It’s the day old question and a topic that has been covered here several times before. The fact is, Nintendo mobile games just make a lot of sense. Titles like Mario Kart and Star Fox seem like a match made in heaven for smartphones and tablets. So why has Nintendo opted for so long to not cash in their most popular franchise?
First off, let’s point out a few things. With the Wii U version of Mario Kart now out, we are looking at the eighth iteration of the very popular franchise. Gamers for generations wait year in and year our for their chance to sink their teeth into the next installment. Racing around as Bowser, Yoshi or even your Mii is enough to tickle the fancy of just about anyone even remotely interested in gaming on the smartphones.
Angry Birds Go and Beach Buggy Blitz are prime examples of how kart racers on mobile simply just work. You twist your phone or use on screen controls to steer. I’m personally of the mind that on screen controls give you more control of your Kart. Then, with your right thumb, you have access to powerups (in Mario Kart, this would be your shells and banana peels). Simple enough right?
Well if it’s that easy than why hasn’t Nintendo just done it already? Well for one, Nintendo is a proud company. The idea of placing their beloved IPs on another platform is probably enough to send a continental shift throughout Kyoto.
A big issue is how does Nintendo monetize this? The likes of Mario, Zelda and Samus are huge money makers for Nintendo, but how do you convince a subset of the community who are used to paying nothing for their games to spend money on their titles? Sure there are a select few who would pay upwards of $10 (anymore than that is asking too much for mobile) to play as their favorite characters, but what about everyone else?
Free to play is the method of choice for most mobile developers, and this scares Nintendo, just like paid DLC did prior to the Wii U days. But here are a few ideas to get Nintendo started. Because, let’s be honest, this needs to happen.
The free to play formula normally consists of some kind of time-gate you reach after a certain amount of time. You hit it all the time in Candy Crush as the difficulty ramps up and you begin losing lives more frequently. Keeping with the Mario Kart reference, why not ramp difficulty up with the opponents you’re facing. The formula is already there in both the portable and console versions of the game. Everyone knows that if you really want a challenge, you hop straight into the 150CC class. It’s not hard to believe Nintendo could set the difficulty bar a little higher, allowing us to finish out of placing more often. Then after you’ve consumed your “lives,” boom, there’s the paywall. Wait 30 minutes to be able to race again, or pay $0.99 to go again now. It would totally work.
But that’s not all. If we are talking about ways for a company to make money, why stop at time-gating. Haven’t you ever wanted to start off a race of Mario Kart with an item already waiting to be used? How satisfying would it feel that as soon as someone comes out of the starting gate, you nail them with a red shell. Poetic justice. How about allowing mobile gamers the ability to purchase in-app content such as items at start? There are some real aggressive players out there who would love the competitive advantage. Of course to make it fair, you’d have to allow players to earn these starting items throughout the game. But they don’t have to be common.
Let’s take a step back from the Mario Kart reference for a moment. In fact, let’s not use a tried and true game that we could easily just port over to a mobile device. How about a Nintendo Puzzle Quest game? For anyone familiar with Puzzle Quest-style games, you know just how addictive they are. I’m talking Candy Crush levels of addiction, which is basically what Puzzle Quest is anyway.
Marvel has already done this with Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign. Take all Nintendo’s mascots and throw them into a match-three game with each character having its own abilities (just like in Super Smash Bros.). I can’t tell you how many times daily I’ve been tempted to throw some hard earned cash just to level my characters or create more spots on my roster. This is a no brainer.
Another no brainer is to bring back Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. You turn this into touchscreen enhanced rhythm game supported by Nintendo’s vast games soundtrack, you wouldn’t believe how fast you’ll see the money pouring in. You could even charge for some of your most popular songs (I’d pay good money to be able to play a rhythm game that includes a remixed version Saria’s Song from Ocarina of Time).
The truth is, we may never see a Nintendo mobile game, and it’s a shame. As outlined above, there is definitely profits to be made. And given Nintendo’s recent quarterly earnings, they could use some cash right about now. And it’s not just about the profits. Mobile games would give Nintendo the exposure to an even more casual market they weren’t even able to tap with the Wii.
But still, we remain optimistic. Here is to the hope of playing as Mario on our smartphones some day.
