Ten years ago having Nintendo make mobile games would have been unthinkable, despite the shareholders clamouring for it even back then, but now we've seen a slew of Nintendo IP's make their way to the mobile platform in one form or another and clearly with varying degrees of success.

Starting off with the seemingly experimental Miitomo, then onto the first major title you could buy outright in Super Mario Run and then onto more lucrative endevaours featuing such franchises as Fire Emblem, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing; all of which have paid elements to them plus at this time of writing two of these even have subscritions either available or planned.

And that's not even taking into account the behemoth which is Pokémon Go, which is easily the most successful example to date even if it's Niantic's effort which in itself is mostly a reskin of one of their existing titles with Pokémon branding slapped over it and augmented from that point onward effectively, it clearly prints money and it has both Nintendo and the Pokémon Company to thank for it's success I'd bet.

Definitely a devisive topic this one as Nintendo properties appearing in any form all seem to end up being something of a compromise whichever way you look at them, of course there is fun to be had for free if you can avoid putting money into these titles but is there really any depth to them? Does there even need to be? And do they do a decent job of promoting Nintendo IP's in general? Or do they tend to drag the good name of many favourite franchises through the mud?

Let's see what we all think of Nintendo's Mobile Strategy...

Glen O'Brien - Staff Writer

"As of now, there are seven different mobile games that Nintendo have created, (No, the Pokémon ones don’t count) and if you look at how each one differs over time, you can see what kind of structure Nintendo have settled into, but I’m getting ahead of myself. When Nintendo announced that they were entering the mobile market, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got hit with a sense of dread. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say the mobile gaming market mostly consists of exploitative tripe, yet for certain reasons, certain games flourish in there and I had the feeling that Nintendo’s game structure would not be appreciated quite as much as it is in their own hardware.

To give them credit, it didn’t look so bad at first. Miitomo was a fun little diversion that could’ve been a lot worse; it wasn’t amazing, but I gave it a go, and it was entertaining for a bit. But then Super Mario Run happened… I certainly didn’t enjoy Mario Run, but it was notable in that it did something that’s mostly unheard of, it sold the game for a flat price.

Super Mario Run only costing a tenner now perhaps seems like a pseudo-bargain compared to the microtransactions littered in other Nintendo mobile titles.

Of course, that would be its undoing; the game fell far below expectations because the idea of playing a demo and then paying money to play the full game was scandalous. Loads of complaints on the applications page confirmed that the mobile market expects a completely different thing than traditional games. So Nintendo buckled and decided to follow the Gacha structure for Fire Emblem Heroes, and that did gangbusters. Something about the gacha gambling system (And don’t kid yourself, it’s gambling), has a worrying tendency to attract great success, normally at the cost of some poor schmo who gets addicted and drops way too much money for the chance to get a character they want.

The rest of Nintendo’s mobile library now follows a similar structure. Gambling on the chance to get characters is something that just rubs me the wrong way. Loot boxes are one of the biggest problems with gaming these days and these games aren’t exactly helping the matter. Mario Kart Tour in particular is a sorry case, because I think that time would have been better used in making some DLC cups for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It would definitely sell, Mario Kart 8 is one of the biggest games on Switch at the moment and the audience is there.

Anyway, the last point I want to make is that the idea for these mobile games is that they are meant to encourage people to buy the Switch alternatives. I doubt this is actually working, I know I said the Pokémon titles don’t count, but Pokémon Let’s GO certainly didn’t do that much better than any other Pokémon remake, to be frank. It makes perfect business sense for Nintendo to carry on with this route with mobile games, but I’m certainly not going to applaud them for it."

Dennis Tummers - Staff Writer

"With Nintendo dipping their toes in the waters of mobile gaming, you can see what a slippery slope it is, and how different it is from the home console or the dedicated handheld market. My most enjoyed mobile game is Super Mario Run, and it is a shame that this is one of the less performing titles.

I picked it up in a sale for under a fiver, and for that price I got a nicely crafted single-player game (for a mobile game at least), without microtransactions, with a decent length due to the special coins and the later added remix mode. The mass of the audience never dished out the money for it though.

Which mobile games did make a good revenue? How about Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, two games I enjoyed as well. I was surprised how good Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp looked, and for a while it scratched my AC itch. But after a while I had issues with both Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem; you are constantly fed new updates, timed events, new characters that unlock randomly et cetera. Keeping up with the games requires either a lot of time or money, and that is exactly how these mobile games try to draw you in.

Fire Emblem Heroes, gotta gacha 'em all! Wait... that's not right, is it?

It is a model you see in a lot of mobile games. Animal Crossing has a lot of timers, especially when you start crafting bigger items. Fire Emblem focuses on the summons, with an ever-increasing cast, special costumes and timed exclusives. Both models keep tempting you to spend small amounts of cash to give you that extra bit of satisfaction. Personally I didn’t find them too intrusive and never felt the need to spend money. My gripe with the games was that in the end it never ends, and there is always a new reward dangling before you.

And now we have Mario Kart Tour. Somehow Nintendo have decided to go all-out with this one. Gacha mechanics, timed exclusives, an expensive subscription service and the works. All thrown in the mix over a less than mediocre version of the game. I gave up on this one rather quickly, hard pass. It looks like they are testing the limits of what people will gobble up, and a subscription is now being added to Animal Crossing as well.

And it is a shame, because I would love to have a portable Mario Kart Lite with me for those dull moments when I don’t have my console around. Simplified to touch controls like Mario Run was, but just let me get it once for a fixed price, and don’t fill it with timed exclusives and pay-to-win strategies. I’m glad that Nintendo can still sell its triple-A titles on the home console for a fair price, and that the slope there at least for now is less slippery."

Sam C Gittins - Staff Writer

"Mobile games from Nintendo are something which I never wanted personally but I realise that I'm not the target audience for these titles as I don't even own such a device which would be capable of playing them but I also knew that mostly due to pressure from shareholders that seeing Nintendo IP's on something other than a Nintendo console would be a reality which we would have to accept at some point. That's not to say that many Nintendo fans didn't want to see their favourite IP's appear on other devices, especially seeing as a lot of people own modern phones but I don't think that they quite wanted to see popular franchises such as Animal Crossing, Mario Kart and Fire Emblem being pushed in the manner which we've seen so far.

Despite this all of these titles do seem to have shown signs of success, with the most profitable title seemingly being Pokémon GO which has amassed a total of three billion since its release over three years ago, so you can see why both Nintendo and Niantic would be very pleased with that and will no doubt continue to milk the free to play title for many years to come, heck at the end of it there will probably be more Pokémon in it than were featured in the latest mainline titles Pokémon Sword and Shield for the Switch, so there's that I suppose.

My thoughts echo those of Glen and Dennis in as much as I really dislike the gacha mechanics which have been put into the vast majority of these mobile offerings, I haven't even played any of them but I suspect that even if I did that I wouldn't put any actual money into them but again I'm not the target audience and sadly there are plenty of people out there who will put real money in to get a chance of obtaining a new item or character in these games, perhaps thinking nothing of it at the time until it's too late and the player then finds themselves in debt over lots of microtransactions which just spiralled; the worst part of this is that it's all by design as well as this is what the developers who Nintendo is partnering with on these ventures is bargaining on happening. They know exactly what they are doing and by allowing them to go ahead with all of thise, Nintendo are complicit and are just as much a part of the problem but so long as the shareholders get their money then all is well... right?

The Mario Kart title many may have dreamed of, is the stuff of nightmares for more than a few who have played it.

Of course there is a place for Nintendo branded mobile titles done right, if they are available for a set amount of money for instance with no microtransactions involved but it looks like that's not what the mobile market wants and ironically a lot of players will end up spending far more money on say... Mario Kart Tour through microtransactions than they ever would have by purchasing something like Super Mario Run for what seems like an expensive point of entry to them; so maybe the mobile market got it exactly what it asked for?

I can see the advantage of having Ninteno IP's out there in the mobile space in order to generate brand awareness but I think they could still do that by offering flat-rate priced games or just outright free titles with no other costs involved at all, of course the trouble with that it, there wouldn't be as much money generated from them and I can't shake the feeling that Nintendo and the companies it has been partnering with want it all and without compromise. With the way things are going with the recent introduction of monthly subscriptions introduced into Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp I can't help but feel that this is now a far cry away from the partnership which the late Satoru Iwata talked about when Nintendo teamed up with DeNA back in 2015 which I believe was entered into with the best of intentions but now has unfortunately paved the way for a hellish future as far as Nintendo on mobile devices is concerned.

At least we still have the Nintendo Switch which offers plenty of high quality titles from Nintendo, Third-Parties and Indies alike which only ask you for the price of the game and nothing more, there are still plenty of these titles available and as a Switch owner you can quite simply just play and enjoy what's on offer there without any of Nintendo's mobile offerings impacting on you in a meaningful way at the moment. But even on the Switch we are now seeing a lot of 'Free to Start' titles such as Super Kirby Clash which does have microtransactions in it but at the very least there is an upper limit you can spend to unlock the full game with no restrictions and not have to pay anything more on top, fair play to anyone who bought the game as it sounds like there was a decent amount of fun to be had from it.

But I really, sincerely, desperately hope, that we're not just at the top of a slippery slope."

The path to success with mobile games for Nintendo seems to be similar to the slide in the course 'Cool, Cool Mountain' from Super Mario 64 then, at least in terms of the quality which is on offer thus far which is clearly a compromise. Do you think Nintendo will change their approach with future titles? Or are these season passes just the latest in a long line of ways to try and extract more money from consumers? Maybe there's more Nintendo fanchises you'd like to see appear in mobile form but with less compromises?

Leave us a comment below or join in with the discussion on our forum. We'll be back with another N-Eaction in the not too distant future.