I’ve wanted to make this blog for a while, because here’s the thing… As the gaming landscape has been changing throughout the decade the one thing that has become more tolerable over time is playing games on the phone. Well sure, people still scoff at the idea, but I can’t help but embrace the fact that Nintendo makes phone games now.

I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “Bon, I figured you were here to tell us about things such as Teppen, Dota Underlords and Letterpress, but it turns out you’re just a Nintendo fanboy!”

I’m not here to argue that, but I am here to maybe make cases for why Nintendo’s phone games have been some of the things that took up a lot of my time this year.

First, Let’s talk about Dragalia Lost. Which technically was released last year, but wasn’t actually available in Canada until February 2019. It’s an action RPG that's big on gacha which isn't actually as egregious as FE Heroes' and chalk full of anime tropes. But on the other hand it’s a lot of fun to play and the levels are quick to get through and can easily sneak in some time if I’m on the transits.

But because it has a main story that can only update at a moderate pace, it constantly goes through side events more frequently. I’m pretty sure I’ve stopped paying attention to the main story of the game in favour of just questing for characters I-don’t-actually-care-about-but-they’re-there-and-I-might-as-well-I-only-have-to-build-up-500-points. I suppose that’s to keep people interested in the game, but sometimes it’s hard to keep up an I simply don’t have an emotional attachment to everything except for the Dragon that’s horny for human D and the socially awkward black magic bunny girl. And I also recently forged my friendship with Mega Man of all people.

I think it’s important to state that the game is fantastically written as a light hearted adventure, and each character has a cool personality despite being so many to choose from. Like really, I keep unlocking all these friggin characters but I’m only going to use the Fire Emblem heroes, because they’re the strongest characters I have, and one of them is Marth the Hero king.

So to recap:

• Fun action adventure RPG on the phone.
• The dragon wants to fuck the protagonist.

The middle part of this blog is the Dr. Mario enthusiast section. I’m saying that because everyone one I talk to tells me to my FACE without even BLINKING that Dr. Mario is BORING. And I have to sit there convincing myself that they JUST DON’T GET IT! But then Dr. Mario World just did the thing that those Brain Age games did on the DS all those years ago.

THE. PILLS. GO. UP.

Which honestly, doesn’t matter if they go up or down, the touch screen functionality feels good and each new puzzle goes from nice and easy, to complicated and thinky. This game also has a variety of “doctors” to choose from, which are all your favourites like: Wario, Bowser, or those stupid fucking baby versions. Ultimately, the gacha is the most unfair in this game if only because it takes forever to build up 4,000 coins (if you don’t want to spend real money on tickets) and the rates to get the characters you might actually want makes it feel next to impossible, especially with ‘assistant’ characters! Each assistant does have a beneficial stat that will help you with certain puzzles (somewhat) but when rolling for a new character they honestly just get in the way.

I hope to unlock Dr. Daisy some time next year.

Wait, there’s also the Multiplayer aspect to it. Which is fun and you can keep versing as many times as you like without having to wait for hearts to refill. And the benefit of each Dr. character is that they all have a different special ability which could either help you, or screw over your opponent. Which again, unless you want to spend real money, Good luck getting anyone.

So to recap:

• The puzzles are great, and I’m sorry you feel that way about Dr. Mario.
• As a phone game it’s not really important, but it’s a bummer that you don’t really get much of a chance for the character you might want.

Lastly is Mario Kart Tour. The thing you need to understand about Mario Kart Tour is that it’s not a racing game but actually a Score Attack that’s heavy on chance. It’s less about where you place in a race and more about the points you rack up (which of course you get more points when you reach first place).

For each race there’s 3 tiers of how well you can boost your score multiplier. And only certain characters are better than others on some races (Which you can get by either spending coin, or tossing rubies in the gacha machine). Tier 3 racers are important because they get three item slots and a bonus chance for crazy points if all three items are exactly the same (like you’re winning the jackpot on a slot machine or something).

It’s just really important to emphasize that this isn’t a racing game, even if it says Mario Kart. But I’m NOT saying that I don’t think it’s fun, because I think it is. The gameplay loop is one that convinces me that I know I can get a better score. So I try and try again, especially on cups that are community challenges that you have to work your way up the ranks for.

Obviously the better your racer, kart and parachute, the better your chances at a good score. Which is unfortunate if you haven’t been able to roll for the characters that are necessary for the race.

There is actual multiplayer coming to the game eventually, and I think it was supposed to happen in December, but clearly I have no idea. It might end up being the mode that people would really want out of the game too. But I guess only time will tell.

So to recap:

• Again, don’t think of this as a racing game.
• I really do play the same courses over and over again just to get a better score I’m happy with.

In mentioning these phone games now, it really frees up a lot of space I will have for my eventual game of the year blog. But I just wanted to share thought space on some of Nintendo’s phone game endeavours that I’ve really enjoyed this year.

Like…. Really enjoyed.