Home Gaming Making a Mario game for mobile isn’t a “a recipe for printing money”

Making a Mario game for mobile isn’t a “a recipe for printing money”

2 min read
23

mariomobile

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced a partnership with DeNA to bring its long history of revered properties to the mobile space – meaning that yes, Nintendo games would soon flood smartphones and tablets. Since that announcement, they’re regularly re-iterated that they won’t just be porting its games to a new platform – so you won’t be playing a remake of Super Mario Bros 3 with fiddly touch controls on your phone.

They have since announced their first mobile game, Miitomo, a free-to-play mii-centric title that’s a weird social-networking game in the vein of Tomodachi Life. It’s something that by itself, doesn’t inspire much confidence. You’d imagine that all Nintendo would have to do is put the famous plumber in a mobile game, throw in some mictransactions, and sit back as they watched the cash rolling in. But that’s not happening, says Nintendo of America’s top brass, Reggie Fils-Aime.

“Unfortunately, there’s a simplistic mentality out there, that ‘Make a Mario game for smart devices’ is a recipe for printing money,” he said. “And it’s not. It just simply is not. It’s that Kyoto craftsmanship mentality that says whatever we’re going to do, it needs to be a wonderful experience for consumers.

“Our strategy is not to port games developed for our dedicated systems to smart devices as they are. We have to develop new software experiences that give people the opportunity to interact with Nintendo IP and that matches the play style and control of smart devices.”

Putting something like Mario on to a smartphone without carefully considering the controls and inputs would work; you need the software to make sense of the hardware it’s running on.

“We know that Mario and his ability to run and jump, to transform based on different items, that’s been optimized for a play-control approach that doesn’t exist for smartphones. And so for us, it’s not simply taking existing games and porting them over to smart devices as the answer. Our answer is to create new compelling experiences that leverage what smart devices do best.”

“We will absolutely continue our traditional maxim of developing software that matches the hardware,” said Fils-Aime. “We have looked at the limitations of software design on mobile platforms, and worked within those parameters. A 3DS game that requires the full manipulation of joysticks and multiple buttons can’t be exactly replicated on a touch-screen mobile device.

“Our strategy is not to port games developed for our dedicated systems to smart devices as they are. We have to develop new software experiences that give people the opportunity to interact with Nintendo IP and that matches the play style and control of smart devices.”

Fils-Aime reiterates that the Nintendo games you’ll play on your mobile devices need to be meaningful, and not hurt the company’s revered intellectual properties. Link’s Rupee Runner may not be happening after all.

Last Updated: December 14, 2015

23 Comments

  1. oVg

    December 14, 2015 at 11:03

    If you told me 22 years ago, that the demo on the HF TV screen that I am looking at in the TV/HI FI store of Super Mario World on the SNES would be able to fit into your pocket one day. I WOULD HAVE LOOKED AT YOU CRAZY FUNNY.

    Sighhh You kids today are living in gaming heaven.

    Reply

    • Original Heretic

      December 14, 2015 at 11:10

      Yeah man, looking back at how games have developed over the years, it really makes one appreciate the games we get today.
      Wish i still had my old consoles, going all the way back to the Atari (yeah, THAT long ago!) to have my son play through them one at time, make him really love the new games.

      Reply

      • oVg

        December 14, 2015 at 11:15

        Back in the 90s we used to go crazy for domesticated Arcade ports. Bring the Arcade to the home. We did not even know what a mobile phone was lol now its bring the domestic to mobile. Crazy

        Reply

        • RinceThis

          December 14, 2015 at 11:17

          Yeah but your mobile can’t handle solitaire lol

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            December 14, 2015 at 11:20

            Finally something your Windows phone can do!

          • RinceThis

            December 14, 2015 at 11:21

            You shurrup!

          • oVg

            December 14, 2015 at 11:21

            Cant handle Wats App

          • RinceThis

            December 14, 2015 at 11:22

            But it wears that elastic band that holds it together very well lol

          • oVg

            December 14, 2015 at 11:23

            Its for protection.

          • RinceThis

            December 14, 2015 at 11:25

            hahaha

    • The Grand Admiral Chief

      December 14, 2015 at 11:13

      Sadly, they don’t appreciate it, at all.

      Reply

      • oVg

        December 14, 2015 at 11:14

        Tell me about it.

        Reply

    • RinceThis

      December 14, 2015 at 11:16

      Yeah but you also had the Virtual Boy so you know nothing! *run

      Reply

      • oVg

        December 14, 2015 at 11:18

        3D IS THE FUTURE… just not yet.

        Reply

  2. Greylingad[CNFRMD]

    December 14, 2015 at 11:14

    Presses jump button->message appears, if you would like to jump, please deposit R50 per action….
    Switch off phone, take it to nearest crusher, crush it, dump in sea and forget it ever happened…

    Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    December 14, 2015 at 11:16

    You know Nintendo, there has been SNES emulators for mobile phones for quite some time now.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      December 14, 2015 at 11:18

      I was thinking the same thing…

      Reply

    • oVg

      December 14, 2015 at 11:21

      Shhhhh dont tell them.

      Reply

    • Wendigo

      December 14, 2015 at 11:46

      Yes, and they suck without physical controls which was the point Reggie was making

      Reply

      • Geoffrey Tim

        December 14, 2015 at 12:18

        YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

        Reply

      • oVg

        December 14, 2015 at 12:51

        Reggie has a point? He still needs to explain the Wii U. 😛

        Reply

        • Wendigo

          December 14, 2015 at 18:31

          He’s only the president of NoA not the entire company, I highly doubt he had any input in its creation

          Reply

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