The Top Seven Eight Bit Nintendo Games To Convert To iOS
![The Top Seven Eight Bit Nintendo Games To Convert To iOS [From Donkey Kong To Ice Hockey & The Legend Of Zelda, A Host Of Eight Bit NES Games That Would Make Great Mobile Games]](http://tftscdn.nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/8-bit-NES-games-on-iPhones-with-Nintendo-logoTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
So just a couple days back, we got word from our own Kevin Schram that the crew out at Nintendo was getting a whole lot of pressure from its investors to get into the mobile gaming market following a whole string of losses. And that got us all out here thinking…thinking about the various possibilities involved. Nintendo’s got a disturbingly large number of properties in its portfolio, and that’s a whole lot of intellectual real estate to develop. Satoru Iwata may not be planning to develop games for iPhone or Android, but he certainly could. And with that thought in mind, I moved the Top Seven list all the way back to Monday to bring out The Top Seven Eight-Bit Nintendo Games To Convert To iOS. Of course, conversion to Android would be possible and for many every bit as welcome, but for now, we’re talking iOS just to expedite things.
7.Donkey Kong
One thing is for certain, it would be hard to do a list of Nintendo games for possible conversion to iOS without talking about one of the biggest names in Nintendo’s history, Donkey Kong. Consider the control scheme for a minute: run left up a ramp, run right up a ramp, climb a ladder, grab a hammer, and jump. Touch screen controls for such an entity would go smoothly to say the least, and a classic like Donkey Kong in your pocket would be a welcome treat for many gamers, I have no doubt of that.
6. Duck Hunt
One of the all time greats, Duck Hunt was one of the first such games to work with the Nintendo Zapper light gun. It was also popular in arcades, which some of you may remember from your youth. But what better game than Duck Hunt to work with the iPhone, in which you tap the screen to open fire on the ducks, and wish desperately you could open fire on that stupid dog after another unsuccessful hunt brought him out of the bush, chuckling at your incompetence? But with a few minor alterations (maybe something like intermittently making the ducks invisible so as not to make the game too easy), Duck Hunt would be a great addition. Reports say someone already did this before Nintendo demanded it pulled, adding plenty of credence to the argument.
5. Final Fantasy
Perhaps one of the first great roleplaying games, it’s hard to imagine a more natural fit for a touch screen than a great, iconic title that could go so handily with a touch screen. Drag your finger to move across the overworld, tap menu options to fight and use potions and the like…the fit would be nearly seamless, and overall, perfect for the mobile gaming market. That and who wouldn’t love having that grand old title in easy availability from the various app stores? Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy III got the treatment, so why not the original?
4. Ice Hockey
Ice Hockey was one of the earliest Nintendo sports games, and it’s simple style is perfect for iOS. When all you really had to do was slide one of three characters around a rink and fire off one kind of shot when you get your player of choice close enough to the puck, it makes perfect sense for a touch screen system. Slide your finger around the screen, tap to shoot, brace yourself for hours of hockey bliss on the go.
3. Life Force
The original sequel to Konami’s hit side-scrolling sci-fi action fury Gradius, Life Force represented some substantial upgrades to Gradius. But those upgrades would make the eight-bit mayhem that is Life Force perfect for touch screen control schemes. Consider how great it would be to select your ship upgrades with a simple tap of a screen. And given that most people had a tendency to hold down the fire button when in battle, it would make controls simple; press your finger down over the ship to fire, and drag the ship itself around the field.
2. Super Mario Brothers
It would be almost impossible to make a list of games that deserve exporting to other systems than the game that came with most every Nintendo Entertainment System: Super Mario Brothers. The classic title that introduced many people to a pair of plumbers named Mario and Luigi (some already knew the plumbers from their arcade romps) also introduced people to gaming in general. And with a control scheme that was move, jump, and occasionally spit fireballs, a touch screen control scheme would suit Super Mario Brothers just fine.
1.The Legend of Zelda
This, folks, is a great title to translate into an iPhone title. Of course, it’s an iconic title. Zelda is almost, but not quite, as important as Mario in terms of the overall intellectual property portfolio. If you had to list Nintendo titles, Zelda would inevitably follow Mario, but not by much. And think about the control scheme–a touch screen format makes for a perfect way to control it. Drag your finger to move Link, touch the A and B button slots to swing your sword and use your secondary weapons. Touch screen is perfect for Zelda, and iOS would be a great platform.
And there you have it, folks–the Top Seven Eight-Bit Nintendo Games To Convert To iOS. There were plenty of others to go after, of course, but we had to stop somewhere. And of course, licensing issues and the like would make for a difficult package in some cases (after all, Square Enix owns Final Fantasy and Konami owns Life Force). And that’s where you guys come in. What game didn’t we hit that we should have? Think one of our picks shouldn’t have made the list? Either way, head on down to the comments section and let us know what you think!
(All images are for illustrative purposes only and were custom made in-house for TFTS)
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With the exception of duck hunt, all of these control ideas are awful. Fingers are too big and imprecise for the accurate controls required for these games. Not to mention I’d have to block half the screen with my hand to do anything. The gyroscope would do even worse. Even the big ipad is awful at emulating these games. 100% touch screen controls just don’t work.
To answer your question, no, I’m not insane. At least not last I checked. But I do think you might be underestimating touch screen control capability on most of those older games. Besides, even if the touch screen controls as I laid them out may not work so well, consider that most of your eight bit games only have eight button functionality to begin with: up, down, left, right, b button, a button, select and start. Current games have more controls than that already–consider Gun Bros. for a minute. I say it’s much more possible than you’re allowing for.
I’ve tried playing Mario- and Zelda- like games on the iPhone and iPad before. The touch screen controls just don’t work for these types of games.
Duck hunt is the only one that would really work, and that would be quite boring. There’s almost no way to miss when you’re using a touchscreen. It’s like standing a foot away from the tv with the Sapper, all the challenge goes away.
Mario already tried touch screen controls with Mario 64 DS. The result was less than impressive. Metroid tried the same with prime hunters, again with less than impressive results.
Zelda’s phantom hourglass and spirit tracks did well with touch screen controls, but with the stylus, not big fingers. And you can’t use a stylus with an iPhone or iPad. Zelda is another game that just wouldn’t work.
What works are games with overly simple control schemes. The moment you try to add more complex control schemes in iOS games, they just fall apart. At this point, the only iOS game I will play is words with friends.
Nintendo’s investors need to show a little more faith, and everyone in general needs to stop blaming iOS for the slow sales of the 3ds. iOS games have been around for years with no impact on the DS or psp sales. The 3ds is suffering due to lack of NINTENDO games. People buy nintendo consoles to play nintendo made games. We wouldn’t be discussing this if the 3rd launched with a new Mario game.