Kyle Jennings
10.18.2013
If we were a betting agency, we’d say you unwrapped your first Nintendo game on a birthday. We are bringing back that memory in honor of Nintendo’s 28th birthday, which is this Friday on October 18th. We pulled together a short list of the best games that should live on today on our smart phones.
10 – Paper Boy
We start the list with your first job as a kid: Paper Boy. Paper Boy is a good contender for this list with its linear, automatic gameplay and simple controls. In Paper Boy, your character rides his bike up a street, throwing newspapers towards the houses while avoiding obstacles and enemies. Your bike moves on its own, and the only movements you can make are steering left and right and throwing newspapers. All these could be accomplished with left and right swipes to steer the bike (and or a long press in the direction you want to steer )
9 – Punch Out
How many fights did you settle by saying, “pick up the sticks”? What an awesome, classic game. Easy enough premise: you play an up and coming boxer fighting your way through the ranks to win the title after defeating Mike Tyson.
The controls are pretty simple, and it would be easy to implement on a phone. Each half of the screen (holding it horizontally) would control each of your player’s arms. Swipe straight up for a punch to the face, tap the screen for a body shot, and swipe up in a half circle for an upper cut. Swiping left or right would make your character dodge attacks, and swiping down blocks. BOOM!
8 – Super Mario RPG
Really, any RPG would be fine as a smartphone game due to their turn-based gameplay and simple option selecting controls. Mario RPG adds a little extra action to gameplay by introducing “timed hits”, where hitting the appropriate button (or holding it, or rotating the D-Pad) at the right time would give your action a little extra power.
7 – FZero
Not much to say because you already know it’s an awesome racing game. Use the accelerometer to control your car and boom a classic game in the palm of your hand.
6 – A Boy and His Blob
This game is hard to imagine as a smartphone game. It’s also hard describe in general, as I never got more than 10 minutes into it before giving up. You’re a boy, and he has a blob. You solve a bunch of puzzles and travel the lands by feeding your blob jelly beans that transform it into an assortment of things. As a smartphone game, Id imagine the controls to be something like the game Swords and Sworcery.
5 – Dr Mario
Another color block matching game, like Candy Crush, Dr. Mario has an extra twist. You’ll need to match colored pills (the blocks) up with like colored germs and virii to rid the screen of all infections.
4 – Marble Madness
The game is simple, you control a marble, and your goal is to get from point A to point B. You’ll need to avoid traps, pitfalls, and enemies along the way of course. But using the phone’s accelerometer to control the marble seems like a great reason to port the game.
3 – Tetris Attack
To hell with Candy Crush, Tetris Attack is where its at. The game mechanics are the same: line up 3 or more of the same color block and they disappear. Combos and chains build points and power ups help along the way. Tetris attack goes further and adds a battle mode, where you can use your chains and combos as attacks that dump extra blocks on to your opponent’s stack. <movie>
2 – Pokemon
Your smart phone was built to play Pokemon before you answer it and look at cats. Still need convincing? Check out these reasons:
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It’s a slow game that doesn’t require a lot of attention or focus. Pokemon could be played while standing in line or sitting on the bus, and it could be put down anytime without any serious loss in game play. It’s a great casual game.
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The core goal of the game is collecting things. Nintendo could make a KILLING releasing new pokemon or items for people to pay for and download.
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It involves connecting with other people to advance the game. Players could battle and trade with one another from anywhere in the world, or in your immediate area, using NFC.
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The original players, the now late 20-year-olds with respectable jobs, can relive the original game without facing an awkward and humiliating situation of trying to find 12 year olds to trade and battle Pokemon with.
1 – Game and Watch
Game and Watch games are probably the best games for smartphones there are. Game and Watch games are very simple, each game (there are 59 in all) has the player perform a repetitive task like collecting water from a leaky roof, or bouncing people to safety as they jump out of a burning building. Each game has a very simple control scheme, usually just moving your character left and right so the touch controls on smartphones are perfect.
