn't mind that being a game full of 100's of different levels.

Balloon Fight....we got the likes of flappy bird on mobile for awhile. Balloon fight seems like a perfect fit for it.

Yes, this is basically a Runner, but with Wii U graphics, and buttons, it is so much better than what you have on mobile phones today. So you could translate that to the mobile front with touch controls, but it wouldn't be revolutionary enough. All these other companies already made Runners out of their franchises. They weren't as good as Donkey Kong and weren't as good as Bit Trip because of the control input, and realistically, even if they make a really good runner, it is like 10 years too late with all these runners already played to death and would not return an amazing profit.

@DarthNocturnal: Dragon Quest isn't niche as it does have appeal for the western market.

@skywake: You're asking Nintendo to add more features of the game rather than making the game known to everyone. When Advance Wars is something that is a niche market and can't be sold huge compared to Mii, you're asking Nintendo to do more effort which is something that I don't think they want to do so. Mii is huge and it is an IP that Nintendo has so they want to make use of something that is known to everyone. Advance Wars and Fire emblem despite being known to Nintendo fans aren't known everywhere else.

Also a match lasting for an hour doesn't seem to be a good idea for a mobile game unless Nintendo wants to port their games on Mobile like how Square Enix here does. Mobile games usually last about 5-10 minutes for one level. You think a non-gamer will have the patience to play a level which lasts for an hour?

While microtransactions isn't the only way to make profit, it is taken for granted as the most traditional way for the mobile market. That's like saying that controllers aren't needed to play a game for a home console and while some of them don't require as such, majority of gamers will want it to be a tradition and hence you see many people ranting at Nintendo for doing a traditional console instead of a innovative console....

I would like to see a game where Link is riding Epona with his bow while shooting various targets, enemies, and bosses. Stretch back the arrow by dragging your finger down the screen and aim, I think it could be fun.

@Artwark:
edit: I found the one I used to play: https://youtu.be/kyRxobFmOEU

It's basically Advance Wars. I don't think you can argue that it can't work given that the game already exists on mobile. It's a free download so if you don't believe me give it a go yourself.

@DarthNocturnal: Niche market doesn't mean that it appeals to only a specific market but rather the audience. The audience that Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy has is HUGE compared to Shin Megami, Fire Emblem and Advance Wars. Dragon Quest appeals to everyone and that's what Yuji Hori atleast wanted to do unlike Fire Emblem where players are forced to think even when using casual mode thus limiting the audience. Dragon Quest reaching 64 million copies is niche? That's like saying that Angry Birds is niche because it only appeals to the mobile market.

@Skywake: Check out how much profit it made.....http://www.wired.com/2012/10/outwitters-sales-disaster/

Just because the idea works doesn't mean that it will sell well. Nintendo has repeatedly stated that simply slapping thier IP on phones isn't the best idea because not only will they make potential loss but also will hurt their main IP's. Remember that operation Moon and Reggie's response to Majora's Mask remake? Sure it sold HUGE but not because of the petition but because they already started development of it realizing that Ocarina of time was remade and seeing how that caught well with Nintendo, it was obvious that Majora's Mask might get that same audience.

@Artwark:
I wasn't citing them as an example of profitability I was just saying you were wrong to suggest the game couldn't work. And just because someone buggered up a free to play model doesn't mean that the game wasn't good. Read the article again, people downloaded the app and it was a critical hit. The problem was that nobody paid extra for the different maps and themes.....