Earlier this month, Nintendo secured trademarks for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong. This followed with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports Resort days later. What was interesting about these applications at the time was the fact each one covered 'program for smartphone'.
We're now nearly at the end of the month and Nintendo is at it again. This time it has grabbed trademarks for Kirby's Dream Land, Art Academy and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Yet again, these reference ‘program for home video game machine’, ‘downloadable video game program’ and ‘program for smartphone’.
Like we said previously, this could simply be business as usual for Nintendo, as the Japanese company is known to continually renew trademarks to cover older franchises. Or, on the more speculative side, it could perhaps be the company preparing for something special.
In October, Nintendo filed a patent for a Game Boy case compatible with touchscreen devices. On a completely separate occasion earlier in 2018, the Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream posted job listings seeking graphic designers for work on multiple platforms including mobile. Could there be any links?
Share your own thoughts in the comments.
[source japanesenintendo.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 30
Spirit Tracks/Phantom Hourglass:
Will work fine on smartphone. Dragalia Lost plays significantly like both of these games given the touch screen input and combat.
Twilight princess: ...k. Good luck with that.
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Yeah, this series has definitely proven no issue working with touch controls. As well as all the different kinds of minis from the amiibo version, they got material to milk.
Kirby’s dream land - would have figured this would be like canvas curse, but we’ll see.
Wii sports resort - never underestimate Wii sports. Wii U missed a tick not advertising Wii sports club properly.
Art academy - Yeah. This should work well.
Mario and Luigi - Love the franchise. Probably works easily enough with touch screen controls. Kind of hoping it still comes to switch though.
Is it possible the "program for mobile" could be to do with their Nintendo App? Or has Nintendo gone back on saying they wouldn't be porting games to mobile but only making games specifically designed for it?
Would be a shame if the latter. But then would also be a shame to see new entries based on these titles just for mobile..
A lot of the DS games won't work on Switch because the mic is missing. Games like Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Bowser Inside Story required mic.
Why didn't Nintendo make Nintendog for the smartphone? It will be huge, this is the Nintendo game that will make lots of money on the phone. A digital pet that is with you at all time, it can even beep the phone and annoyed you like Tamagochi.
I bet NES games would work on mobile. You only need 2 buttons and a d-pad. Maybe make them available to SWO users as apart of the voice chat app?
@XenoKidRex Replacing the 3DS with mobile is a terrible idea.
Luckily Nintendo still makes consoles or they would be making a lot more of those F2P mobile games. Not against smartphone gaming, but Nintendo has already proven that they can’t make anything of substance on the platform.
None of these games (bar TP) would be unwelcome on smartphones. At £10 a pop, I’d buy the lot.
@Medic_alert exactly. We need more zelda on switch. I've been saying it for a while now. My only thing is id rather them release the gbc version of LA over the original. But I'd take anything at this point. Btw i was watching spawn wave on YouTube and apparently there was a recent interview with some game informer guys that said a new zelda game is coming alot sooner than we all think. I'm already hyped and i have no idea what im hyped for haha. But I'm desperately hoping we get either a quick turn around 3d zelda in the shape of majoras mask with new story(but more dungeons) but basically same gameplay and setting as BoTW. Or a links awakening remake (remaster). Id be happy with anything really. It's my favorite franchise ever so I'm on board with any zelda. With the exception of tri force heros.
Or even that nes breath of the wild prototype would be sick.
I really want a new mario and Luigi game
Lol switch mario and luigi
Curious how Nintendo would price these as mobile games. Bowser’s Inside Story is $40 on 3DS, but honestly, I can’t see Nintendo charging anyone that price for a phone game (unless it was free to play and over time). I would totally play Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks on my phone. And I would likely buy whatever gameboy-iPhone contraption they make to play stuff.
Mario and Luigi will eventually come to Switch. But Alpha Dream has zero HD development experience. With these apps, they could be smartphone versions of the games, or they could be specific apps for any post-NES games on the NSO. Wishful thinking, but I'd love to see any of these games on Switch.
Also, with Reggie's comments about classic consoles, I can see the NSO expanding.
@IHateTombs I like Tombs!
Art Academy?! Hell yeah! Thought that series would die with the 3DS.
Yay, Art Academy!
If it's for free, I'll definitely get it.
@shani If Art Academy costs money I'd still buy it.
To come to the switch though would be even better. Include a stylus with each cartridge and we're set! Could do the same with Mario Maker!
Art Academy would fit really well on mobile. It would also work well on Switch in handheld mode, but less so in TV mode.
If only Nintendo had a new handheld device that they could put these games on 🤔
A major aspect of Art Academy - the lessons - were built for dual screens. Mobile phones wouldn't replicate that very well, even if they tried splitting the screen, due to screen ratios, so I can't see existing versions of Art Academy getting ported anytime soon.
But what would I know...
Switch 2 is confirmed to be a smart phone.
I am hoping for a Mario/Luigi game for the Switch.
@Medic_alert that would be great. Sounds almost like starting out as a deku 😆. But yea more dungeons more better.
For everyone getting excited. Keep in mind that one reason to cover smartphones is to make it easier to enforce copyright when some third party tries to put a Nintendo game on the app store. Mobile is especially full of ripoffs and borderline copyright infringement, so I can see why.
@Miles_Edgeworth
I’d love the series to continue on the switch 🤞🏻
A Gameboy VC on mobile with a gameboy case and actual buttons would be sweet. Not sure why people aren't chatting about that more, instead of postulating on touchscreen input! I'd pop my phone on airplane mode for that! Although I've wanted gameboy games in Animal Crossing since 3DS, in the same fashion as the NES games but portable! I can dream!
@arekdougy Yeah it’s nice to dream, but Nintendo would never do that on mobile. Might see Gameboy later on Switch though. They wouldn’t put something on the market that could potentially compete with the platforms they already have established success in.
Yuck. Sorry Nintendo, but not even you with your magic touch can make phone games suck any less.
smartphones are the new virtual console. Mark my words. This is how they will break into China.
Please noooo stay away from the garbage phones
Maybe these trademarks are getting a bitbout of hand...
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