5 Nintendo games that are missing from your smartphone

By March 2017, Nintendo will have created five games for smartphones.

Which might not sound like much, but as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is eager to point out, less is more. 

"You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit," he said during a recent meeting of Nintendo investors, "and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business."

As Nintendo takes its first steps into the competitive world of mobile gaming, we've knocked our heads together to come up with the titles we think could see their gaming giant's latest venture a button-smashing success.

A Mario Kart Racer

This one is quite probable, given that a video game legend by the name of Hideki Konno is set to look after the development of Nintendo's mobile titles. Konno is producer of the vastly successful Mario Kart series - a title with a vast fan base of young and old that has huge potential for the 'casual' world of mobile gamers.

Rather than distracting gamers from the Kart offerings of the 3DS, Nintendo could release a stripped-back, old school racer, nudging new players toward the riches of its more lavish handheld console. 

Fingers crossed we'll be seeing you on a mobile Rainbow Road soon.

A Mario Endless Runner

Again, rather than looking to cannibalise the array of Mario platformers currently available on its handheld consoles, Nintendo could mix up its star in a familiar mobile scenario: no zipping back and fourth in a 2D Mushroom Kingdom, but a mobile build which could see Mario rushing through an endlessly scrolling journey through worlds lifted from his back catalogue. Players would have to hop over obstacles, stomp foes and attempt to collect powerups along route. 

Think of it as Temple Run, but with a different viewing angle, a bigger array of potential level designs and fireballs.

A miniature Animal Crossing

The open-ended world of Animal Crossing is ripe for a mobile conversion - whether it ties in with the other Nintendo formats or as a reduced standalone title. Running around collecting, trading and displaying items could offer hours of entertainment to bored commuters, with a huge array of microtransactions available to those who don't have the patience to find a few more insects.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that microtransactions don't find a place in Nintendo's new line up, but given that they're only making mobile games to increase their revenue, it could well crop up in one of their offerings. 

A Dr Mario block puzzle

Come in Candy Crush, your time is up.

First released in 1990, Nintendo's take on a block puzzle/Tetris game is brimming with the sort of simplistic charm that makes big money on mobile app stores. Not much tweaking would have to take place to create a modern smartphone version of the title, which sees players rotate and match up coloured tablets in a bid to destroy tiny coloured viruses.

Having already received a popular port for the 3DS and Wii U Virtual Console, Dr Mario could be getting to know a whole new kind of tablet very soon. Because, tablet computers and iPads? Yeah? Good.

A Pokémon card trading game

We would love a Pokémon game on our smartphone. Our productivity would take a severe hit, and we shudder to think what it would do to our battery life, but dipping in to catch 'em all while waiting for a self service till to become available could be a deeply addictive experience. 

Yet again, Nintendo won't want to cut into sales of its existing Pokémon titles - so one potential avenue for the mobile platform could revolve around its beloved trading card format. Build decks, take on players online in a turn-based battle system, buy new packs from a Nintendo store and trade with other gamers for the cards you really want. 

On second thoughts, maybe we should just fetch our old collection from the attic and put out message on Twitter for an impromptu tournament.