{"id":6266,"date":"2017-11-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer"},"modified":"2017-11-26T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T12:00:00","slug":"soapbox-it-took-nintendo-to-turn-me-into-a-smartphone-gamer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/11\/26\/soapbox-it-took-nintendo-to-turn-me-into-a-smartphone-gamer\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: It Took Nintendo To Turn Me Into A Smartphone Gamer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/0\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6976.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>I love smartphones. From the very first moment I scooped up my T-Mobile G1 (AKA: the HTC Dream) way back in 2008, I knew this piece of technology would change my life forever. Over the years I&#8217;ve changed smartphones more often than I have my socks (that&#8217;s not actually an exaggeration, which is why my wife and kids find it so hard to occupy the same room as me) and the allure of a shiny new phone (which does exactly the same things as the last one, but <em>ever so slightly<\/em> faster) never ceases to get my pulse racing. In short, I&#8217;m an unashamed slave to smartphone technology.<\/p>\n<p>Given my gaming background you&#8217;d logically assume that over years I&#8217;d have fully embraced the entertainment potential of the smartphone, too; granted, the lack of physical buttons is an issue when it comes to traditional games, but the likes of <strong>Angry Birds<\/strong>, <strong>Threes<\/strong> and <strong>Canabalt<\/strong> have arguably overcome this to present addictive and compelling gameplay experiences which as rightly snared millions of players. But not me.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve found that gaming always tends to be forgotten on my smartphone; I typically have very few \u2013 if any \u2013 games installed on my device, with apps such as Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp being the first things I download when taking stock of a new handset (the exception to this rule being my beloved Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which quickly became packed with emulators for a whole host of retro systems\u00a0\u2013 that doesn&#8217;t really count as smartphone gaming, though).\u00a0I prefer to game on dedicated hardware, and right now that naturally means Switch. The console&#8217;s delightful portability \u2013 combined with its amazing library of AAA games \u2013 presents a pretty intriguing gameplay proposition; the idea of playing a smartphone title designed to do little more than cynically empty my wallet via in-app purchases doesn&#8217;t exactly thrill me in comparison.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/1\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/1\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6974.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Despite this, I&#8217;ve found myself increasingly turning to my phone for my gaming fix, and it&#8217;s all thanks to Nintendo. The company&#8217;s decision to move into the realm of smartphone games with partner DeNA was met with skepticism when it was first announced, and its debut\u00a0\u2013 the non-game\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/miitomo\"><strong>Miitomo<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 did little to change that. However, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/super_mario_run\">Super Mario Run<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/fire_emblem_heroes\">Fire Emblem Heroes<\/a><\/strong> have delivered polished experiences which, while still subject to traditional smartphone tropes such as in-app purchases and cool-down timers, have enough of that all-important Nintendo magic to be addictive, compelling and entertaining. Add to this the\u00a0Niantic-developed\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/pokemon_go\">Pok\u00e9mon GO<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a game that I have booted up <em>every single day<\/em> since it launched last year \u2013 and it&#8217;s impossible for me to ignore the fact that Nintendo, of all companies, has turned me into a dedicated smartphone gamer.<\/p>\n<p>I was perhaps a little in denial of this fact until recently, when I downloaded\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/animal_crossing_pocket_camp\"><strong>Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp<\/strong><\/a> to my phone. I&#8217;ve never been what I&#8217;d call a massive fan of the series, despite thoroughly enjoying past entries on the GameCube, DS and 3DS. I could clearly see the appeal of the game, its daily tasks and its massive selection of talking animals. However, having it on my phone takes things to a whole other level; I&#8217;m addicted in a way I&#8217;d never before believed was possible, certainly not in the smartphone arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_it_took_nintendo_to_turn_me_into_a_smartphone_gamer\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6977.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Every spare second I have each day is now devoted to running errands, chatting with campmates, trading goods with other players and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 paying off that <em>accursed<\/em> loan so I can pimp out my camper van. The cycle of work and reward is perfectly pitched, and while cool-down timers are used quite excessively, it&#8217;s not an issue when you can put your phone down for a couple of hours safe in the knowledge that when you next pick it up, there will be more tasks to complete, friends to hand gifts to and items to craft.<\/p>\n<p>Nintendo&#8217;s smartphone output may make some of the same mistakes that other mobile games are guilty of \u2013 in-app purchases are, sadly, a core part of the experience in the free-to-play market (and are becoming part of paid games too, as those who have been following the <a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/news\/2017\/11\/we_will_fix_this_says_star_wars_battlefront_2_dev_as_loot_box_outrage_rumbles_on\"><strong>Star Wars: Battlefront II<\/strong> debacle<\/a> will attest) \u2013 but I&#8217;ve so far managed to play all of the company&#8217;s smartphone games <em>without spending a penny<\/em>. That might make me Nintendo&#8217;s worst smartphone gaming customer \u2013 the company is in this to make cash, after all \u2013 but given that I&#8217;ve previously kept mobile games at arm&#8217;s length, the Japanese veteran has clearly done something right.<\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s your milage been with Nintendo&#8217;s smartphone games? Let us know with a comment.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love smartphones. From the very first moment I scooped up my T-Mobile G1 (AKA: the HTC Dream) way back in 2008, I knew this piece of technology would change my life forever. Over the years I&#8217;ve changed smartphones more often than I have my socks (that&#8217;s not actually an exaggeration, which is why my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}