Nintendo smartphone games

[Splain | 2,581]

Anyone consistently play any of the Nintendo smartphone games? Here's the full list:

Pokémon GO
Mario Kart Tour
Dragalia Lost
Fire Emblem Heroes
Miitomo
Pokémon Masters
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Super Mario Run
Fire Emblem (Tentative Title)
Pokémon Smile
Dr. Mario World
Pokémon Duel
Pikmin Bloom
Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble
Yo-Kai Watch World
Magikarp Jump
Pokémon Rumble Rush

I've messed around with some of them (the Mario ones and Pokemon Go) and I found them to be pretty well polished and all, but I haven't kept any of them for very long. They're just too money-grubby for me, and not quiiiiite like the "real" games for me to keep playing them. Plus I really need to have an end-point in mind when I play a game, these games can never be "beaten" because they'll always add more collectables and events and whatnot. But I have in-laws that have been playing Pokemon go for years now, they don't ever want to finish the game.

Any of these games worth playing past the first couple hours?

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,017]

I play Pokemon go everyday. I don't have a group of people I go around raiding with or anything like that but I take walks every night with the family so its to catch and hatch some eggs. I play PVP a couple times a day too but I never got to any sort of competitive level. 

[phart010 | 1,708]

Miitomo is EOL. I used to mess with it.

I play Mario Run and Mario Kart from time to time

[DarkTone | 988]

Used to play animal crossing. Play Mario kart and pokemon go daily. Got back into go recently, after finding out I can send them to my switch. 

[Tanooki | 4,950]

I've had a few, but all that remain now is Mario Run since it's paid, or I'd have erased it, and Animal Crossing.  I may have Fire Emblem but haven't touched it in years but I think it was put back when my phone was swapped out almost a year ago.

Mario Kart I had, but it's just too thirsty to not just keep re-running the same few courses so I erased it happily.

Pokemon Go I stopped later in 2019, basically caught all I could to that rate, the battles got annoying, and it got overly repetitive and consuming doing the ever growing piled on dailies so I just cut it off cold.  I do have Animal Crossing but rarely touch it, what it was when it came out compared to now is such a huge change.  It started out almost unfinished, beta at best for comparison and got boring fairly fast, but my kid likes to pop it open on occasion and now there's so much content, again, paying is way optional, that you can get consumed for hours potentially and I just don't have that time to sink into it.

The only one I really ever truly enjoyed, loved to play a little or for hours on end those jack wagons killed recently, it's a zombie right now going to be burned to ash here coming up shortly and wiped out of existence, Dragalia Lost.  By far their absolutely best made game, played well, amazing stories and writing with layers and layers of content, amazing characters, modes, moves, so much for any level of capability to make sure it stayed fun.  Gatcha sure, but cygames is about as anti-take advantage as any gatcha maker, the handouts were more than enough and twice a year on half/full anniversary it was a blowout.  I hate them for taking it down and burying it, it's so prime to be a new IP setup either as a zelda-style game with many chapters or just a full blown stock standard JRPG but they seem happier ghosting it entirely. >:[

[phart010 | 1,708]

An article I read some time ago said Nintendos revenue from Pokemon Go alone is like $6B and still going

[Alder | 243]

I've played a few of them for the platinum coins. Magikarp Jump was so stupid but I played it for months. Super Mario Run is fun but forgettable.

I enjoyed Pokemon Go but it's kind of shocking how BAD the app is in so many ways. You'd think with that revenue they'd be able to optimize it but no, it's still laggy, the audio's crackly, and managing your collection of pokemon is a pain. It could be so much better than it is.

A year or so back I spent like ten bucks on some event that only lasted part of a day - I ended up not being able to play at the time so I wasted my money. Ever since then, the game has a bit of a bad taste for me. I'd probably still play it if it didn't hog my phone's storage and battery life... plus I don't have unlimited data which is a bit of a problem.

I facepalmed when they announced Pikmin Bloom, but I will probably check it out.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

I liked Mario run for what it is. It’s one of the few that aren’t as money-grubby, I think over time they added more micro transactions and Mario run was a pretty early title from their mobile stuff. 
 

that said I don’t really go back to it all that often and I haven’t completed the game yet 

[RH | 4,965]

On 9/11/2022 at 1:26 PM, phart010 said:

An article I read some time ago said Nintendos revenue from Pokemon Go alone is like $6B and still going

Love them or hate them, mobile games are where the profits are at and I’m quite sure games like Pokémon Go and Fire Emblem are a large part of what keeps Nintendo alive.  No, it’s not everything but these mobile games are super-easy to develop and publish versus designing new hardware, making it and distributing it.

I played Fire Emblem from day one for a few months.  It was a fun game but waaaaay to many players were dropping $5-6,000 just to max out their teams with fully upgraded, S-Rank characters.  This is a multiplayer game at it’s core and if I can’t be in the top 500 of a gacha, I’m not interested. Back then, I was happy to drop $50-70/mo on a gacha I loved and even at those rates, IIRC, I could barely break 10k, I think. 
 

I also enjoyed the Dr. Mario game until I hit a level wall that practically demanded buying upgrades to get past. 
 

I also gave the Mario Kart game a try, also on day one. It was riddled with bugs (that Nintendo even owned up too) so I deleted the app and didn’t come back for ages.  Well, apparently we early adopters had a bug with our accounts.  IIRC, the fix was to download another early update, click some buttons and it’d fix it.  After a fix-period, that feature went away.  Since your account isn’t tied to a device or your phone account, but your Nintendo account, this hosed my ability to play on both my old iPhone and my newer Android.  I think that’s the one game I could be most interested in but every time I’ve tried to play, I get an account error and I’m not motivated enough to reach out to Nintendo support to see if they will fix it. Oh well. IMHO, the easiest fix by now could be for Nintendo to do a query on the oldest accounts from that period and just delete them.  Then, if I ever get the desire to try again, I can join. I don’t mind the loss of one week of progress.

[RH | 4,965]

Unrelated to that whole spiel, the one IP missing from this line up that I think is almost designed for mobile is X Wars (e.g. Advance Wars, and the like.)

Seriously, why hasn’t this been done?! “Mobile Wars” is too perfect.

On the flip-side, I’m glad they’ve not touched Zelda. That would be too far, but I’m sure it’d be another multi-billion dollar app if they made a Zelda gacha.

[Tanooki | 4,950]

Forgot about this post.  I do have Fire Emblem but rarely touch it as I never can quite figure out how to do great in that kind of game, and the gatcha element on it is just nasty compared to Dragalia Lost giving usually just garbage without truly excessive pulls or luck.  For what it is it's hands down though their best gatcha game given the work they put into it on the content side at least as they just keep adding more and more chapters and characters (which DL snuffed out now.)

Magikarp was something that was installed and forgot about it.  Cleared that one entirely and it was such mindless fun for whatever reason I can't even figure out.  Also forgot about Dr Mario World, f that game, the pay wall was nauseatingly bad, and coupled with the system just to play a stage it was a near instant put off.

 

I know the above post said Zelda would be too much, but would it?  What about if it's not actually a Zelda game but within the world, like Link's Crossbow Training.  How about a fully fleshed out free dry run for fun like Magikarp, but with the FISHING mechanic of the franchise alone?  Optional buys perhaps for specific suits, colors on polls, etc, but largely just go for it and see how big of a fish/type you can get.  Either do it like the 3D games or stay 2D like the karp, and base it off like the Link's Awakening DX version.  I could seriously get lost in that instead of some lame hyper wannabe realism one on mobile or whatever.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I play PoGo every day. I also met my fiance at a PoGo meet up. 

I also played the hell out of Super Mario Run, I found it to be quite fun and addicting. I only wish that there were more levels. 

[WhyNotZoidberg | 586]

I played most of them and I sunk the most time in Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.

[twiztor | 855]

Mario Run was fun, but once i had beaten all the main levels, i never touched it again.

Pokemon Go was kinda fun, but it must've been too intense for my phone because it crashed all the time.

haven't tried any of the others, but i'm just not a mobile gamer. i hope to hell they never make a mobile Zelda. i would feel obligated to buy and play it. please, no.