I've often wondered why Nintendo hasn't broken into the mobile app market. Especially when it comes to revisiting their past catalogue of games to appeal to a retro gaming crowd. The Atari Greatest Hits app for the iphone/ipad is a great digital testament to that long lost system. It not only makes those old classics accessible and easy to play, but it opens the doors to a whole new generation of gaming.
There are some great Nintendo emulators out there that function with ROMS. Companies like Nestopia and JNES has made it possible for gamers to easily access a whole backlog of forgotten games right on their own personal computer. And at a cost much less than it would to purchase an NES entertainment system in 1986. The average price tag on a Nintendo around the mid 80's was somewhere around the $120 mark. Individual game cartridges cost approximately $30-$40, making it quite expensive to build a decent gaming library. When I was kid, we would rent games from the local video store and even then, I was only allowed to check out one game per weekend. The total cost of downloading an emulator and as many games as you want? Totally free.
I started thinking about this particular market and how it could be implemented into our current digital age of mobile ease. As I mentioned before, the Atari Greatest Hits App has already cemented itself as one of the great resources for retro gaming in a mobile arena. But what about Nintendo? Wouldn't it be fantastic to play some Super Mario Brothers on your phone? Or guide Link from The Legend of Zelda around on your ipad? All your favorite Nintendo games could easily be accessible and collected all within the convenience of your tablet or phone device.
The more I thought about this, the more I thought about what it would look like and how it would function. I thought about the navigation and how the UI would guide the user from one screen to the next. From a design standpoint, I thought about what the look and feel would be like? Would it be a modernized version of an outdated system? Or would it borrow from familiar elements that we came to know and love with that iconic grey box? I pieced together the initial flow from one page to the next taking in consideration all the buttons, links, and scenarios that would befall the user as they operated the app. I chose to keep the overall look close to it's 1980's branding. Certainly, the look and feel would attract a sect of gamers who fondly remember the good old days of 8 bit magic. Selecting the games would follow an easy to understand graphical interface which encompasses the original boxes that they were packaged in.
SOME KEY HIGHLIGHTS:
• The home screen opens on your purchases games. When tapped, the game takes you to the control screen where you can then play the game.
• Other features include a Game Genie page where the user has the opportunity to set their own cheat preferences.
• A Nintendo Power Magazine page has all the back issues archived for easy access.
• A scoreboard page for archiving the users highest and lowest scores.
• The 'Add Games" allows user to scroll through an entire library of games to purchase.
• The rental store gives players an opportunity to play a game for a limited time for free as a test drive.
• An option to select a specific controller. (NES MAX, NES Advantage, etc……)
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| iPad Screen & Icon |
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| Load Screen |
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| My Library. (Purchased Games) |
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| Play Screen |
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| Purchase Games Screen (Extended) |
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| Purchase Games Screen (Simplified) |
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| Purchase Games Screen (Bundle Collections) |
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| Game Genie Select |
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| Game Genie Preferences Set Up |
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| Control Set Up |
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| Nintendo Power Issues Select |
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| Nintendo Power Magazine Spread |
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| What's New Screen |
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| About Screen |
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| Information Screen |
In action mock ups!
