Thoughts on mobile ports of older main series entries?

[Giant Octopodes]

The user I quoted wanted an iOS/android version of the Switch Gen 4 remakes. DS games can be reworked, but not switch games.

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I’ve personally played the Gen 4 games on a DS emulator using mobile but i won’t be discussing any further details on here. They run just fine apart from the “unofficial” issues.

1) It's not as big of a stretch as you think. The Switch has a quad core 1.02 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1280x720 screen. A game could definitely be designed for it and also for a mid to high end phone, whose specs I already went over. Remember, the Switch is a $300 piece of equipment. The high end phones retail for $800, and though their cost is often subsidized by plans and such, that price is reflective of the technological capabilities within the phone. I'm not talking emulation, here, which would indeed be virtually impossible (you lose a LOT of efficiency when running a virtual machine). But a simultaneous release would definitely be possible, albeit a horrible idea.

2) What I want is indeed an iOS/Android version of the Gen 4 remakes. As in you release a Switch version, the full featured one of whatever it's going to be, maybe with fully 3D graphics and the whole works, and you release a mobile version, which is much more akin to a port of the original Gen 4 game. Skies of Arcadia, as an example, had save data which integrated between their airship game on the VMU and the overall game as a whole which was on the Dreamcast. Games don't need to be exactly the same to interact with the same save data. To sync save data between the two, what do you need? Position data, but on a 2 dimensional plane. A map which has positional data equivalencies. Pokemon data. Flag and event state data, and item data. That's not too difficult. The graphics don't need to be the same. The most complex and difficult portions (multiplayer, for example) don't need to be present at all.

Remember, they already have the 2D game they are remaking and all the sprite data from it. So we aren't talking about doubling production times working on 2 different graphical engines for the game or anything like that. I'll freely admit there's the possibility it's a terrible idea, but from a technical standpoint, it's definitely possible.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

1) It's not as big of a stretch as you think. The Switch has a quad core 1.02 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1280x720 screen. A game could definitely be designed for it and also for a mid to high end phone, whose specs I already went over. Remember, the Switch is a $300 piece of equipment. The high end phones retail for $800, and though their cost is often subsidized by plans and such, that price is reflective of the technological capabilities within the phone. I'm not talking emulation, here, which would indeed be virtually impossible (you lose a LOT of efficiency when running a virtual machine). But a simultaneous release would definitely be possible, albeit a horrible idea.

2) What I want is indeed an iOS/Android version of the Gen 4 remakes. As in you release a Switch version, the full featured one of whatever it's going to be, maybe with fully 3D graphics and the whole works, and you release a mobile version, which is much more akin to a port of the original Gen 4 game. Skies of Arcadia, as an example, had save data which integrated between their airship game on the VMU and the overall game as a whole which was on the Dreamcast. Games don't need to be exactly the same to interact with the same save data. To sync save data between the two, what do you need? Position data, but on a 2 dimensional plane. A map which has positional data equivalencies. Pokemon data. Flag and event state data, and item data. That's not too difficult. The graphics don't need to be the same. The most complex and difficult portions (multiplayer, for example) don't need to be present at all.

Remember, they already have the 2D game they are remaking and all the sprite data from it. So we aren't talking about doubling production times working on 2 different graphical engines for the game or anything like that. I'll freely admit there's the possibility it's a terrible idea, but from a technical standpoint, it's definitely possible.

Yeah, that’s possible, but the cost/profit ratio is too high compared to what GameFreak usually does, specially since these apps won’t have the luxury of microtransactions. Their existing mobile games are barebones enough as it is, so I don’t think they would churn it out for mobile but definitely possible.

 

[Shib]

I'm not that bothered about mobile ports, if they did it and they were cheap enough (£2ish) and Home compatible I'd buy.

If they had to remake them (therefore higher end cost) I'd have pretty much zero interest.

Personally I'd be much more interested in VC style Switch ports - particularly of the GBA games. Getting Pokémon from the GBA games into Home if a massive ballache at the minute and they see the most likely games to port next given gens one and two are already on the 3DS VC. I'd given all involved bonus points if they let anyone with 3DS VC versions of the games have them on the Switch at no extra cost - this seems unlikely, but would be amazing customer service.

In terms of DS onward I'm more interested in seeing gen four remade for Switch than straight up ported anywhere.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

Eh, Id rather them stick with what they're currently doing now, I feel like these games would be really awkward to play on a phone.

 

[charlycicero]

I think they should. Especially the Game Boy Advance and early DS games, since those don't have a recent official release. If they released the Sinnoh games I would download them in a heartbeat.

Either that, or they should release virtual console versions of those on the Switch.

 

[electrictype master]

Mobile games don't interest me and even though mobile games are popular I wouldn't wanna play the main series games on a smartphone. I prefer consoles.

 

[SlowGinFizzzz]

I could see them releasing the GB/GBC games and perhaps even the GBA ones, but definitely nothing beyond that. Sinnoh is bound to get remakes in the foreseeable future anyway (my bet is 2021), plus the two screens could make it a bit difficult regarding the controls.

I'm going to be honest though – as much as I am aware that emulating GBA and even DS games on a smartphone is no problem at all on a technical level, it just... doesn't feel that great, playing those games without actual buttons. I would much prefer them making the first three generations of Pokémon available on the Switch, but with the updates that the 3DS VC releases already came with: Pokémon Bank (or Home) compatibility and wireless multiplayer features.