Nintendo keeps the news coming this morning with the announcement of a pair of new games from its studios in Japan.
New games in the Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing series are set to launch later this year on smartphones, marking Nintendo’s first moves into the mobile space with full-fledged games based on its properties.
In an effort to appeal to a wider variety of gamers, Fire Emblem will be “more accessible in comparison to the Fire Emblem games for Nintendo’s dedicated gaming systems,” while it will still “offer the great value of a role-playing strategy game.”
It seems that Nintendo understands that smartphone gamers are perhaps not looking for as immersive and challenging a game as a traditional Fire Emblem on handhelds, and it plans to cater to that.
Animal Crossing is said to also be a full-fledged game that will somehow connect to a traditional version of the game, though it is unclear if that refers to New Leaf, Happy Home Designer, amiibo Festival, or an unannounced Animal Crossing title, perhaps for the NX, releasing in March. The company didn’t specify how the games would connect or how it would benefit players.
Both titles are described as “pure game applications,” with the company even going so far as to compare them to its first smartphone release, Miitomo.
More #Nintendo apps are coming to smart devices, including Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing! pic.twitter.com/ZLsHirPltM
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 27, 2016
“Compared to Miitomo, they have more prominent game elements, and the game content will tie closely into Nintendo’s dedicated games business,” the company said in a release. “Nintendo will provide more details about these applications closer to their launch period, and aims to have multiple types of apps that appeal to different audiences and different groups of players.”
It seems that Nintendo is taking its approach to smartphone gaming very seriously, reassuring the gaming public that they are indeed working hard to provide gaming experiences wherever they make sense.