Nintendo has licensed Mario for use as mobile content - with sounds and graphics now available from the Super Mario series!

The Nikkei Japan financial website has revealed Nintendo has licensed certain franchises for use as mobile phone content, which will begin with sound and graphics relating to the Super Mario series, as well as information and news on upcoming Nintendo games.

According to the official Nintendo site, the service is named as Nintendo Mobile, and will begin on Japanese service provider NTT DoCoMo on October 17th, KDDI(au) on October 20th, and Vodafone on November 1st. Ring tones and animated images can be obtained via a subscription of �210 ($2) a month, but some data will be available free.

Although the offering so far is limited to images, ringtones, and information, with no mention of interactive content such as games, this nevertheless marks an important informational step for Nintendo in the mobile phone area, a particularly vital and popular area in Japan.