Mario, Link, Kirby, and more, coming to smartphones

Surprise surprise, Nintendo is the latest developer to cave in and bring its game titles to smartphones, despite repeatedly saying that would never happen. But while Nintendo is still refusing to port any of it's titles to smartphones, it will be developing completely new experiences with some of its existing characters.

Iconic Nintendo characters like Mario, Link and Donkey Kong will make their appearances, with the help of established Japanese mobile gaming company DeNa. The two companies will jointly develop and operate entirely new games, for Android and iOS, based on Nintendo's intellectual property. As of now, reports say all of Nintendo's properties are fair game, so we might hopefully see new entries from the Super Mario series, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Starfox, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, and (do we dare hope) Pokemon?

Nintendo, in it's statement to the press today, said, “To ensure the quality of game experience that consumers expect from this alliance of Nintendo and DeNA, only new original games optimized for smart device functionality will be created." The alliance is also reportedly working on a membership service that will sync games Nintendo titles across smart devices, PC and it's own consoles.

The move comes about a month after Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata teased a Mii app for smartphones. Mii are customisable player avatars, used in some Nintendo consoles, which the company intends to make accesible as social media icons to promote the brand.