Nintendo has been releasing mobile games for a few years now with some being better than others but in general we can agree that they haven’t had the best track record in choosing what franchises they should move to mobile or adapting them to the market. While people think of Nintendo’s biggest franchises to be adapted into mobile, this really isn’t their strength as they don’t lend themselves to the platform and while a new Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Metroid or Smash Bros mobile games sound great on paper, they are not the franchises that might be best for the platform. So let’s take a look at 5 Nintendo franchises that would fit the mobile market place and in some cases their only way to continue existing.
Brain Age
One of the series that helped bring the casual market into gaming with the Nintendo DS was Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training or Brain Age as most of us know it. Yeah, this format has been copied in the app stores with popular ones like Luminocity but Nintendo was the first and just knows how to market it better. The presentation alone would help sell the game as well as the gimmick of keeping your brain age low and they should sell it as a full game release with a welcoming price of around $5. With the DSi store they tried to separate them into different themes like Math, Arts & Crafts, & Sudoku but that didn’t work very well so a full release with all of those should be included with the exception of Dr. Mario perhaps.
Panel de Pon (Puzzle League)
Released under the names of Tetris Attack with Yoshi as a mascot and Pokemon Puzzle League Challenge to help sell the game before settling with the generic Puzzle League name since they were afraid the Panel de Pon Japanese characters like Lip. This might be Nintendo’s most iconic puzzle game that could hold its own with the massive amount of puzzle games on the app stores. I think keeping the panel de pon characters would be the best strategy this time even if they kept the Puzzle League name, it could follow the free to play formula of other puzzle games with a cute vague little story. The game would have to play slightly different since it’ll be touch based but I think the core gameplay can mostly survive.
Nintendogs
Nintendogs was another big hit when bringing casual gamers into the gaming world and this pet simulator became a hit. I can’t say I ever cared for it or thought it’d be a hit but it was. Unluckily for the franchise by the time they released a sequel which now included cats the majority of the casual market had moved on to smartphones and it didn’t help the 3DS at all and gamers did not want the game either. There’s competition with other pet simulators like Neko Atsume and even Tamagotchi but they’re different enough that Nintendo can do its thing. Paris Hilton is not incorrect in that Nintendo should release this game on mobile with different dog and cat breeds to get in a free to play style and this franchise can continue being relevant once again.
Advance Wars
Before Fire Emblem was Nintendo’s favorite franchise by Intelligent Systems we had Advance Wars, another obscure Japanese series that became a hit in the GBA era and became more popular than even Japan. Sadly they couldn’t hit the numbers they wanted and the last release which came out at a bad time for the DS and a very different art style changed things up and backfired. Advance Wars has basically been dead since then and even more so since Fire Emblem features somewhat similar gameplay and it became a hit series with the 3DS entries. I don’t see a bright future for Advance Wars on the Switch and I do think the success of Fire Emblem Heroes could help Advance Wars make a comeback. They’ve often mentioned that Waifus was what helped Fire Emblem hit it big and well it wouldn’t be that difficult to make some Waifu’s for Advance Wars, include some fun maps and boom another gatcha game from Intelligent Systems that’s bringing dough to Nintendo.
Mario Paint
For the fifth one I decided to change a franchise up quite a bit to make it relevant for mobile and work there and in this case is to bring back Mario Paint. When this SNES game was originally released it was a way to bring MS Paint to people without computers, it didn’t have as many features but it had enough cool Nintendo style things to help it be its own thing that it still has fans doing new stuff up to this day. This game would have to be completely different to be different since it’s such a different platform but it’d just have to keep the main ideas, have a way to make drawings, pixel art, music maker and even the fly game. The Mario brand helping bring people to check out things that other apps can likely already do and with more options but Nintendo can add that special magic only they know how. I’m unsure what would be the best way to monetize this app but maybe a one time charge might be best.
And that’s our list for today, for more Nintendo articles click here. If you enjoyed the article or have any thoughts let me know by commenting below or by tweeting at me. You can also share the article or hit me up an email with your thoughts, it’s nice to hear from other fans.
